How to Publish an Ethical Paper

BJUI Author Workshop, Tuesday 23rd June 2009

Roger Kirby

Key words in Ethical publishing• Ethics• Probity• Intellectual honesty• Conflict of interest

Ethical Scientific Publishing• Honest reporting of results.• Avoiding claims of plagiarism• Conflicts of interest• Ghost writers• The peer review process• Impact factor• Editorial Conflicts

Honest reporting of results• Never massage results to make a negative

finding positive• Be honest and straightforward in your

interpretation• Be prepared to stand by and defend your

conclusions

Avoiding plagiarism• Do not reproduce chunks of other peoples

work• Be cautious about cutting and pasting your

own work • Beware dual publication• Plagiarism usually picked up by reviewers

but software detection programmes now available

Conflicts of interest• Usually financial, sometimes political• If there is even a hint of a conflict, say so• Dug company or instrument manufacturer

support of a study as an investigator or consultant

• Don’t let inter-departmental rivalries cloud your judgement

Ghost writers• Professional writers paid to produce copy• Often used to write up multi-institutional

studies or prepare pharmaceutical reviews• Should be acknowledged as an author or at

the end of the paper• Can produce excellent material, but make

sure as an author you can stand by every word

The Peer Review Process• A welter of papers coming in from all over

the world• Four reviewers selected for each• Brief timely review and decision required• Reviewer fatigue a problem• Increasing sub-specialisation increasing• Reviewer conflicts need to be considered

Impact factor• Impact factor calculated annually• Increasingly important to journals and

authors• Gaming can occur by “self-citation”• Legitimate techniques include increasing

rejection rate (> 80%) and publishing more full length reviews

• Other parameters define a journal such as readability and web traffic

2008 Subject Category Rankings Urology & NephrologyJournal IF Journal IF

1 J AM SOC NEPHROL 7.505 14 NAT CLIN PRACT UROL 2.8742 EUR UROL 6.512 15 SEMIN NEPHROL 2.8673 KIDNEY INT 6.418 16 NEUROUROL URODYNAM 2.7334 NAT CLIN PRACT NEPHR 5.594 17 BJU INT 2.7045 J SEX MED 5.393 18 WORLD J UROL 2.6996 AM J KIDNEY DIS 4.822 19 SEMIN DIALYSIS 2.6717 CLIN J AM SOC NEPHRO 4.361 20 UROL ONCOL-SEMIN ORI 2.6628 CURR OPIN NEPHROL HY 4.00 21 AGING MALE 2.6229 J UROLOGY 3.952 22 CURR OPIN UROL 2.619

10 AM J PHYSIOL-RENAL 3.89 23 INT UROGYNECOL J 2.37511 NEPHROL DIAL TRANSPL 3.568 24 PEDIATR NEPHROL 2.32112 AM J NEPHROL 3.164 25 INT J IMPOT RES 2.27613 PROSTATE 3.069 26 UROLOGY 2.242

Editorial Conflicts• Too much work, not enough time to do it• Potential pressure from pharmaceutical

companies to publish• Orders for reprints and advertisements in

the journal• Supplements• Maintaining fairness, balance and objectivity

Conclusions• You are what you write• Check PubMed or MedLine to review your

publication status• Write clearly, concisely and honestly• Do not be tempted to massage results• Check anything that has your name on it

carefully• State any possible conflicts of interest