Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe by email
These days medical journals are rigorous when it comes to getting researchers to declare any associations with industry that might influence how a trial is reported. Before agreeing to publish a paper, many of the top medical journals require authors to sign a comprehensive conflicts of interest form that outlines any financial or personal relationships [...]
Half of the top 50 academic medical centres in the United States have no policies on their staff ghostwriting research on the behalf of pharmaceutical companies – including UCLA and Mayo Medical School. Medical ghostwriting is “the practice of pharmaceutical companies secretly authoring journal articles published under the byline of academic researchers.” By getting academics [...]
The journal Archives of Internal Medicine has a several cracking research papers this week. Low carb dieters are grumpier than those on low fat diets First up is Brinkworth et al.‘s research on the long-term psychological effects of low carbohydrate diets compared with low fat diets. In this study, 106 overweight and obese individuals were [...]
A study published in Archives of Internal Medicine has found that almost a third of clinical trials reported in top medical journals don’t adequately report the side effects of the intervention being tested. Pitrou et al. assessed the reporting of safety data in 133 randomised controlled trials published between January 2006 and January 2007 in [...]
You might remember all the hullabaloo last month about the HIV vaccine developed by the US military and tested on 16,000 people in Thailand. Hailed as an “HIV breakthrough” and a “historic milestone“, the initial press release of the study certainly had the media convinced that a prevention for AIDs was just around the corner. [...]
The eight specialty-based Nature Clinical Practice journals, which form part of the medical publishing arm of Nature Publishing Group, are to relaunch in April 2009 as Nature Reviews. As well as joining the hugely successful Nature Reviews portfolio, which will increase in size from seven to fifteen titles in one fell swoop, the Nature Clinical [...]
Last week the US Food and Drug Administration ruled that the pharmaceutical industry could promote drugs for uses that haven’t been cleared by the regulatory body. The new FDA guidelines permit the “dissemination of medical journal articles and medical or scientific reference publications on unapproved uses of drugs and medical devices.” In order to be [...]
Every year the British Medical Journal team get in the festive spirit with their Christmas issue, publishing zany or amusing research. This year is no exception, with a host of genuine research papers and rigorous scientific analyses guaranteed to make you giggle. Research articles in this week’s issue of BMJ include: Head bangers: stuck between [...]
Before a clinical trial can commence a protocol – a plan of exactly how a trial will be conducted – will be formulated. As part of the planning, the individuals undertaking the trial will calculate approximately how many patients need to take part for the results to be meaningful (the ‘sample size’) and prespecify which [...]
Today medical journal The Lancet relaunched a sleek and efficient new version of their website TheLancet.com.The team at The Lancet consulted 100 authors, readers, doctors and clinicians – or ‘development partners’ – to find out what users wanted, and the result is a much cleaner and easier to use website. In the new design, The [...]