ETHICAL PROBLEMS IN A PROSPECTIVE STUDY OF SUBMISSIONS TO A MEDICAL JOURNAL
Carin M Olson,1,2 Richard M Glass,1 Donna F Stroup,3 and Stephen B Thacker3
1JAMA, 515 N State St, Chicago, IL 60610, USA; 2University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA; 3Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA
We are prospectively abstracting characteristics of meta-analyses submitted to a weekly medical journal to correlate with their acceptance for publication. In beginning this study, we encountered several ethical problems. When submitting manuscripts for publication, authors do not consent to have their work used for research. Authors must be free to refuse to participate, without its affecting their chances for publication. Meta-analysts outside the editorial staff who are not peer reviewers are extracting the manuscripts' characteristics, which breaks the confidentiality of the author-editor-reviewer relationship. We added a statement to our journal's instructions for authors: "Information from submitted manuscripts may be systematically collected and analyzed as part of research to improve the quality of the editorial or peer-review process." We mail authors a letter requesting their consent to participate. Authors send their response to an off-site editor. As the only 1 aware of authors' participation, that editor is not handling any meta-analyses during this study. The meta-analysts are blinded to each manuscript's author and institution. During the first 18 months, 76 of 78 authors submitting a meta-analysis agreed to participate. We cannot determine whether the study affects turnaround times, since meta-analyses were classified with general reviews before the study. Through obtaining authors' active consent to participate, keeping editors handling meta-analyses unaware of authors' participation, and de-identifying manuscripts, we addressed ethical issues encountered in studying manuscripts submitted to a medical journal.
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