5 Ethical and Legal Considerations

[Will copyright survive the new technologies?] Thatquestion is about as bootless as asking whether pol-itics will survive democracy. The real question iswhat steps it will take to ensure that the promisednew era of information and entertainment survivescopyright. History offers a clue.    Paul GoldsteinIntellectual property is a legal term for that which results from the creative efforts of the mind (intellectual) and that which can be owned, possessed, and subject to competing claims (property). Three legal doctrines governing intellectual property are relevant for authors, editors, and publishers in biomedical publishing: copyright (the law protecting authorship and publication), patent (the law protecting invention ...Less

There is no international copyright law. Copyright law, scope, protections, and remedies are governed by individual nations and treaties between them. Thus, copyright laws do not automatically protect an author’s work throughout the world. However, most countries offer protection to works from other nations. For a detailed discussion of the copyright laws of individual countries, consult WIPO (which is under the auspices of the United Nations) in Geneva, Switzerland. See , Copyright Resources, for contact information for WIPO.The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (commonly known as the Berne Convention) was originally signed by 10 European ...Less

A statement generally cannot be libelous unless it is “of and concerning” a living person or existing entity (eg, corporation, institution, or organization).,, According to a 1992 case, Gugliuzza v KCMC, Inc, “once a person is dead, there is not extant reputation to injure or for the law to protect.” Even when the living person or entity is not named in the statement, if the person’s or corporation’s identity can be determined from other published facts, a case for libel can be made.(p150) ...Less

Interference with editorial freedom has affected several prominent medical journals and has been well documented in the biomedical literature and the press. However, many other cases of such interference have not been made public or are discussed only anecdotally, privately, or via restricted electronic mailing lists. The experiences of JAMA, the New England Journal of Medicine, and the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) are presented here for the following reasons: there is sufficient literature documenting the relevant events; effective protective oversight mechanisms and governance plans were lacking or insufficient at the time; and the mechanisms for protection of editorial freedom ...Less

The suggestions in this section are offered to help authors, editors, and publishers reduce the risk of libel in biomedical publication. All statements of fact about individuals or commercial entities should be supported or documented and verified to be accurate in the context in which they were and are made. Similarly, statements of opinion should be supported, or based on documented facts, and should not be malicious. In addition, authors should disclose any conflicts of interest or concerns about the potential reactions of those criticized to the editor so that the editor and author work together to ensure responsible publication ...Less

Misappropriation in scientific publication includes plagiarism and breaches of confidentiality during the privileged review of a manuscript. (See also , Confidentiality, Confidentiality During Editorial Evaluation and Peer Review and After Publication.) In plagiarism, an author documents or reports ideas, words, data, or graphics, whether published or unpublished, of another as his or her own and without giving appropriate credit. Plagiarism of published work violates standards of honesty and collegial trust and may also violate copyright law (if the violation is shown to be legally actionable) (see , Intellectual Property: Ownership, Access, Rights, and Management, Copying, Reproducing, Adapting, and Other Uses ...Less

Fabrication, falsification, and omission are forms of misrepresentation in scientific publication. Fabrication includes stating or presenting a falsehood and making up data, results, or “facts” that do not exist. Falsification includes manipulation of materials or processes, changing data or results, or altering the graphic display of data or digital images in a manner that results in misrepresentation (see also , Inappropriate Manipulation of Digital Images). Omission is the act of deliberately not reporting certain information for a desired outcome. Data fabrication, falsification, and omission occur when an investigator or author creates, alters, manipulates, selects, or presents selected or fails to ...Less

Moral rights, first introduced by the French as droit moral, is a doctrine of copyright law intended to protect individual creators' noneconomic investments in their work and the personality of the creator as it relates to the work regardless of copyright ownership or transfer.(§26.01), Two moral rights that are most often recognized are the right to attribution and right to integrity (ie, right to prevent destruction or mutilation of work).(§26.01) This doctrine is endorsed by most member countries of the Berne Convention. Although the United States is a member of the Berne Convention, US law does not provide for moral ...Less

Many journals issue news releases on selected articles determined by the editors to be of interest to the public. For JAMA and the Archives Journals, experienced science writers prepare the news releases, which are reviewed by the editors to ensure accuracy and objectivity. News releases of journal content should be under the authority of the editor, not the journal’s publisher or owner (see also , Editorial Freedom and Integrity).News editors, writers, and producers receive hundreds of news releases a week. Thus, a news release must attract attention, but it also must conform to a familiar format and style . Journalists ...Less

The number of authors whose names appear in the byline of scientific papers increased steadily during the second half of the 20th century. This increase occurred as a result of specialization, multidisciplinary collaboration, and the advent of large multicenter studies. However, authorship inflation has diluted the meaning of authorship. For example, which authors in a byline that contains more than 100 names can state that they actually wrote the paper or that they participated sufficiently to take public responsibility for the work? In response to this problem, suggestions were made in the 1980s and 1990s to limit the number of ...Less