Dear Editor
Mr Ions and Dr Hargate in their rapid response show their concern over the apparent demise of the scientific method. In doing so, they highlight an important issue – the reluctance of clinicians and other scientific investigators to share and allow analysis of their published research data.
The BMJ, unlike some other high-profile international journals, leads the way in insisting that clinical trial data are made available and shared with researchers like themselves.
As of January 2013, The BMJ no longer publishes any trial of drugs or devices where the authors do not commit to making the relevant anonymised patient level data available, on reasonable request. (1)
It would seem that some authors don’t understand this obligation, or merely pay lip-service to it.
The BMJ has a questionnaire that can be completed if things go wrong; I would urge Mr Ions and Dr Hargate to do so. (2)
1 https://www.bmj.com/open-data
2 https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe2QHSJBomz6ACDojZq0mJyvV1a9VOF…
Dog in the Data Manger