The trouble with Medical Journal / Richard Smith

Content
Section 1. Introduction
1. Introduction : medical journals are probably a force for good but need considerable reform

Section 2. The nature of medical journals
2. Why bother with medical journals and whether they are honest?
3. What and who are medical journals for?
4. Can medical journals lead or must they follow?
5. What are and what should be the values of medical journals?

Section 3. The Processes of publishing medical research
6. The Complexities and confusions of medical science
7. Peer review : a flawed process at the heart of science and journals

Section 4. Problems in Publishing medical research
8. Research misconduct : the poising of the well
9. The death of the author and the birth of the contributor?
10. Publishing too much and nothing : serious problems not just nuisances
11. Conflicts of interest : how money clouds objectivity#
12. Editorial misconduct, freedom and accountability: amaetus at work


Section 5. Important relationships of medical journals
13. Patients and medical journals : from objects to patterns
14. Medical journals and the mass media : moving from love and hate to love
15. Trying to stop failing the developing world
16. Medical journals and pharmaceutical companies : uneasy bedfellows
17. The highly profitable but perhaps unethical business of publishing medical research

Section 6. Ethical accountability of researchers and journals
18. Relations between research ethics committees and medical journals : guarding the probity of research
19. Ethical support and accountability for journals : an ombudsman, an ethics committee, and next?
20. Libel and medical journals : proper constraint or against the public interest?
21. The case that concern with ethical issues in publishing medical research is overdone

Section 7. The future
22. Ethical manifestos for four different futures for medical publishing

Includes References : p. 267 - 280 . __ Index : p. 281 - 292