Publishing
ethics
The
BJGP supports the ethical principles set out by the
Committee on Publication
Ethics (COPE). It is important that authors understand the need
for the research undertaken to conform to the Helsinki declaration.
You will normally have to confirm that the study has been approved
by a named Research Ethics Committee to be considered for
publication. In addition you must ensure that there is no risk of
your being charged with duplicate publication. All authors of any
kind of article submitted must declare any competing interests by
completing a standard form, which will be sent to all authors at
the conclusion of the peer review process. This should be returned
with the revised manuscript. COPE has given guidance on the
definition of competing interests: that they may influence the
judgement of author, reviewers, and editors; that they may be
personal, commercial, political, academic or financial. As a rough
guide, they have been described as those which, when revealed
later, would make a reasonable reader feel misled or deceived. In
addition, all authors must declare that, where relevant, patient
consent has been obtained and that all reasonable steps have been
taken to maintain patient confidentiality.
'Salami' publication
Medical editors generally are concerned with
the practice of generating numbers of related papers from the same
study. This is not a matter of unethical behaviour,
but concerns good publication practice. When considering
whether to publish findings separately or together, authors might
wish to consider the degree of overlap according to the following
questions:
- Is this the same, related or a completely different
question?
- Is it using the same or different methods to answer the
question?
- Is it assessing the same, overlapping or a completely different
population of participants?
The BJGP
supports a general policy of encouraging more complete publishing,
i.e. combining findings into single papers rather than separating
them into different papers. Where authors are considering how to
present findings, they should discuss with the Editor the extent to
which submitting a more complete report will require the word limit
to be extended. In order to enable the Editor to make a judgement,
authors should include with the submitted file, abstracts or full
copies of other papers published, in press, submitted or planned,
that have come from the same study.
Writers of letters and editorials
must also declare competing interests. Steps are also taken to
ensure that reviewers declare competing interests or, if there is a
conflict and they feel it is appropriate, to decline to review a
paper.