NEJM punishes reviewer for breaking embargo

The New England Journal of Medicine has banned Martin Leon, a cardiologist at the Cardiovascular Research Foundation, from reviewing studies and contributing editorials or reviews for five years, as a punishment for telling colleagues at an American College of Cardiology symposium that a trial comparing medication to stents for the treatment of clogged coronaries "was rigged to fail-and it did." The data was to be presented two days later, and published in NEJM soon after. The journal lifted its embargo early once the Wall Street Journal's health blog reported Leon's comments on March 25. (theheart.org first reported the ban story here, and the WSJ picked up on the story here.) So, were the journal's actions justifiable? Critics of medical and scientific journals have previously called for ending the so-called "Ingelfinger Rule" that puts restrictions on what authors can say about their studies before publication. For example, Vincent Kiernan's recent book makes this argument in a compelling way. The difference here, however, is that Leon wasn't an author; he was a reviewer of the paper. Notably, the NEJM didn't punish the authors of the paper, nor did they sanction the Wall Street Journal. "From the information we gathered, we were certain that an embargo break had occurred, and the WSJ was just reporting what it heard," NEJM spokesperson Karen Pederson told theheart.org. "The embargo was broken at the meeting, not by the WSJ." We'd like to hear from you on the subject of embargoes. To what extent should journals restrict researchers on papers that have been accepted for publication? What effect are blogging and other forms of instantaneous publication having on the reporting of scientific studies? And do you think that the time is right to reevaluate the embargo process? Post your comments here. By The Scientist Staff mail@the-scientist.com Original posting on WSJ's health blog http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2007/03/25/courage-to-stent W. E. Boden et. al., "Optimal medical therapy with or without PCI for stable coronary disease," NEJM, April 12, 2007 (published online March 26, 2007) http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/356/15/1503 theheart.org's coverage of action against Leon http://www.theheart.org/article/786165.do WSJ health blog's coverage of action against Leon http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2007/04/19/prominent-cardiologist-rebuked-by-medical-journal J. Toy, "The Ingelfinger Rule: Franz Ingelfinger at the New England Journal of Medicine, 1967-1977," Science Editor , November-December 2002 http://www.councilscienceeditors.org/members/securedDocuments/v25n6p195-198.pdf Vincent Kiernan's Embargoed Science http://www.press.uillinois.edu/s06/kiernan.html Send us your comments for posting http://www.the-scientist.com/forum/addcomment/53112

NEJM punishes reviewer for breaking embargo

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