ABSTRACT
Think about how the authors' names will appear in the journal, in references, and in indexes such as Medline. Take particular care with multi-part names or those in which the family name appears before the individual name. English language journals and bibliographic systems are often embarrassingly poor at handling Spanish or Chinese names. Studies may be termed 'negative' if they produce statistically non-significant differences between groups, or if they produce results that are disappointing or inconvenient for the sponsor or authors. In the past, many negative studies (of both varieties) were never published, leading to considerable problems with publication bias. Nitpickers should not be confused with vicious reviewers who make personal attacks and take pleasure in tearing apart other researchers' work. The number of authors on each publication should be determined by established criteria. Good Publication Practice (GPP) also encourages companies to apply criteria consistently to employees and external investigators.
