JOURNALOLOGY
Year : 2010 | Volume
: 8
| Issue : 1 | Page : 129-145 |
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Of Sophists and Spin-Doctors: Industry-Sponsored Ghostwriting and the Crisis of Academic Medicine
Leemon McHenry
California State University, Northridge, USA
Correspondence Address:
Leemon McHenry
Department of Philosophy, California State University, Northridge, 18111 Nordhoff Street, Northridge, CA 91330-8253
USA
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/0973-1229.58824
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Ghostwriting for medical journals has become a major, but largely invisible, factor contributing to the problem of credibility in academic medicine. In this paper I argue that the pharmaceutical marketing objectives and use of medical communication firms in the production of ghostwritten articles constitute a new form of sophistry. After identifying three distinct types of medical ghostwriting, I survey the known cases of ghostwriting in the literature and explain the harm done to academic medicine and to patients. Finally, I outline steps to address the problem and restore the integrity of the medical literature. |
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