An Analysis of Toxicology and Medical Journal Conflict-of-Interest Polices

Basic science and medical journals are increasingly requiring authors to disclose financial interests they have in the subject matter of contributed articles and letters. A comparison of journal conflict-of-interest (COI) policies can provide insight into published reports of low compliance rates and inconsistencies in disclosures by the same author found in different journals. The objective of this article is to compare the criteria, specificity, and scope of COI polices in toxicology and medical journals. We studied the COI policies of 47 toxicology and 180 medical journals catalogued in Ulrich's International Periodicals Directory for criteria of competing interests, types of submissions covered, monetary or time thresholds for reporting, and penalties for violations. Indicators were constructed for rating policy specificity, author discretion, and policy scope.

Written COI policies were found in 87% if the toxicology and 84% of the medical journals; 15% and 28% of the toxicology and medical journals, respectively, were explicit about the type of content covered by the policy; 20% and 29%, respectively, included a monetary threshold for reporting purposes; the level of author discretion for reporting COIs was found to be high in 46% of the toxicology and 41% of the medical journals respectively. The level of specificity for more than 75% of the written journal COI policies for both fields was minimal or practically nil, and the scope of more than 80% of the policies was minimal to narrow. Lack of specificity, high author discretion, and restricted scope were found to be prevalent among COI policies of toxicology and medical journals.     

Theory and Practice in Social Work: A Re-examination of a Tenuous Relationship

Summary This article discusses the need for an agreed framework withinwhich a genuinely reciprocal relationship between social worktheory and practice could be developed. After pointing out theinconsistencies of the present relationship, the author goeson to conclude that three main obstacles stand in the way ofthe achievement of this goal. He cites firstly, the presentdesign of the social work curriculum, with particular referenceto the underlying principle of eclecticism; secondly, the negativeattitudes held by many in the profession towards science asa means of evaluating competing concepts; and thirdly, the lackof an acceptably rigorous field work evaluation procedure whichsocial workers could use to register their impact on the morenebulous aspects of their work. Suggestions are made as to howthese obstacles might be overcome.     

Misplaced Metaphor: A Critical Analysis of the “Knowledge Society”*

Cet article soutient que la métaphore de la société du savoir est une transposition non critique de L'économie du savoir. On y examine trois approches différentes: L'idée d'un citoyen bien informé, les mesures institutionnelles et les attentes sociales pour être bien informé ainsi que le rôle d'Internet dans sa prestation de renforcements critiques d'une société du savoir. Ces trois approches se révèlent sérieusement déficientes. L'article suggGre qu'une culture peu encline au savoir serait une meilleure métaphore dans la mesure où les processus sociaux créant un haut degré de spécialisation du savoir en milieu de travail peuvent servir à accroître L'ignorance dans la société en general. This paper argues that the knowledge society metaphor is an uncritical transposition from the knowledge economy. It examines three different approaches to the former. These include the idea of the well‐informed citizen, the institutional arrangements and social expectations for being knowledgeable, and the role of the Internet in providing critical underpinnings of a knowledge society. All three approaches are found to be seriously deficient. The paper suggests that a knowledge‐aversive culture may be a better metaphor, as the social processes creating a high degree of knowledge specialization in the workplace may serve to increase ignorance in the broader society.     

Social Work Effectiveness Experiments: Review and Implications

Summary This paper takes the view that the findings and methodologiesof experiments seeking to test the effectiveness of social workare too little known and understood. Now is a particularly goodtime to attempt to remedy this since a new generation of studiesis available showing results which, in contrast to those earliertimes, are largely positive. A comparison between these firstand second wave studies is revealing and raises many implicationsfor future research and practice.     

Contemporary Studies of the Effectiveness of Social Work

Correspondence to: Brian Sheldon, Professor of Social Administration, Royal Holloway College, University of London, Egham Hill, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX. Summary This article is based upon an analysis of 95 experimental, quasi-experimental,pre-experimental and client-opinion studies of the effectivenessof social work. Three-quarters of these screened studies showpositive results within their different methodological conventions.An examination is made of which methods and patterns of helpingare correlated with positive outcomes and the implications forpractice, training, and management explored.     

The Great Collapse, Democratic Paralysis and the Reception of the Bomb

Abstract Expanding the traditional question of how and why the bomb was built when it was, this paper asks how socio-historical factors influenced the reception of the bomb in the West. It suggests that the bomb was received as the 'winning weapon' and that this view of it was linked to two historical factors: the Great Collapse, which undermined belief in historical progress and threatened the survival of the democracies; and the failure of balancing, the inability of the democracies, for a number of sociopolitical reasons, to act in their own collective security. As the winning weapon, the bomb was expected to overcome these problems. More broadly, the analysis suggests that when collective actions do not appear capable of redressing persistent threats, then leaders tend to invest their faith in technological panaceas.