Authors- the most dangerous pressure group

Research scientists, academicians including faculty members in medical institutions under great pressure to publish papers to get promotions and higher grade indulge in all sort of scientific misconduct all over the world. Some of these include plagiarism, salami slicing, ghost authorship, falsification of data, fabrication of data and at times duplicate submissions etc. The revolution in information technology and tremendous developments which has taken place in the scientific publishing has though eased the job of editors of biomedical journals but it has not reduced their problems which in fact have further multiplied. The authors are so impatient that some of them want their manuscripts to be processed and published in the shortest possible time. Given below are some of the e mails which were received during the last few months from the authors which show their urgency: 1. I have been offered Residency in United States. I have got the Visa and also booked my seat but I urgently need one published paper in an Impact Factor journal. If you help me, I will be prepared to pay the Fee, as money is not a problem. 2. I have to defend my Ph.D Thesis and before the exam, I need one published paper in Impact Factor Journal. Willing to pay the desired fee if the paper is published in the next issue. 3. When is your next issue of the journal due as I wish to submit a paper for publication? 4. I have many research papers. I can submit five to six papers every month and if you enter into an agreement to publish two of my papers in every issue, we can negotiate the publication charges but would expect some discount keeping in view the large number of papers. 5. I forgot to get Ethics Committee approval but I need this paper to be published quickly to be considered for promotion by the university. Need your help and a sympathetic consideration. 6. I am submitting a research paper and it does not need any peer review as Prof…….. has already seen it and approved its publication. Please include it in the issue under printing and let me know the publication charges so that I can arrange it immediately. 7. My university accepts only those papers for academic credit which are published in journals covered by ISC, Web of Sciences with Impact Factor. I have three papers. If you …