Editor,—The editorial on research misconduct (Gut 1997;41:1–2) is timely. Duplicate reports, redundant publications and “salami slicing” are products of today’s environment where academics are often judged by the length of their curriculum vitae and number of publications,1-3rather than the quality of work and whether it has any impact on current medical practice. This necessity to publish may be due to institutional pressures, personal ambition, vanity, direct financial gain, or even psychiatric illness.1 The prevalence of fraud is estimated to be around 0.1–0.4% of research studies and over 70 cases have been documented.4 ,5 About 5% of drug trials are thought to involve misconduct of some sort.6Peer review offers little or no protection against fraud.7

A few years ago, as assistant editor of a psychiatry …