Under the Influence?

Scientific fraud comes in several varieties. Data can be fabricated, ideas swiped, experiments gamed. One dramatic version is the too-late revelation that an investigator was drinking at the watering hole of a pharmaceutical company when he or she published an article about the wonders of a certain drug, produced by the watering hole's operators.

To prevent such embarrassments, medical journals now run authors through the wringer to potentially illuminate their often-cozy relationships with pharmaceutical companies. We writers complete an extensive conflict-of-interest form describing any payments received for lectures or advice, research grants, and personal or family financial interests. This information is then included at the end of the published article, allowing the reader to judge whether an author might have been working under the influence.

Although onerous to coordinate (and annoying to complete), this approach is an important first step in preventing unseemly trysts between doctors and the pharmaceutical industry. But it does not go far enough because it ignores an even more conspicuous denizen of the watering hole, the medical journal itself.

Just as pharmaceuticals fund studies and pay...