© 2003 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
Interface between authorship, industry and science in the domain of therapeutics
North Wales Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Wales College of Medicine, Bangor, UK
Correspondence: David Healy, North Wales Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Wales College of Medicine, Bangor, Wales LL57 2PW, UK. Tel: 01248 384452; fax: 01248 371397; e-mail: Healy_Hergest{at}compuserve.com
Declaration of interest D.H. has had consultancies or other links with all major pharmaceutical companies.
See editorial, pp.
3–4, this
issue.
Background Changes in the character of medical authorship.
Aims To compare the impact of industry-linked and non-industry linked articles.
Method We compared articles on sertraline being coordinated by a medical writing agency with articles not coordinated in this way. We calculated numbers of Medline-listed articles per author, journal impact factors, literature profiles and citation rates of both sets of articles.
Results Non-agency-linked articles on sertraline had an average of 2.95 authors per article, a mean length of 3.4 pages, a mean Medline listing of 37 articles per author (95% CI 27–47) and a mean literature profile of 283 per article (95% CI130–435). Agency-linked articles on sertraline had an average of 6.6 authors per article, a mean length of 10.7 pages, a mean Medline listing of 70 articles per author (95% CI 62–79) and a mean literature profile of 1839 per article (95% CI1076–2602). The citation rate for agency articles was 20.2 (95% CI13.4–27.0) and for non-agency articles it was 3.7 (95% CI 3.3–8.1).
Conclusions The literature profiles and citation rates of industry-linked and non-industry-linked articles differ. The emerging style of authorship in industry-linked articles can deliver good-quality articles, but it raises concerns for the scientific base of therapeutics.
Related articles in BJP:
- Highlights of this issue
- SUKHWINDER S. SHERGILL
BJP 2003 183: 1-a3.[Full Text] - Increasing the trust in scientific authorship
- MAX LAGNADO
BJP 2003 183: 3-4.[Full Text]
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