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