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James Coyne: Should authors declare a conflict of interest...

Kati

Patient in training
Messages
5,497
Should authors declare a conflict of interest because they suffer from the illness they are writing about?

Link to blogpost: https://www.coyneoftherealm.com/blo...uffer-from-the-illness-they-are-writing-about

This blogpost discusses a request from Pace trial author Sharpe, White and Chalder regarding Keith Geraghty's paper in BMJ:

Dear Dr Marks,

We were surprised and alarmed to read the on-line editorial by Dr Geraghty, published on Monday in the Journal of Health Psychology. http://m.hpq.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/10/27/1359105316675213.full.pdf

While we would support robust criticisms of science and believe people are entitled to their opinions, we were more than surprised by the personal criticisms made in the piece, which were often unsubstantiated. We do not believe that fellow scientists should indulge in ad hominem attacks and innuendos. For instance, Geraghty wrote ” However, there are accepted scientific procedures and standards that appear to have been neglected, or bypassed, by the PACE Trial team. Their actions have arguably caused distress to patients, added a million pounds of additional costs to a publically funded trial and have left us with two versions of ‘truth’ concerning the trial’s findings – the published analysis versus the recent re-analysis.” Where is the evidence for these statements?

Therefore we ask you:

  1. To revise the piece in order to remove all the personal attacks and innuendos.
  2. To include in a revision the author’s potential conflict of interest as a sufferer of the illness he writes about. See: http://iacfsme.org/PDFS/2016MayNesletter/Attachment-08-Dr-Keith-Geraghty-Doing-CFS-research.aspx
  3. To enable us then to respond with equal prominence to the remaining criticisms as a whole, in the same online first and print versions so that readers can see both articles side by side and then make up their own minds. At present this is not possible because of the selective, one sided nature of the editorial as it stands.
We look forward to your early reply.

Yours sincerely,

Professors White, Chalder and Sharpe

Co-principal investigators of the PACE trial


Much more at James'blogpost. Leave comments.

Twitter is fairly active in that regards:



 

msf

Senior Member
Messages
3,650
Hey, how about after we are all cured, and after we actually get to enjoy ourselves, but before we get jobs, how about we go and picket the places that these people work? Their colleagues at least should be informed that they are all morons with questionable ethics.
 

msf

Senior Member
Messages
3,650
And I know some people may say that any negative comments only give Wessely and co. ammunition, but the way I see it, Wessely has already abandoned a sinking ship, whilst his stooges vainly use their hands to bail out water.
 
Messages
2,158
Coming from White and co with all their undeclared conflicts of interest this is despicable. Keith's or anyone else's health is their private business, and has no relevance to the quality of their science. They really are appalling, and clutching at straws.

The obvious response is to request full medical reports on the PACE clowns.
 

A.B.

Senior Member
Messages
3,780
My brain is not at its best, so I have difficulty understanding what David Marks refers to.
Who is JHP?
What did Davey-Smith exactly do?

Davey-Smith is a well known epidemiologist from Bristol uni. He's part of MEGA, and apparently loyal to Crawley.

JHP is the Journal of Health Psychology which has decided to give a voice to PACE trial critics.

David Marks is the editor of JHP.
 
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Demepivo

Dolores Abernathy
Messages
411
My brain is not at its best, so I have difficulty understanding what David Marks refers to.
Who is JHP?
What did Davey-Smith exactly do?

Yes, understand James Coyne & George Davey-Smith (GDS) have corresponding in recent months.

What has GDS been up to that has displeased David Marks & Coyne? (Am aware that GDS is on the editorial board of JHP)

Can anybody fill in the blanks?
 

Keith Geraghty

Senior Member
Messages
491
hello all, yes the PACE authors displeased with my PACE GATE editorial did the following

1. phoned my University and made direct complaints to my dept head
2. put pressure on the editor of the Jr of Health Psych to retract (how funny) part of my editorial
3. pressure the editor to get me to disclose my health status as a 'conflict of interest'

this from the PACE team who've failed to declare the full gamut of their COIs to participants and others

for your info George Davy Smith's photo appears at the top of this page as a heading -from what I gather he has resigned or wants to resign as associate editor of the Journal of Health Psychology in protest at the series of commentaries published in the Jr (JHP). George is said to be a mentor to Esther Crawley and she is on record as saying that he helped her get her first grants. Second, George is part of the MEGA team, despite the fact he said in the CMRC conference that he knows nothing about ME/CFS. I hope George might explain what exactly is happening with JHP. I have been told his stance is that my PACE-GATE editorial and/or the follow-up series of papers by 15+ commentators is "anti-science". I have emailed George directly and I am sure he will have his own view and explanation for events, or he may wish to keep this to himself - but I hope he will make his feelings public so patients can hear what he has to say about the PACE commentaries and his views of patient authors on ME/CFS.
upload_2017-6-26_20-5-34.png
 
Messages
724
Location
Yorkshire, England
Thanks for the further info @Keith Geraghty , I had heard that they had tried to make your working life difficult, but didn't want to add anything that was not already public. I hope your dept head told them where to go.

It's nice to see them flailing about wildly, but not so nice for individuals to have to deal with their flailing fallout.

Conflict of interest statement: I am a human with empathy. This affects how I view things. Sorry pathocrats.
 

Kati

Patient in training
Messages
5,497
hello all, yes the PACE authors displeased with my PACE GATE editorial did the following

1. phoned my University and made direct complaints to my dept head
2. put pressure on the editor of the Jr of Health Psych to retract (how funny) part of my editorial
3. pressure the editor to get me to disclose my health status as a 'conflict of interest'

this from the PACE team who've failed to declare the full gamut of their COIs to participants and others

Damn patients got smarter... :rolleyes: :lol: it just shows @Keith Geraghty that you are hitting them in the right spot. Keep on digging. Thank you for your work.

Hi Simon, Hi Peter, Hi Trudie! Having fun yet? :rofl:
 
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Keith Geraghty

Senior Member
Messages
491
This was not the only complaint - Peter White made a complaint to my University the year prior after I attemtped to seek access to the PACE Trial dataset. So two official or unofficial complaints thus far directly to my University - something I consider a form a bullying and harassment, which is deeply upsetting to me and rather shocking. I hope these authors will stop such tactics as they truly are uncalled for. Science is debate.

I can declare my conflicts of Interest here: I'm white, male, a Christian, I like ice cream and movies, I sufffered from headaches and nosebleeds as a kid, sometimes I got the flu....many things happened to me in life, should I list them all?