embargoes and the ingelfinger rule
TRANSCRIPT
An Unhealthy Bond:
Embargoes and the Ingelfinger Rule
Ivan Oransky, MDExecutive Editor, Reuters Health
Blogger, Embargo Watchhttp://embargowatch.wordpress.com
Science Writers in New YorkSeptember 26, 2011
Why Journals Say They Embargo
NEJM, a typical policy:
The Journal embargo policy is designed primarily to
ensure that physician subscribers have their copy of
the Journal at about the same time their patients hear
about new research through the news media. It also
gives the media time to learn about a topic, gather
relevant information, and interview authors and other
experts so they can accurately report complex
research findings.
“…important science news often is more a
produce of news management by the journals
that publish peer-review research, than of any
one reporter’s special expertise or investigative
energy”
The Criticism
– Robert Lee Hotz, quoted in Kiernan V.,
Embargoed Science (2006), p 77
What’s In It For Journals?
“…coverage [by the New York Times] of JAMA
increased by 50 percent after the journal’s publication
date was shifted from Friday to Wednesday in April
1990.”
– Kiernan V.
Embargoes and the New York Times'
coverage of the Journal of the American
Medical Association.
Science Communication, June 1998
American Geophysical Union’s unembargoed
journals get nearly no coverage in newspapers,
compared to Science and Nature, which appear
nearly every week.
Do Embargoes Mean More Coverage?
– Harvey Leifert, quoted in Kiernan, pp 104-105
Does Coverage Mean More Citations?
Articles… covered by the Times received a disproportionate
number of scientific citations in each of the 10 years after
the… articles appeared.
The effect was strongest in the first year after publication,
when… articles publicized by the Times received 72.8% more
scientific citations than control articles.
This effect was not present for articles published during the
strike; articles covered by the Times during this period were
no more likely to be cited than those not covered.
– Phillips D et al. Importance of the lay press
in the transmission of medical knowledge to
the scientific community. NEJM 1991
How Do Embargoes Change Coverage?
“The often slavish reliance on a few journals implies
taking science as a given, simply reporting on work
that is already done. With a supply of easy stories
guaranteed, there is little incentive to ask about
issues like the motivation underlying funding or who
creates the agenda for doing the research.”
– John Turney, quoted in Kiernan, p 106
• Time to digest findings
• Time to find outside comments
• More time for reporters should mean
greater accuracy
Review: Why Journals Say They Embargo
Are their policies consistent with
these reasons?
• The Short Embargo Parade
• Unusual Embargo Policies
• Freely Available But Embargoed
• It’s Not Just Journals
• When Studies Aren’t Available at Embargo
• Do Journals Sanction Embargo Breakers?
The Short Embargo Parade
American Journal of Gastroenterology22:58 on May 11, 2010
The Short Embargo Parade
The Lancet9:19, March 31, 2010
The Short Embargo Parade
Journal of Clinical Oncology2:41, May 24, 2010
The Short Embargo Parade
The New England Journal of Medicine0:49, on September 15, 2010
Is It Really About Accuracy?
Does 49 minutes give reporters enough time to do a
good job?
How do you measure accuracy, anyway?
“Proponents of the embargo system maintain that
embargoes promote journalistic accuracy, but this
claim is essentially tautological, because the
embargo system reflects and fosters a definition of
accuracy promoted by the scientific establishment.”
– Kiernan V. Embargoed Science,
University of Illinois Press, 2006
Unusual Embargo Policies
Unusual Embargo Policies
University of LeedsEmbargoed a study that was already
published in Geophysical Review Letters
Unusual Embargo Policies
The Lancet7:01 p.m. Eastern – unless you’re on
the East Coast of the U.S., in which case it’s 6:30 p.m., since nightly network
newscasts start then
Unusual Embargo Policies
American Journal of Preventive MedicineAn embargo that lifts 26 different times,
since it’s at news outlets’ local times
Freely Available But Embargoed
Freely Available But Embargoed
Honorable Mention
It’s Not Just Journals
When Studies Aren’t Available at Embargo
More Inconsistency: Do Journals
Sanction Embargo Breakers?
Not often.
In Embargo Watch experience, somewhere between 10% and 20% of the time.
Two People Who Were Punished
But Wait, We Can Haz Change!
Some Societies Agree:
They Don’t Make Sense
FDA Reverses Itself
Kiernan’s Vision
It is a rough-and-tumble vision of the journalistic future,
one lacking the gentility that now pervades journalism
about science and medicine.
But the public interest, not the interest of the scientific
and medical establishment, should be the uppermost
concern of science and medical journalists – and, in
fact, of institutional science and medicine.
The embargo should go.
- Page 140
Even Without Embargoes, We’d Still
Have Ingelfinger
The Letter of the Rule: Nature
• Nature does not wish to hinder communication
between scientists. For that reason, different
embargo guidelines apply to work that has been
discussed at a conference or displayed on a preprint
server and picked up by the media as a result.
(Neither conference presentations nor posting on
recognized preprint servers constitute prior
publication.)
-more-
The Letter of the Rule: Nature
• Our guidelines for authors and potential authors in
such circumstances are clear-cut in principle:
communicate with other researchers as much as you
wish, but do not encourage premature publication by
discussion with the press (beyond a formal
presentation, if at a conference).
-more-
The Letter of the Rule: Nature
• This advice may jar with those (including most
researchers and all journalists) who see the freedom
of information as a good thing. But it embodies a
longer-term view: that publication in a peer-reviewed
journal is the appropriate culmination of any piece of
original research, and an essential prerequisite for
public discussion.
From
http://www.nature.com/nature/authors/policy/embargo.html
Ingelfinger in Practice
Ingelfinger in Practice
Ingelfinger in Practice
Ingelfinger in Practice
Or Should Journalists
Just Give Them Up?
What if we just got rid of the Ingelfinger Rule?
Is it safe to write about research that isn’t
peer-reviewed?
It’s About Control
Suggested Embargo Policy Text
Our embargo policy is in place to ensure as much coverage of
research [in our journal/by our society’s members] as possible.
This may divert attention from other important issues in
science and medicine. Provided we have a reasonable interval
between the release of material and the embargo time, it may
also help reporters do a better job covering these studies.
However, policies that bar pre-publication publicity of
scientists’ work can also have a chilling effect on the spread of
scientific knowledge.