Madness and Text: The Psychiatric Paper as a Business and as a Means of Censorship

Abstract

espanolLas revistas son basicamente el unico canal a traves del cual los cientificos pueden hacer que el resultado de su investigacion sea conocido por sus colegas. Las revistas cientificas seleccionan la informacion que publican y garantizan su calidad mediante un procedimiento doble ciego de censura por parte de sus pares. Si por un lado este procedimiento parece logico como metodo para incluir un estudio dentro de un campo cientifico consolidado, tambien es cierto que puede funcionar como un mecanismo para la censura. Si, ademas, un campo cientifico como la farmacologia esta intimamente vinculado al interes comercial de las grandes empresas, las empresas y las revistas no solo se convierten en proveedores de orientacion, sino tambien en censores que ocultan una parte de la verdad y obstaculizan el avance cientifico para defender el interes economico de sus patentes. EnglishThe journals are basically the only channel through the scientists can make the result of their research know to their colleagues. Scientific journals select the information they publish and guarantee its quality by means of a double blind procedure of censorship by peers. If on the one hand this procedure seems logical as a method for including a study within a consolidated scientific field it is also true that it can function as a mechanism for censorship. If, furthermore, a scientific field such as pharmacology is intimately linked to the business interest of large companies then the companies and journals not only became providers of guidance, but also censors who conceal part of the truth and obstruct scientific advance to defend the economic interest of their patents.