JAMA Says Nobody Shoulda Said Nothin'

The Journal of the American Medical Association is requiring that anyone who complains to its editors about conflict of interest violations at the publication must remain silent publicly while they investigate the complaint. "The new policy is the result of a public spat with Jonathan Leo, a professor of neuro-anatomy at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tenn.," explains the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Last fall, Leo informed the JAMA editors that the lead author of a study evaluating a drug for depression had failed to disclose his ties to the company that makes the drug. "However, Leo also sent his original complaint to the New York Times and publicly aired the issue in the British Medical Journal, leading to several heated telephone exchanges" and a public incident when JAMA's editor-in-chief dismissed Leo as "a nobody and a nothing."