Conduct Unbecoming

"Last month, a group of scientists published a review of research on vagus nerve stimulation (VNS), a controversial treatment for depression. But the article, published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, omitted an important detail: All the authors are paid advisers to the company that manufactures a device for VNS that was approved last year by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration."

Oh yeah. The primary author is also the editor. And former big wig at the society that publishes the journal.

"The episode has raised a stir at the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP), publisher of the journal, which has promised an investigation as soon as lead author Charles B. Nemeroff--who is also editor-in-chief of the journal--returns from a vacation in South Africa. " The lions there might be kinder than the audience he'll face when he gets back from his safari.

Oh. And he has been called on the carpet before for failing to disclose financial interests that could affect his scientific objectivity. This made waves in the scientific and popular media.

Nature Neuroscience
New York Times
Washington Monthly

Nemeroff gets millions of dollars from the National Institutes of Mental Health (taxpayer dollars no less) in addition to the payments he accepts from various drug and medical device firms. As Chair of Psychiatry, I'm sure he gets a healthy salary and benefits package to begin with.

And he has a decades-long legacy of conducting cruel maternal deprivation experiments with monkeys (roughly 1-2 million dollars per year for these in the last five years alone).

Despite all of this...he receives kudos from his scientific colleagues for his productivity.

Apparently ethics don't matter when you are highly cited.

Article available in this week's issue of Science (subscription required)