Do Editorial Policies Support Ethical Research? A Thematic Text Analysis of Author Instructions in Psychiatry Journals

Introduction: According to the Declaration of Helsinki and other guidelines, clinical studies should be approved by a research ethics committee and seek valid informed consent from the participants. Editors of medical journals are encouraged by the ICMJE and COPE to include requirements for these principles in the journal's instructions for authors. This study assessed the editorial policies of psychiatry journals regarding ethics review and informed consent. Methods and Findings: The information given on ethics review and informed consent and the mentioning of the ICMJE and COPE recommendations were assessed within author's instructions and online submission procedures of all 123 eligible psychiatry journals. While 54% and 58% of editorial policies required ethics review and informed consent, only 14% and 19% demanded the reporting of these issues in the manuscript. The TOP-10 psychiatry journals (ranked by impact factor) performed similarly in this regard. Conclusions: Only every second psychiatry journal adheres to the ICMJE's recommendation to inform authors about requirements for informed consent and ethics review. Furthermore, we argue that even the ICMJE's recommendations in this regard are insufficient, at least for ethically challenging clinical trials. At the same time, ideal scientific design sometimes even needs to be compromised for ethical reasons. We suggest that features of clinical studies that make them morally controversial, but not necessarily unethical, are analogous to methodological limitations and should thus be reported explicitly. Editorial policies as well as reporting guidelines such as CONSORT should be extended to support a meaningful reporting of ethical research.

How Psychiatry Journals Support the Unbiased Translation of Clinical Research. A Cross-Sectional Study of Editorial Policies

Introduction: Reporting guidelines (e. g. CONSORT) have been developed as tools to improve quality and reduce bias in reporting research findings. Trial registration has been recommended for countering selective publication. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) encourages the implementation of reporting guidelines and trial registration as uniform requirements (URM). For the last two decades, however, biased reporting and insufficient registration of clinical trials has been identified in several literature reviews and other investigations. No study has so far investigated the extent to which author instructions in psychiatry journals encourage following reporting guidelines and trial registration. Method: Psychiatry Journals were identified from the 2011 Journal Citation Report. Information given in the author instructions and during the submission procedure of all journals was assessed on whether major reporting guidelines, trial registration and the ICMJE's URM in general were mentioned and adherence recommended. Results: We included 123 psychiatry journals (English and German language) in our analysis. A minority recommend or require 1) following the URM (21%), 2) adherence to reporting guidelines such as CONSORT, PRISMA, STROBE (23%, 7%, 4%), or 3) registration of clinical trials (34%). The subsample of the top-10 psychiatry journals (ranked by impact factor) provided much better but still improvable rates. For example, 70% of the top-10 psychiatry journals do not ask for the specific trial registration number. Discussion: Under the assumption that better reported and better registered clinical research that does not lack substantial information will improve the understanding, credibility, and unbiased translation of clinical research findings, several stakeholders including readers (physicians, patients), authors, reviewers, and editors might benefit from improved author instructions in psychiatry journals. A first step of improvement would consist in requiring adherence to the broadly accepted reporting guidelines and to trial registration.

