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March 2013

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In this month's editorial, the PLOS Medicine Editors discuss the challenges caused by ever changing ideas in science as a result of both honest error and research misconduct.

Many scientific findings, once thought to be certain, will ultimately be shown to be wrong by new techniques, a change in thinking, improved data, or the result of an honest error. Unfortunately, changes in the published literature—whatever their origin—simply don't have an adequate paper or electronic trail.

It has never been clearer that the scientific and medical literature is a vibrant, evolving, but imperfect ecosystem. The editors argue that we need to build a system that reflects that dynamism and enables linking to corrections of errors or evolution of thinking from whatever source.

It is a collective responsibility for all countries and institutions to improve their oversight and management of research misconduct. Two papers by David Resnik and Zubin Master and Joseph Ana and colleagues discus this issue further. The editors argue that as scientific literature is no longer primarily print based, it could in future, using the new technologies that the web enables, link to corrections of errors from whatever source, and hence allow full integration of articles with post publication comments, leading to a fully connected and correctable research literature.

Image Credit: Nic McPhee at flickr.com

Editorial

Getting Closer to a Fully Correctable and Connected Research Literature

The PLOS Medicine Editors

PLOS Medicine: published March 26, 2013 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001408

Related Articles

  1. Research Misconduct in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
  2. Policies and Initiatives Aimed at Addressing Research Misconduct in High-Income Countries

Essays

Research Misconduct in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Joseph Ana, Tracey Koehlmoos, Richard Smith, Lijing L. Yan

PLOS Medicine: published March 26, 2013 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001315

Related Articles

  1. Policies and Initiatives Aimed at Addressing Research Misconduct in High-Income Countries
  2. Getting Closer to a Fully Correctable and Connected Research Literature

Policies and Initiatives Aimed at Addressing Research Misconduct in High-Income Countries

David B. Resnik, Zubin Master

PLOS Medicine: published March 26, 2013 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001406

Related Articles

  1. Getting Closer to a Fully Correctable and Connected Research Literature
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Health in Action

Dissemination of Research Findings to Research Participants Living with HIV in Rural Uganda: Challenges and Rewards

Anna Baylor, Conrad Muzoora, Mwebsa Bwana, Annet Kembabazi, Jessica E. Haberer, Lynn T. Matthews, Alexander C. Tsai, Peter W. Hunt, Jeffrey N. Martin, David R. Bangsberg

PLOS Medicine: published March 5, 2013 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001397

Surveillance Programme of IN-patients and Epidemiology (SPINE): Implementation of an Electronic Data Collection Tool within a Large Hospital in Malawi

Miguel A. SanJoaquin, Theresa J. Allain, Malcolm E. Molyneux, Laura Benjamin, Dean B. Everett, Oliver Gadabu, Camilla Rothe, Patrick Nguipdop, Moses Chilombe, Lawrence Kazembe, Servace Sakala, Andrew Gonani, Robert S. Heyderman

PLOS Medicine: published March 12, 2013 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001400

Policy Forums

Strengthening the Expanded Programme on Immunization in Africa: Looking beyond 2015

Shingai Machingaidze, Charles S. Wiysonge, Gregory D. Hussey

PLOS Medicine: published March 19, 2013 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001405

Adapting Standards: Ethical Oversight of Participant-Led Health Research

Effy Vayena, John Tasioulas

PLOS Medicine: published March 12, 2013 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001402

Research Articles

Malaria Burden and Artemisinin Resistance in the Mobile and Migrant Population on the Thai–Myanmar Border, 1999–2011: An Observational Study

Verena I. Carrara, Khin Maung Lwin, Aung Pyae Phyo, Elizabeth Ashley, Jacher Wiladphaingern, Kanlaya Sriprawat, Marcus Rijken, Machteld Boel, Rose McGready, Stephane Proux, Cindy Chu, Pratap Singhasivanon, Nicholas White, François Nosten

PLOS Medicine: published March 5, 2013 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001398

The Cost and Impact of Scaling Up Pre-exposure Prophylaxis for HIV Prevention: A Systematic Review of Cost-Effectiveness Modelling Studies

Gabriela B. Gomez, Annick Borquez, Kelsey K. Case, Ana Wheelock, Anna Vassall, Catherine Hankins

PLOS Medicine: published March 12, 2013 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001401

Using Routine Surveillance Data to Estimate the Epidemic Potential of Emerging Zoonoses: Application to the Emergence of US Swine Origin Influenza A H3N2v Virus

Simon Cauchemez, Scott Epperson, Matthew Biggerstaff, David Swerdlow, Lyn Finelli, Neil M. Ferguson

PLOS Medicine: published March 5, 2013 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001399

Number of Patients Studied Prior to Approval of New Medicines: A Database Analysis

Ruben G. Duijnhoven, Sabine M. J. M. Straus, June M. Raine, Anthonius de Boer, Arno W. Hoes, Marie L. De Bruin

PLOS Medicine: published March 19, 2013 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001407

Young Children's Probability of Dying Before and After Their Mother's Death: A Rural South African Population-Based Surveillance Study

Samuel J. Clark, Kathleen Kahn, Brian Houle, Adriane Arteche, Mark A. Collinson, Stephen M. Tollman, Alan Stein

PLOS Medicine: published March 26, 2013 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001409

Changing Patterns in Place of Cancer Death in England: A Population-Based Study

Wei Gao, Yuen K. Ho, Julia Verne, Myer Glickman, Irene J. Higginson, on behalf of the GUIDE_Care project

PLOS Medicine: published March 26, 2013 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001410

Adjunctive Atypical Antipsychotic Treatment for Major Depressive Disorder: A Meta-Analysis of Depression, Quality of Life, and Safety Outcomes

Glen I. Spielmans, Margit I. Berman, Eftihia Linardatos, Nicholas Z. Rosenlicht, Angela Perry, Alexander C. Tsai

PLOS Medicine: published March 12, 2013 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001403