Toward a Pragmatic Policy on Authorship

There has been growing concern about ghostwriting practices in peer-reviewed biomedical journals. As a result, various proposals have been put forth to abolish or prevent the practice of ghostwriting. In this article, we review the issues underlying ghostwriting in medical research; highlight the shared responsibilities of the pharmaceutical industry and other trial sponsors, medical centers and journal editors; and propose a roadmap for an effective policy on the ethical, transparent and reliable communication of results of clinical research.