16 DECEMBER 2019
By David Tuller, DrPH
On Friday, STAT posted
my opinion piece about BMJ and the Lightning Process paper–in particular, about BMJ’s decision not to retract the paper despite the multiple documented violations of core ethical and methodological principles of medical research. That anti-scientific decision is potentially harmful not only to children suffering from a stigmatizing illness but ultimately to the reputations of BMJ and Dr Godlee as well.
STAT is an excellent, Boston-based, online reporting operation that examines the nuts-and-bolts of research and policy in health care and medicine. It is widely read and widely respected. STAT has published previous pieces on the illness in question, including
this on the downfall of PACE (by Julie Rehmeyer),
this on the CDC’s decision to drop its CBT/GET recommendations (by Julie Rehmeyer and me), and
this on an insurance decision in a patients’ favor (by Steven Lubet and me).
Three years ago, STAT published
a laudatory profile of Dr Fiona Godlee, editor-in-chief of The BMJ and editorial director of BMJ, which publishes dozens of journals under its umbrella. That profile–called “No time for stodgy: Crusading editor aims to shake things up in science”–provided a useful starting point for my own article on BMJ’s and Godlee’s troubling actions in this instance............