História em catálogos: um estudo da política editorial Zahar de 2001 a 2014

O presente trabalho versa sobre as políticas editoriais da Jorge Zahar Editor, em especial de 2001 a 2014, discutindo os desafios enfrentados por uma editora que construiu sua marca através do ideal de publicar livros que se mantivessem no mercado editorial ao longo do tempo. Foi apresentado um histórico da editora, desde sua fundação, como Zahar Editores, nos anos 1950, descrevendo as propostas editoriais situadas em conjunturas sociais e mercadológicas específicas. Detectaram-se alguns momentos críticos, em que tanto as políticas editoriais quanto a estrutura de gestão da empresa foram reavaliados, redimensionados e sofreram mudanças importantes. Analisaram-se diferentes catálogos da Zahar: o de 1985, período em que a editora passou a ser gerida por Jorge Zahar e filhos, e os de 2001 a 2014, observando o que neles permaneceu dos anos 1980 e também as transformações e permanências do fundo editorial entre os anos 2001 e 2014. As categorias “independência” e “livros clássicos” foram identificadas como elementos discursivos estratégicos na auto-concepção e identificação pública da editora, apontando sua percepção dos livros como bens culturais, bem como da função do editor como agente cultural. A performance da Zahar tem desafiado dois tipos de diagnósticos difundidos no senso comum e mesmo na literatura acadêmica. O primeiro é que as editoras precisam publicar livros que alcançam alta vendagem rapidamente, mesmo que eles tenham uma sobrevivência efêmera, como forma de garantir sua lucratividade e sobrevivência no mercado. O segundo é que as editoras, em geral, pequenas e médias, ainda autônomas, tendem a precisar vender seus direitos para empresas maiores e mais capitalizadas, pois não terão como enfrentar as políticas mercadológicas agressivas dessas organizações. As conclusões da pesquisa sugerem que a Zahar tem insistido na manutenção de sua auto-identificação como editora de clássicos, direcionando suas políticas editoriais para a publicação de livros que tenham longa duração, demonstrando que é possível seguir um caminho próprio, em termos de exercício da função própria do editor, marcada pela independência na escolha do que, como, quando e quanto publicar – e conservar seu espaço no mercado.

The Value Of Audiovisual Archives.

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Ethical dilemmas in scientific publication: pitfalls and solutions for editors

Editors of scientific journals need to be conversant with the mechanisms by which scientific misconduct is amplified by publication practices. This paper provides definitions, ways to document the extent of the problem, and examples of editorial attempts to counter fraud. Fabrication, falsification, duplication, ghost authorship, gift authorship, lack of ethics approval, non-disclosure, 'salami' publication, conflicts of interest, auto-citation, duplicate submission, duplicate publications, and plagiarism are common problems. Editorial misconduct includes failure to observe due process, undue delay in reaching decisions and communicating these to authors, inappropriate review procedures, and confounding a journal's content with its advertising or promotional potential. Editors also can be admonished by their peers for failure to investigate suspected misconduct, failure to retract when indicated, and failure to abide voluntarily by the six main sources of relevant international guidelines on research, its reporting and editorial practice. Editors are in a good position to promulgate reasonable standards of practice, and can start by using consensus guidelines on publication ethics to state explicitly how their journals function. Reviewers, editors, authors and readers all then have a better chance to understand, and abide by, the rules of publishing.

Quality of scientific articles

The paper discusses the difficulties in judging the quality of scientific manuscripts and describes some common pitfalls that should be avoided when preparing a paper for submission to a peer-reviewed journal. Peer review is an imperfect system, with less than optimal reliability and uncertain validity. However, as it is likely that it will remain as the principal process of screening papers for publication, authors should avoid some common mistakes when preparing a report based on empirical findings of human research. Among these are: excessively long abstracts, extensive use of abbreviations, failure to report results of parsimonious data analyses, and misinterpretation of statistical associations identified in observational studies as causal. Another common problem in many manuscripts is their excessive length, which makes them more difficult to be evaluated or read by the intended readers, if published. The evaluation of papers after their publication with a view towards their inclusion in a systematic review is also discussed. The limitations of the impact factor as a criterion to judge the quality of a paper are reviewed.

Do Brazilian scientific journals promote the adherence of Chagas disease researchers to internacional ethical principals?

The ethical aspects of the Brazilian publications about human Chagas disease (CD) developed between 1996 and 2010 and the policy adopted by Brazilian medical journals were analyzed. Articles were selected on the SciELO Brazil data basis, and the evaluation of ethical aspects was based on the normative contents about ethics in research involving human experimentation according to the Brazilian resolution of the National Health Council no. 196/1996. The editorial policies of the section "Instructions to authors" were analyzed. In the period of 1996-2012, 58.9% of articles involving human Chagas disease did not refer to the fulfillment of the ethical aspects concerning research with human beings. In 80% of the journals, the requirements and confirmation of the information about ethical aspects in the studies of human CD were not observed. Although a failure in this type of service is still observed, awareness has been raised in federal agencies, educational institutions/research and publishing groups to standardize the procedures and ethical requirements for the Brazilian journals, reinforcing the fulfillment of the ethical parameters, according to the resolution of NHC no. 196/1996.

