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Ethical problems were a major distraction during my editorship of Neurology (1987–1996). Resolving an ethical issue is usually more time-consuming than deciding whether to accept (and then edit), or reject, a manuscript, and the stakes are higher. A mistakenly rejected paper will certainly be published elsewhere, and a mistakenly published error-ridden paper will generate critical Correspondence. By contrast, mistakenly jeopardizing a colleague’s reputation and academic career may never be adequately remediated, and must scrupulously be avoided.
We only needed to retract one article1 and one abstract2 while I served as Editor. But, in so doing, I became a “poster editor” for the Office of Research Integrity (ORI), the investigative agency for the NIH and other Public Health Service entities. My popularity related to other editors being reluctant to retract articles. Indeed, I attended an ORI meeting where the editor of a major journal espoused the position that only the author, and not the editor, can retract a paper, despite documented falsification or fabrication. Serious scientific journals now adhere to the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE),3 and most editors seem to follow the rules.
When Robert Griggs succeeded me as Editor in 1997, he sought my advice about ethical issues. This led to my appointment as the journal’s first Scientific Integrity Advisor, in 2004. We developed policies to deal with scientific misconduct and breach of publication ethics, which we explained in an Editorial4 and our Information for Authors. “Misconduct” includes “fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism,” with “intent to deceive.” Fabrication is making up data; falsification is falsely reporting data or methodology; …
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