ON THE LISTS

by Bob Finn

Bob Finn

On March 5, 2002, Mary Beckman, from Idaho Falls, Idaho, posted a query on nasw-freelance about two ethical dilemmas involving ghost writing.

Mary wrote, "I have a client who needs a report written up. While we were talking, she asked about co-authoring a different, research-type paper about the topic. . . . She was interested in my co-authorship because of my Ph.D. (in an entirely unrelated field).

"Now, as I understand it, when people such as ourselves write up reports, that's basically ghost-writing and our names don't go on it in any meaningful way. All signatures and such are those of the owner of the report. Co-authoring, however, is quite different, it seems to me. I told her I wouldn't do that because I have no stake in the research, I'm not an employee of the company writing it up, I know nothing about the field, and that my name on the research paper implies all of this. She said in her field, papers generally have one person who did the research and another person who wrote it up, even though the writer doesn't do any of the research. I find this all very odd. Is this really the way it works in some fields. . .- When writers are hired by researchers to write up research papers, the writer's name doesn't go on the paper, right- And what about in trade journals-if a company pays someone to write up something for a trade journal (a longer article, not necessarily news), whose name goes on it-"

The first question, about having a science writer's name on a research paper, proved relatively easy to resolve, but the second, related to the practices of trade journals, engendered quite a discussion.

Richard Robinson, a freelancer from Tuscon, Ariz., was the first to note that most journals and most fields require that "each author must have contributed substantially to the research or its interpretation (which doesn't mean writing it up). An acknowledgment is the usual form of recognition for the writer, 'for her invaluable editorial services.'"

On the second question, Lisa Balbes, of Balbes Consultants in Kirwood, Mo., kicked off the discussion by writing, "I do a lot of these [writing for trade journals], and it's my name that goes on the article. Generally, if an employee of a company writes it, the publisher won't let them mention any of their own products. If a company pays me to write it, as an independent I can mention any products I want, and may just happen to use as examples products of the company that is paying me for the article."

John Gever, a freelancer from Morgantown, W.Va., responded, "But in reality, you are not an independent if a company other than the publication is paying you to write the article. I'm going to guess that this publication does not clue the readers into the arrangement, in which case it has a major ethical blind spot."
Lisa disagreed. About controlled-circulation trade journals, she wrote, "They're distributed for free, so the readers have to know that the advertisers are paying for everything, somehow. The majority of the article will usually be a technical review on a specific topic. The 'sponsor' is the one in direct contact with the editor at the journal, and the editor solicits articles from all the major companies in the field, and probably gets a few from other places. . . . I never thought there was anything wrong with it-the 'sponsor' doesn't have control over the content of the article, they're happy if I quote one of their scientists as an expert, or mention one of their products. . . ."

But John, in turn, noted, "I don't want to belabor the issue, and I'm not criticizing you personally. But this sort of cozy relationship between publications and the industries they cover is exactly why some people feel justified in accusing trade journals, and trade journalists, of having generally lower ethical standards than the mainstream press."

Jeff Hecht, a freelancer in Auburndale, Mass., weighed in by noting that there's good money to be made by ghostwriting for the trades. "One magazine I write for commissions articles from companies that are bylined by someone at the company, and refers them to an outside contractor who can write the article if needed. . . . The magazine doesn't pay the guy; the company does. The guy doesn't get his name on the article, but he's happy with his name on the check. I hadn't heard about a magazine making this sort of arrangement until two or three years ago, when a friend at one of the companies in the industry called to ask what was going on. It seemed a bit odd at first, but is not much different from the company hiring a freelance ghost writer on their own."

Richard Camer, a freelancer in Silver Spring, Md., broadened the discussion by mentioning publications that are entirely sponsored by a single company. He wrote, "I was once hired by a medical education company to write an article on preventing medical errors for a cardiology newsletter sponsored by an 'unrestricted grant' from a major pharmaceutical company. The pharmaceutical company was the manufacturer of a new clot-buster that, surprise! surprise!, was being marketed as easier to administer than other comparable products and reduce error rates. . . . I have no doubt the research was valid. I have no doubt some physicians benefited from the information conveyed. But while it was clear to me that this entire publication had been engineered to mention the product, the reader would have had to make the extra jump and realize the sponsor of this newsletter had a marketing stake in what was mentioned in the article. The only mention of the sponsor was in the masthead where the usual disclaimer appeared, 'supported by an unrestricted grant from XXX.' In this case, the grant was anything but 'unrestricted.'"

For the full discussion, go to the nasw-freelance index at nasw.org/lists/ and search for messages with the subject header "ghost or co-authoring papers."Bob Finn administers NASW's Web site and e-mail lists at nasw.org. His e-mail address is cybrarian@nasw.org.

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