Publication Malpractice & Fraud for Surgeons. JASGBI 32 December 2010

David A Rew Medical Chair, SCOPUS Content Selection
Advisory Board, Council Member, Committee on Publication Ethics (COРE)

Introduction

Publication malpractice and publication fraud are major challenges to the integrity of the world's professional and scientific literature. Regrettably, some of those who perpetrate it are members of the medical profession. From time to time, a journal editor is faced with quite outrageous examples of deceit and fraud. Some examples are headed off at the pass, but others undoubtedly slip through an imperfect professional net, sometimes to be detected many years later.

In this article, I consider the range of publication fraud; the reasons why it is not a victimless crime; the means by which it is increasingly being detected; and the consequences for the perpetrators, from the perspectives of the Editor of a peer reviewed surgical journal with a broad international authorship.

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