Here’s one possible solution to the fraudulent practice of medical ghostwriting that seems so easy, I’m wondering why all medical journal editors are not already doing it, given the current bad press garnered by the Wyeth Pharmaceuticals medical ghostwriting scandal, among many others. Editor-in-chief of the Journal of Managed Care Pharmacy Dr. Frederic Curtiss has told Reuters Health that data attached to documents created in Microsoft Word have allowed him to discover which articles submitted to his journal may have been written by ghostwriters hired by drug companies. 

When documents are saved in Word, the software attaches additional information, called metadata, which identifies who created the document. Subsequent edits or changes made by anybody else (like the medical school academics and researchers who fraudulently claim that they are the real authors) can also be identified. Curtiss estimates that every third manuscript he receives has metadata that does not match the article’s listed authors.  Continue reading →