Research integrity and conflict of interests

Research integrity matters. In this process, authors and scientific journal editors are key actors that ensure the trustworthiness of the scientific publication process. In this section, we are studying these aspects and any other aspects related to conflict of interests.

PUBLICATION BY ASSOCIATION: THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC REVEALS RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN AUTHORS AND EDITORS

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the rush to scientific and political judgments on the merits of hydroxychloroquine was fuelled by dubious papers which may have been published because the authors were not independent from the practices of the journals in which they appeared. This example leads us to consider a new type of illegitimate publishing entity, “self-promotion journals” which could be deployed to serve the instrumentalisation of productivity-based metrics, with a ripple effect on decisions about promotion, tenure, and grant funding.

PrePrint: / Paper

‘NEPOTISTIC JOURNALS’: A SURVEY OF BIOMEDICAL JOURNALS

Convergent analyses in different disciplines support the use of the Percentage of Papers by the Most Prolific author (PPMP) as a red flag to identify journals that can be suspected of questionable editorial practices. We examined whether this index, complemented by the Gini index, could be useful for identifying cases of potential editorial bias, using a large sample of biomedical journals.

Protocol / PrePrint / Paper

ASSOCIATION BETWEEN GIFTS FROM PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES TO FRENCH GENERAL PRACTITIONERS AND THEIR DRUG PRESCRIBING PATTERNS

To evaluate the association between gifts from pharmaceutical companies to French general practitioners (GPs) and their drug prescribing patterns.
Protocol (In French) / Paper

CORRELATION BETWEEN GIFTS FROM PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES TO FRENCH MEDICAL ACADEMICS AND THEIR SCIENTIFIC PRODUCTIVITY PATTERNS: A RETROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS USING THE FRENCH TRANSPARENCY IN HEALTHCARE DATABASE

To investigate the relationship between presently used measures of academic success (e.g. h-index) with the potential financial COIs.
Protocol, also available in a blog post / Paper

ARE LARGE PROSPECTIVE TRIALS ON ANTIDEPRESSANTS IN MENTAL DISORDERS SEEDING TRIALS?

To identify large clinical trials on antidepressants for mental disorders. To assess what proportion could be labelled as “seeding trials” (trials for marketing purposes). To describe their methodological characteristics and outcomes.
Protocol / Paper