About
When I moved from sunny Va to baby it’s cold outside, I wanted to continue providing a central resource for advice on grantsmanship and the medical writing/editing process, notices from the NIH (including paylines) and other major grant sponsors (e.g., NSF), tidbits of biomedical research news, commentaries on research integrity, etc. (including, as you’ve no doubt noticed, a personal concern with academic health centers that accept funding from the tobacco industry). Plus I need a convenient place to archive all this for my own reference. If anyone has a specific request for demystification, please feel free to drop it in the suggestion box.
I owe a big thanks for the inspiration and encouragement offered by my favorite medical librarians at Tompkins-McCaw Library. Right now, I have a grant application to review - but there is plenty more to come.
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Thomas Robey said,
July 10, 2007 @ 5:37 pm
I believe I am an alum of the University of Baby It’s Cold Outside. If so, I bet it’s been really hot these days, and that there are plenty of sunbathers on the Cathedral Lawn. Thanks for all of your entries. It’s a mine!
NLM said,
July 18, 2007 @ 2:58 pm
Greetings from the North!
I find this blog to be a fantastic resource. Thank you!
In fact, it’s inspired me to pilot a similar blog on Canadian funding agencies.
Do you have any advice for one just starting out?
Sure - just start! Perhaps you can launch with a discussion of how funding priorities and strategies might change, if at all, at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research under new leadership. Please send me your link so I can add it to the blogroll for your colleagues due north looking to support their research programs. - writedit
MLK said,
September 6, 2007 @ 2:58 pm
I like anyone who lists librarians as sources of inspiration and encouragement. And if the University of Baby It’s Cold Outside is where I think it is, you have a boatload of medical librarians at the health sciences library system (HSLS) happy to help in any way they can (myself included).
Folks - medical librarians are the BEST - and most underutilized - resource at your institution! - writedit
Marilyn said,
November 21, 2007 @ 1:54 pm
From the Wall Street Journal Health Blog
November 21, 2007, 11:06 am
Odd Ghostwriting Offer Raises Researcher’s Blood Pressure
Posted by Jacob Goldstein
Cornell researcher Jean E. Sealey was a bit surprised — and eventually outraged — by an email she received on Nov. 12 from an employee of Medicus International, a London-based consultant that helps drug companies publish research on their drugs.
The email asked whether Sealey would be interested in authoring an abstract article for an upcoming meeting of the American Society of Hypertension. The article would discuss research on nebivolol, a high blood pressure drug from Forest Laboratories, and the “effects of nebivolol in men versus women.”
Sealey, professor emerita of physiology and biophysics in medicine at the Weill Cornell Medical College, is a well-known expert in hypertension. But she was being asked to author a report on research she hadn’t conducted. In fact, she had never heard of the drug until receiving the email pitch.
To Sealey, it appears the company was shopping for a name to slap on the cover of internal drug company research. “I was totally perplexed,” she says. “I surmised they wanted a name and maybe a woman because they were going to compare the drug in men versus women.”
The email indicates the abstract would have to be submitted by Nov. 19 — just a week later. But the email assured Sealey that she wouldn’t have to do much work. “We can draft the abstract, offer our editorial support in developing the content of the abstract and help with the submission process on your behalf,” wrote Liz Burtally, who identifies herself in the email as a medical writer “for the nebivolol team working with Forest Laboratories.”
Burtally sent another email on Nov. 13, and called Sealey the next day. Sealey asked a lot of questions. Would she be the only author? Yes, she says she was told. When Sealey asked if she would have access to the raw data, the phone went dead. Burtally never called or emailed again.
The Health Blog called Burtally, who says she didn’t hang up on Sealey, but confirmed the call was cut off. She said Forest Labs had recommended Sealey for the authorship. Asked if it was common to ask someone to author an article on research they hadn’t conducted, she said “no, not really.”
When told it appeared the company was offering to ghost write the abstract for Sealey, Burtally said she wasn’t sure what to call the proposed arrangement. She did say Forest wasn’t going to go forward with the planned abstract.
A Forest spokesman said the abstract idea pitched to Sealey was for a sub analysis of data from already published studies. Under that circumstance, he said, the offer met guidelines established by the international association of medical journal articles.
The Food and Drug Administration, meanwhile, is expected to make a decision by the end of the month on an application from Forest to sell nebivolol in the U.S.
* * *
Hm . . . Does this in fact meet the applicable guidelines? Even if it does, it would seem to be misleading to the unsuspecting reader.
Marilyn
What the hell is the “international association of medical journal articles”??? Definitely does NOT meet the guidelines set by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Though I’m sure there is some group out there with the word “integrity” stashed in their title that would condone such actions. - writedit
Talkin’ Turkey « Medical Writing, Editing & Grantsmanship said,
November 22, 2007 @ 12:21 am
[...] Research Ethics, Biomedical Writing/Editing on unauthorized authorship again, thanks to Marilyn’s post from the WSJ Health Blog. Anyone a member of the “international assoc of medical journal [...]
No Suprise Authorship Allowed! « Medical Writing, Editing & Grantsmanship said,
November 23, 2007 @ 11:32 am
[...] Update: Marilyn posted under About another egregious incident of unauthorized authorship from the WSJ Health [...]
Alison McCook said,
December 17, 2007 @ 3:24 pm
Nice blog! We’ve been covering similar issues at The Scientist.com — drop me a line if you’d ever like to chat.
Alison
madhamster said,
December 24, 2007 @ 4:56 pm
I can say that after reading this blog for about a year now, I have (as a grad student) truly benefited week by week from your understanding and insight into this world of paylines and resubmissions. Thanks and happy holidays.
iGrrrl said,
May 31, 2008 @ 7:22 pm
You’re the first person I’ve found with a job similar to mine. I would very much appreciate being able to talk about how your job is structured, if you’d feel comfortable dropping me an email.