… One of [the people named as an author of a published paper on a new heart device] is a true ghost author. Anthony Rickards, a cardiologist, … died before the research was conducted….
Even if you die before the research is conducted, you can ghostwrite the results!
I guess Rickards’ estate got his ghost fee.
I’m getting this from The Guardian; England too is beginning to reckon up its ghosts.
One of them – this one’s still alive – is in a spot of trouble.
One of Britain’s leading bone specialists is facing disciplinary action over accusations that he was involved in “ghost writing”.
The wider phenomenon has come to light through documents disclosed in the US courts which have revealed a culture in which doctors agree to “author” studies written by employees of drug firms. The doctors may have some input but do not have access to all the evidence from the drug trial on which the paper’s conclusions are based, the documents showed.
The General Medical Council will call Professor Richard Eastell in front of a fitness to practice committee. Eastell, a bone expert at Sheffield University, has admitted he allowed his name to go forward as first author of a study on an osteoporosis drug even though he did not have access to all the data on which the study’s conclusions were based. An employee of Proctor and Gamble, the US company making Actonel, was the only author who had all the figures…
Background on Eastell, and on Sheffield’s shameful attempt to shut up one of Eastell’s colleagues, a man with a conscience who condemned the scandal, is here.
September 19th, 2009 at 7:47AM
Aubrey Blumsohn’s blog here:
http://scientific-misconduct.blogspot.com/
September 19th, 2009 at 11:06AM
In Poland, when an author dies before the article is published, they put a little black box around his or her name. But I’m not sure what they would do if the author died before the article was written. Perhaps change the address in the institutional affiliation to "Purgatory Academy of Science" or something like that.