Editor—The editorial by Rothman and Evans, that accused the JAMA editorial policy governing industry sponsored studies of being “unfair and absurd,” contains numerous errors and misconceptions.¹²

The title of the editorial incorrectly implies that the JAMA policy applies only to clinical trials. An independent statistical analysis is required for any type of industry sponsored study in which the data analysis is conducted only by statisticians employed by the research sponsor. Rothman and Evans also incorrectly say that the policy requires authors to hire an academic statistician before their submission will be considered by JAMA. The policy …