Psychiatry vs. medicine editor-in-chiefs’ research publications in their own journals before, during, and after their tenures – An exploratory study

To compare self-publication rates by editors-in-chief (EICs) of psychiatry vs. medicine journals before, during, and after their editorships. Frequency of self-publication by 25 psychiatry EICs and 22 medicine EICs across seven journals in each specialty was determined for 5 years before, the years during, and 5 years after their tenures. PubMed was used to identify original research and review articles subject to peer review. Two-way ANOVA with repeated measures was used to assess differences in articles published per year by specialty and time period. Mean self-publication rates before, during, and after editorship were 0.64, 1.46, and 0.66 articles/year for psychiatry EICs and 0.25, 0.31, and 0.13 articles/year for medicine EICs. ANOVA revealed significant main effects of journal type (psychiatry vs. medicine) (p = 0.003) and time period (before, during, after) (p = 0.003), and a significant interaction (p = 0.024). Psychiatry EICs self-published discretionary articles significantly more frequently (4.7 times overall) than did their medicine counterparts. These findings do not necessarily imply abuse, but they highlight the need to further enhance editorial safeguards, increase transparency, and continue surveillance of adherence to publication guidelines, in order to further mitigate potential conflicts of interest in academic publishing.