An 11% ghostwriting rate in the esteemed New England Journal of Medicine!
Whoo-hah!
Six of the top medical journals published a significant number of ghostwritten articles in 2008, according to the study by a researcher and editors at The Journal of the American Medical Association.Among authors of 630 articles who responded to an online questionnaire created by the researchers, 7.8 percent acknowledged contributions to their articles by people whose work should have qualified them to be named as authors on the papers but who were not listed.
According to the study, responding authors reported a 10.9 percent rate of ghostwriting in The New England Journal of Medicine, the highest rate among the journals.
A spokeswoman for the Boston-based journal questioned the study's methodology and said the publication was tightening its policies on ghostwriting.
The study also reported a ghostwriting rate of 7.9 percent in JAMA and 4.9 percent in The Annals of Internal Medicine.
