Regulations for ghost writing of studies

The institution where I work (the University of Wisconsin) has recently started the process of having both a formal conflict of interest policy and committee, both of which are close to being final.

Among many of the regulations (the bulk of which seem very reasonable to me), the committee expressly prohibits the use of ghost writers. This has proven to be a bit controversial, especially for some industry-sponsored multisite studies. The solution would seem to be having the authors take the initiative in writing the initial draft of the manuscript (but some academicians can be quite slow at writing up their manuscripts) or putting the ghost writer's name on the paper.

When I have mentioned this policy to clinical investigators at other sites, we appear to be one of the first sites to have such a policy, as least among the academic cancer centers. Most, in fact, are surprised that we have such a policy. I think in a few years, however, most centers will have similar policies. In all I am proud of my institution for being on the forefront of this issue, though there are certainly going to be some difficulties in the process of implementing the policies and figuring out exactly how the committee will work.

If you are interested in more, there is an excellent summary of the ghost writing issue here on Laika's MedLibLog, which is a fascinating blog written by a PhD and medical librarian (via Clinical Cases and Images).