ArticlePLoS medicine2010
The haunting of medical journals: how ghostwriting sold "HRT".
Article in PLoS medicine, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Industry sponsorship and research outcome.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2017Pooled it
- Hormone therapy in postmenopausal women and risk of endometrial hyperplasia.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2012Pooled it
- "I'm going to stay young": Belief in anti-aging efficacy of menopausal hormone therapy drives prolonged use despite medical risks.PloS one · 2020Trial
- Knowledge of undisclosed corporate authorship ("ghostwriting") reduces the perceived credibility of antidepressant research: a randomized vignette study with experienced nurses.BMC research notes · 2012Trial
- A portrait of commissioned literature: connecting the dots between medical education and communication companies, authors, funders and publishers.Research integrity and peer review · 2026Article
- How big is the medical writing industry? Why it matters.Health promotion international · 2025Article
- Insights of Healthcare Professionals into Medical Writing Support at a Tertiary Care Hospital in Saudi Arabia.Cureus · 2024Article
- Promoting opioids, a story about how to influence medical science and opinions.Frontiers in medicine · 2024Article
- What did the scientific literature learn from internal company documents in the pharmaceutical industry? A scoping review.Cochrane evidence synthesis and methods · 2023Review
- How the Suboxone Education Programme presented as a solution to risks in the Canadian opioid crisis: a critical discourse analysis.BMJ open · 2022Article
- Policing the promotion of prescription medicines - the new Medicines Australia Code of Conduct.Australian prescriber · 2021Article
- Sources of information influencing the state-of-the-science gap in hormone replacement therapy usage.PloS one · 2017Article
- The ICMJE Recommendations and pharmaceutical marketing--strengths, weaknesses and the unsolved problem of attribution in publication ethics.BMC medical ethics · 2016Article
- Article
- Who has used internal company documents for biomedical and public health research and where did they find them?PloS one · 2014Article
- How basic scientists help the pharmaceutical industry market drugs.PLoS biology · 2013Article
- Restoring invisible and abandoned trials: a call for people to publish the findings.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2013Article
- Of mugs, meals and more: the intricate relations between physicians and the medical industry.Medicine, health care, and philosophy · 2013Article
- On markets and morals--(re-)establishing independent decision making in healthcare: a reply to Joao Calinas-Correia.Medicine, health care, and philosophy · 2013Article
- How to stir up trouble…while riding a rollercoaster.PLoS medicine · 2013Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Adriane Fugh-Berman examines documents unsealed in recent litigation to investigate how pharmaceutical companies promoted hormone therapy drugs, including the use of medical writing companies to produce ghostwritten manuscripts and place them into medical journals.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.