Conflict of interest issue in Nemeroff paper discussed by Science

An article in the August 4 issue of Science reveals a "conflict of interest" ethics matter in the publication of a paper on VNS without noting that the authors had a financial stake in VNS. Worse: one of the authors of the paper was the editor of the journal!!

Science omitted mention of its publication of two papers by Hwang Woo-Suk et al. without mentioning that Hwang Woo-Suk (and several co-authors) had filed patent applications and that Gerald Schatten had filed (independent) patent applications. Thus Science published two papers without revealing that the authors had a financial stake in the subject matter.

313 Science 598 (4 Aug 06):

The undisclosed background of a paper on a depression
treatment

An article on vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) published
in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology omitted an
important detail: All the authors are paid advisors
to the company that manufactures a device for VNS that
was approved last year by the US FDA.

Charles B. Nemeroff, lead author AND editor-in-chief
of the journal.

First draft of the paper was prepared by a
professional writer, hired by Cyberonics.

Bernard Carroll had written of Nemeroff "incestuously"
placing the article in his own journal.

Drummond Rennie is quoted in the article.