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Authorship of clinical trial reports

Feighner Research Institute, Charter Chelsea Clinic, 7 Radnor Walk, London SW3 4PB

I was most interested to read the report by Baldwin et al (1999), particularly as I am listed as a co-author, although I had never seen the text before and did not know it was being submitted for publication! How did such a situation arise and how can its repetition be avoided in future?

In many countries, particularly the USA, it is editorial policy to obtain consent to submission that includes all of those who participated directly in the work described; often to the extent of obtaining individual signatures. This is to be applauded. Working at the Feighner Research Institute in London, I personally treated 27 patients who were included in the above trial and informed the company concerned, on more than one occasion, that I wished to see the text of any manuscript submitted for publication prior to the event. But I received no reply.

Individual investigators should be named with their centres, rather than lumped together in an unspecified ‘study group’. It would also be helpful, in the context of any statistical conclusions reached, if the number of cases contributed from each individual centre were to be recorded in published reports.

EDITED BY LOUISE HOWARD

REFERENCES

Baldwin, D., Bobes, J., Stein, D. J., et al (1999) Paroxetine in social phobia/social anxiety disorder. Randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. British Journal of Psychiatry, 175, 120-126.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Authors' reply

Mental Health Group, University of Southampton, Royal South Hants Hospital, Brintons Terrace, Southampton SO14 07G

A. Benbow

SmithKline Beecham, Mindells, Wellyn Garden City, Herts AL7 IEY

We are grateful to Dr Wheatley for his comments on the publication of the treatment study with paroxetine, and would like to acknowledge publicly the contribution made by Dr Wheatley and his colleagues within the Feighner Research Institute. We thank all those principal investigators, their research teams and the patients who kindly took part in this investigation.

It is difficult to acknowledge all the clinicians who participate in large multicentre treatment studies, and naturally some investigators will be disappointed when their contribution is not credited as much as that of their colleagues. Ideally, publication plans should be discussed at meetings with potential investigators prior to the start of a study, and then reviewed during the course of the investigation. This is now the policy at SmithKline Beecham, but this study with paroxetine was started before the policy was in place. Due to a change in personnel within SmithKline Beecham, the communication between the sponsoring company and all the participating investigators has been less than optimal, for which we apologise.

In the future, SmithKline Beecham will try to ensure that all the participating investigators are happy with the publication plan before the start of any treatment study. However, the question of contribution to full authorship will remain problematical, for collaborative study groups and journals alike.

Editor's response

The Journal does not consider to be authors people thanked in the Acknowledgements or listed as members of a study group on whose behalf a paper is submitted, but whose names do not appear as authors on the title page of the manuscript, or whose signed agreement to the manuscript's submission has not been obtained. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to ensure that authorship is agreed among the study's workers, contributors of additional data and other interested parties, before submission of the manuscript.

Full text of these Instructions is located on the Royal College of Psychiatrists' web-site (http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/pub/bjp_ita.htm) and is next scheduled for paper publication in the July issue of the Journal.

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This Article Full Text (PDF) A corrigendum has been published Submit an eLetter Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Wheatley, D. Articles by Benbow, A. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Wheatley, D. Articles by Benbow, A.