The ICMJE recommendations: challenges in fortifying publishing integrity
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HISTORICAL AND LITERARY
The ICMJE recommendations: challenges in fortifying publishing integrity Jaime A. Teixeira da Silva 1 Received: 28 March 2020 / Accepted: 2 April 2020 # Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland 2020
Abstract In December of 2019, the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) updated its recommendations. As occurs regularly with the ICMJE recommendations, this document was edited and tweaked, and thus fortified and verified. At least one new fortifying positive element was introduced, namely that peer reviewers who relied on the assistance of others during peer review need to declare this to editors. This fortifies publishing integrity, via transparency, in the peer review process in biomedical science. However, a new clause was introduced: “Authors should avoid citing articles in predatory or pseudo-journals.” This is controversial because the precise nature of “predatory” publishing venues, either journals or publishers, is unclear and several parameters used by existing blacklists are unreliable and thus debatable. It is concerning that these edited recommendations were simultaneously published in 13 medical journals. Keywords Blacklists . Exceptionalism . Fake . Integrity . International Committee of Medical Journal Editors . Predatory publishing
The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) “Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly work in Medical Journals,”1 hereafter the ICMJE recommendations, are purportedly a widely adopted set of recommendations that set out policies and suggested best practices for conducting and reporting the results of biomedical research. Many journals claim to follow the ICMJE recommendations, in part or in whole, although the ICMJE
itself claims that it is unable to verify whether all of the 5649 journals that claim to follow its guidelines actually follow those guidelines, nor does it verify the scholarly nature of such journals, including potentially predatory journals, thereby weakening the importance and narrowing the applicability of these recommendations and the organization itself. 2 The Irish Journal of Medical Science is one of those journals that claims to
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http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/; http://www.icmje.org/icmjerecommendations.pdf (December, 2019; last accessed: April 1, 2020).
* Jaime A. Teixeira da Silva
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P. O. Box 7, Miki-cho post office, Ikenobe 3011-2, Kagawa-ken 761-0799, Japan
http://www.icmje.org/journals-following-the-icmje-recommendations/ “Although these journals are not “members” of the ICMJE itself, nor does their inclusion indicate “certification” by the ICMJE, maintenance of such a list may help to promote improvements in the quality of medical science and its reporting by indicating the standards many editors indicate they work to uphold.” “The ICMJE cannot verify the completeness or accuracy of this list.” “There may be some journals that follow the ICMJE recommendations, but have never requested listing.” “There may be some listed journals
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