Possible conflicts of interest in medical publishing

摘要

The issues raised by Norbert Gleicher in his provocative commentary on possible conflicts of interest in medical publishing (Gleicher, 2013) can stir deep-seated emotions. One must give serious attention to his comments, not least because the writer was himself an editor-in-chief for many years of the first specialized IVF journal, published in 1983 (Journal of In Vitro Fertilization and Embryo Transfer, renamed Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics in 1992). Indeed the issues raised are ones with which we and our publishers are regularly in debate. So what are the key issues and what are our views as editors on them?