The publication of ethically uncertain research: attitudes and practices of journal editors

The Editor-in-chief of each of the 103 English-language journals from the 2005 Abridged Index Medicus list publishing original research were asked to complete a survey sent to them by email between September-December 2007.A response rate of 33% (n = 34) was obtained from the survey. 18% (n = 6) of respondents had published ethically uncertain or suspect research within the last 10 years. 85% (n = 29) of respondents stated they would always reject ethically uncertain articles submitted for publication on ethical grounds alone. 12% (n = 4) of respondents stated they would approach each submission on a case-by-case basis. 3% (n = 1) stated they would be likely to publish such research, but only with accompanying editorial. Only 38% (n = 13) give reviewers explicit instruction to reject submissions on ethical grounds if found wanting.Editorial compliance with the Declaration of Helsinki in rejecting research that is conducted unethically was difficult to ascertain because of a poor response rate despite multiple attempts using different modalities. Of those who did respond, the majority do reject ethically suspect research but few explicitly advise reviewers to do so. In this study editors did not take advantage of the opportunity to describe their support for the rejection of the publication of unethical research.The first formal request to editors of biomedical journals by the American Medical Association in 1912 asked them to "scrutinize carefully original papers submitted for publication" in the context of compliance with principles of medical ethics [1,2]. The Declaration of Helsinki (DoH) in 1964 specifically addressed the issue of publication when research is found lacking in any or all of its recommended tenets; "both authors and publishers have ethical obligations...reports of experimentation not in accordance with the principles laid down in this declaration should not be accepted for publication"[3,4]. Despite these regulations, attitudes and practices surrou