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EDITOR'S CHOICE: Kamran Abbasi Individual performance data: revelation and revolution BMJ 2005; 330: 0-g [Full text]

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Scientific and ethical question: rejecting a submitted paper without knowing its research tool and methods!

Sergio Stagnaro   (4 March 2005)

Scientific and ethical question: rejecting a submitted paper without knowing its research tool and methods! 4 March 2005
Sergio Stagnaro, Specialist in Blood, Gastrointestinal, and Metabolic Diseases. Researcher in Biophysical Semeiotics. Via Erasmo Piaggio 23/8 16037 Riva Trigoso (Genova) Italy. Send response to journal: Re: Scientific and ethical question: rejecting a submitted paper without knowing its research tool and methods!	Sir, The most important problem is not expressed in a question such as “What information about your performance are you prepared to reveal?” (1). In fact, there should be general agreement among authors on giving “all” information about original research data which have not been falsified in a large number of trials or in a long well-established clinical experience proving them to be useful to suffering mankind. In my view, the most intriguing problem, at least in some cases (2-7), is surely another: “What is the real scientific and ethical value of rejecting a paper by Editors who ignore completely both the tool and the methods the research is based on (See, e.g., www.semeioticabiofisica.it), concluding always that such research has never been validated by others?”. Editors can conceivably spend a lot of hours or days reading accurately a submitted paper before rejecting it. However, Editor has to ask himself, or herself, how (from both the scientific and ethical view-point) rejecting such a paper, taking into account all other numerous practical aspects, can prevent unfortunately scientific progress, damaging diseased people and hindering individuals at “real risk” of most common and serious diseases from undertaking primary prevention, nowadays really efficacious (6, 7). 1) Abbasi K. Individual performance data: revelation and revolution. BMJ 2005;330 (5 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7490.0-g 2) Stagnaro S., Sindrome percusso-ascoltatoria di Iperfunzione del Sistema Reticolo-Istiocitario. Min. Med. 74, 479, 1983 (Medline) 3) Stagnaro S., Polimialgia Reumatica Acuta Benigna Variante. Clin. Ter. 118, 193, 1986 (Medline) 4) Stagnaro-Neri M., Stagnaro S., Appendicite. Min. Med. 87, 183, 1996 (Medline) 5) Stagnaro-Neri M., Stagnaro S., La sindrome percusso-ascoltatoria da carenza di Carnitina. Clin. Ter. 145, 135, 1994 (Medline) 6) Stagnaro Sergio, Stagnaro-Neri Marina. Introduzione alla Semeiotica Biofisica. Il Terreno oncologico”. Travel Factory SRL., Roma, 2004. http://www.travelfactory.it/semeiotica_biofisica.htm 7) Stagnaro S., Stagnaro-Neri M., Le Costituzioni Semeiotico- Biofisiche.Strumento clinico fondamentale per la prevenzione primaria e la definizione della Single Patient Based Medicine. Ediz. Travel Factory, Roma, 2004. http://www.travelfactory.it/semeiotica_biofisica.htm Competing interests: None declared