Current Medical Research and Opinion (CMRO), an international, peer-reviewed clinical research journal published by Informa Healthcare, has developed, and will soon institute, a formal Transparency Policy. The policy, projected to go above and beyond normal medical journal standards, is seen as a consequence of the 'Medical Madoff' - a recent scandal that stunned the world's healthcare industry.
At the centre of the scandal was American anesthesiologist Dr. Scott Reuben, who published research papers that were based on fraudulent data and that benefited the drug companies who paid for his research. Dr. Reuben's treatment recommendations, reported in at least 21 published articles, were used by physicians around the world to provide pain relief to millions of patients undergoing orthopaedic surgery.
Under the new CMRO policy, readers will be provided with any relevant financial relationships of its staff, editor-in-chief, editorial board members, international advisory board members, authors and peer reviewers to the content contained within each journal issue. The policy will go into full effect from the June 2009 issue onwards.
CMRO publisher Jay Magrann will be part of an expert panel discussing the topic of author transparency at 7th Annual Meeting of The International Publication Planning Association, June 15-16, in San Francisco.
