In the world of medicine, many published papers or articles are written by professionals who remain behind the scenes as ghostwriters.
But this raises a question:
Is it ethical when someone else’s name appears as the author?
Pro side: Experts help polish content, ensure accuracy, and save time for busy clinicians.
Con side: Lack of transparency can hide conflicts of interest or mislead readers.
So is it just professional writing support a threat to research integrity?
What do you think - helpful or harmful?
1 Like
Ghostwriting in medical literature walks a fine ethical line. When professional writers help busy clinicians articulate research clearly and accurately—with full disclosure—it can be helpful. But when ghostwriters go unacknowledged, especially in industry-sponsored studies, it becomes harmful. It risks misleading readers, hiding conflicts of interest, and undermining trust in science
1 Like
Medical ghostwriting can be helpful if it ensures accuracy and supports busy professionals, but it becomes unethical when there’s a lack of transparency, as it can mislead readers and affect trust in research.
1 Like
Ghostwriting for blogs, health and medical sciences related websites, and other digital platforms like institutional websites is common and more ethically acceptable. In these settings, the ghostwriters work along with medical experts to produce content. The main goal here is health communication and not original research and thereby, here the ethical burden is less. Whereas, ghostwriting in scientific or medical publishing (in terms of original research or review articles and related reports) is ethically acceptable when it’s limited to the ghost writer’s contribution towards the article formatting and doing changes to improve the structure and clarity of the article. This involvement also should be ethically acknowledged in the acknowledgement section of the article. Ideally, authorship (if one is an author of the article) must reflect substantial intellectual contribution in the writing work, critical review of the entire manuscript with correct data interpretation, and final approval. If that’s not the case, then ghostwriting will come under the light of scientific misrepresentation. The role of ghostwriters is mostly related to professional support in an ethical manner, it’s the primary author (the one who has mostly done all the experimentation and data analysis) and corresponding author (the one who has designed the framework of the research study) who have to do most of the work ethically along with support from other authors of the article.
2 Likes
Ghostwriting in medicine walks a very fine line. When used for technical support or clarity, it can be helpful. But when it hides true authorship or biases, it risks damaging trust and research integrity. Transparency is key, credit where it’s due is necessary, its everything science stands for
1 Like
I am not sure I understand how ghostwriting undermines the credibility of research if the writing agreement was made fairly and with full awareness of all sides. Although I would prefer to see my name in the article, in the acknowledgment section, at least. But if my name is not mentioned, how does it affect the research integrity?
1 Like