From: Ken Masters <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2012 22:06:12 +0400

Hi All

Readers on the list might find this brief note interesting: a person
posed as a reviewer, wrote a positive review on an article, and the
article was accepted by the journal.  (The link below uses the term
"hacked" which is not really accurate, but that's not the point).

This raises interesting ethical issues.  At the moment, it appears
that there is no connection between the reviewer and the author.  When
discussing ethics, however, how significant is that?  Surely, no
matter what the reason, faking one's identity, and then writing
something in that person's name, would be considered unethical, even
if the person being impersonated did not exist.

But let's say you did that for research purposes - i.e. to research or
investigate the validity of a peer-review system.  Would this kind of
thing be considered ethical?  Would an ethics review committee / IRB
even allow this as valid research?

http://retractionwatch.wordpress.com/2012/12/11/elsevier-editorial-system-hacked-reviews-faked-11-retractions-follow/?goback=.gde_762697_member_195179679

Regards

Ken

Dr. Ken Masters
Asst. Professor: Medical Informatics
Medical Education Unit
College of Medicine & Health Sciences
Sultan Qaboos University
Sultanate of Oman
E-i-C: The Internet Journal of Medical Education