Design (provisional chapter title)

The move of parts of OUP's publishing operation from London to Oxford in the 1970s allowed the creation of a centralised art and design department. Drawing on material in the OUP archives this chapter traces the kinds of work that this department undertook and the subsequent devolution of design activities to publishing divisions. Book design at Oxford is considered both stylistically and in response to technological changes. The relationship with the Printing House and its design standards, the search for standardisation and the need for economy, and the specialist design skills demanded by OUP's publications are recurring themes. Innovations in using overseas suppliers and in the introduction of desktop publishing technology are located in relation the the organization of the design function at OUP and its relationship to editorial policies.The chapter concludes with a consideration of the corporate identity system introduced in 1998, and its relationship to previous manifestations of 'Oxford style'.

Webjornalismo e violações de direitos da cidadania: análise de coberturas sobre trabalho escravo

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

A formação do conceito de ontologia na ciência da informação: uma análise nos periódicos Scire e Ibersid

The concept of ontoloy as a tool for knowledge organization and representation, which is not yet stable, is analyzed in two spanish journals of information science, namely “Scire: representación y organización del conocimiento” and “Ibersid: revista de sistemas de información y documentación”, both published by the University of Zaragoza. The term "ontology" and its variations were searched in the fields of title, keywords and abstract. A corpus of eighteen articles was obtained. The approaches to ontologies were classified into four categories of analysis: conceptualization, comparison, application and new applications. It was observed that the way which the concept of ontologies is treated in both periodicals is in consonance with their editorial policies. The term ontology is suffering a process of meta-terminologization, from the field of philosophy towards information science, a fact that deserves further and more vertical studies.

Mídias radicais e a utilização do Culture Jamming: quebrando as barreiras construídas pelos veículos hegemônicos

This monograph aims to analyze the ability of the radical media to lead journalistic productions performed by O Globo during debates of the event Rio +20. The concentration of the major means of communication in the minor part of the population consolidates what can be called by hegemonic media. These media are primarily responsible for controlling the content viewed by a large portion of the population. Aiming a true plurality of information the alternative media day-by-day is looking for a bigger space within the communication market. Thus, the hegemonic media use capable tools to interfere in editorial policies consolidated by corporative media. One of those possible tools is the Culture Jamming, an activist action that interferes in a variety of marketing branches of communication. Therefore, having in its basis theorists such as John Downing and Perseu Abramo this study analyzed the journalistic content produced by the newspaper O Globo between the days 13 to 22 of June, in which the Rio +20 activities were held

Deutsche Welle Brasil: construção da notícia e representação social

Zusammenfassung: In dieser Studie wurde untersucht, wie Nachrichten, die vom Nachrichtenportal Deutsche Welle in portugiesischer Sprache veröffentlicht werden, produziert werden und inwieweit sie Brasilien und Deutschland bezüglich kulturellen, politischen und wirtschaftlichen Aspekten repräsentieren. Der staatliche deutsche Auslandsrundfunk zeichnet sich durch seine internationale Reichweite aus und schafft Dialoge zwischen Deutschland und anderen Nationen. Angesichts der Schnittstelle zwischen Journalismus und Internet, haben wir uns auf den Sender Deutsche Welle, und dort vor allem auf die brasilianische Nachrichtenredaktion fokussiert. Dadurch war es möglich, den Kontext, in dem der analysierte journalistische Inhalt produziert wird, genau zu verstehen. Die Nachrichten wurden über einen Zeitraum von einer Woche im Portal gesammelt und anschließend einer quantitativen und qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse unterzogen (BARDIN, 2009). Die Ergebnisse zeigen, wie die Inhalte beide Länder repräsentieren und gleichzeitig die Redaktionsstrategie des Senders bestätigt wird. In Anbetracht des Effekts, den die Nachrichten und die übermittelte Repräsentation der beiden Länder in den Beiträgen auf die Meinungsbildung der Zielgruppe haben könnten, trägt diese Studie zum wissenschaftlichen Verständnis im journalistischen Bereich bei und regt zu weitere Studien über die Deutsche Welle an

Choosing the right journal for your systematic review

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)