Ethical Publications in Medical Research

Abstract

Ethics in medical sciences research may not always translate into ethical publications. Unfortunately due to lack of regulatory bodies, publication misconduct is now a global menace for the scientific community. Publication misconducts are not only restricted to research fraud or data manipulations alone but also seriously include plagiarism,, duplicate publications especially on figures and tables, authorship disputes and conflict of interests. As global scientific research is expanding particularly in the field of health sciences hence possibilities of more rise of unethical practices from research to publications are very high, authors suggest a strong peer-reviewing system, use latest technological support, strong publication ethics policies, active monitoring, protection of whistle blowers and more liaisons between journals and research institutions or universities possibly to prevent publication misconduct effectively This chapter discusses how medical publications might have abused various ethical norms not only while conducting research but also during the publication process. The review also discusses the possible preventive measures against unethical practices of research publications.