| KRATKA VSEBINA | Background. Medical publishing has a key role in guidance of medical practice and research. It is essential to avoid systematic biases on all steps from formulating a research proposal to the editorial evaluation of a submitted manuscript. With this in mind, we will attempt to assess the responsibilities of the five key persons: sponsor, clinical investigator, author, editor, and reviewer. Sponsor. To an increasing degree, pharmaceutical companies and othercommercial sponsor initiate, support, and define priorities of clinical research. To avoid a systematic bias, a substantial proportion of medical research should be supported through public resources. Clinical investigator. Since patients autonomy is rarely complete, formal adherence to ethical codes is not enough. In addition to patients in research who are often offered substantial benefits, attention should be paid also to patients not included in research who may be discriminated. Author. The author is the one who is most often responsible for delayed or missing publication of results of a negative trial. The author should respect rules for co-authorship, be honest presentation of results, and retain an appropriatedegree of scientific scepticism. Editor. The editorial work is time-consuming and should be paid. In order to avoid bias against publication of negative trials, we propose a special category of short reports not included in the assessment of impact factor of a journal. Reviewer. Due to annonymity, reviewers have little interest and do not feelresponsible for their work. For the accepted papers, we prepose to publish the name of the reviewer, along with an optional short comment. // Izhodišča. Medicinska publicistika ima ključno vlogo pri usmerjanju zdravnikovega raziskovanja in praktičnega dela z bolniki. Pri raziskovanju,pri pripravi gradiva in pri izbiri prispevkov za objavo se želimo izogniti pristranosti. Ko bomo ocenjevali proces od pričetka klinične raziskave do objave prispevka, bomo prikazali delo petih ključnih oseb; pobudnika raziskave, raziskovalca, avtorja, urednika in ocenjevalca. Pobudnik raziskave.Vlogo pobudnika in sponzorja kliničnih raziskav vse pogosteje prevzemajo komercialni sponzorji, predvsem farmacevtska podjetja. Komercialni interesi v celoten proces medicinskega raziskovanja in objavljanja prinašajo sistematično pristranost. Da bi to omilili, priporočamo večji delež javnih sredstev za medicinsko raziskovanje. Raziskovalec. Formalno spoštovanje vseh etičnih kodeksov ni dovolj, saj avtonomija bolnikov ni nikoli popolna. Ker so bolniki v raziskavi pogosto deležni znatnih ugodnosti, naj bo pozornost usmerjena tudi na bolnike izvenklinične študije, ki so morda zapostavljeni. Avtor. Zapoznelo objavo ali opustitev objave izsledkov negativne študije najpogosteje pripišemo avtorju. Priporočamo dosledno spoštovanje pravil za soavtorstvo, poštenost pri statistični predstavitvi rezultatov in pravo mero dvoma ob interpretaciji študije. Urednik. Zahtevno uredniško delo naj bo vsaj delomapoklicno in plačano. Uvrstitev negativnih študij v posebno kategorijo kratkih poročil, ki naj se ne upoštevajo pri izračunu "impact factorja" revije, bi omilila pristranost, ki otežuje objavo negativnih študij. Ocenjevalec. Popolna anonimnost zmanjšuje interes in odgovornost za delo ocenjevalca. Pri objavljenih prispevkih naj bo navedeno ime ocenjevalca, kimuhkrati ponudimo možnost, da prispeva kratek komentar. |