A vote carried out at the Annual Representative Meeting of the British Medical Association has resulted in the decision that non-publication of trial results will now be considered research misconduct, and that doctors involved in withholding results should be referred to the General Medical Council. 

This is in response to the inequality surrounding the publication of clinical trials – it’s estimated that around half of all the trials conducted and completed, for the medicines we use today, haven’t been published.

The motion agreed in full:
“That this meeting states that:
i)     Selective non-publication of unflattering trial data is research misconduct;
ii)    Registered medical practitioners who give grounds to believe they have been involved in such conduct should have their fitness to practice assessed by the GMC.”

Read more about the vote here:  https://bma.org.uk/news-views-analysis/the-bma-blog/2013/june/einstein-is-with-us-on-research-transparency