This contribution analyzes the personal income distribution with the actual microdata of the German Income Tax Statistics and focus on top incomes for important labour market groups: the ...self-employed (as freelancers and entrepreneurs) and employees. New are the first longitudinal results based on the just available three waves 2001, 2002 and 2003 of the Taxpayer-Panel, a panel, which for the first time in Germany follows the individual taxpayers’ situations. With these paneldata we are able to show first impressions about the income mobility of high incomes in particular and to give hints about the research potential with this may be worldwide genuine individual panel tax data. Central result: The incomes of the self-employed strongly fluctuate for entrepreneurs (tradesmen) but not for liberal professions (freelancer). Freelancer will be rich more frequently and are more frequently rich than the other self-employed. Only relatively few employees were getting rich from 2001 to 2003. In addition, employees (with entrepreneurs) most frequently decline from being rich. This study is a contribution for the “Festschrift” according to the 65th birthday of Johann Hahlen and the 75th birthday of Hans-Jürgen Krupp (Rolf, Gabriele, Zwick, Markus und Gert G. Wagner (Hrsg.), Fortschritte der informationellen Infrasruktur in Deutschland, will be published by Nomos publisher).
Objective To gather information about current practices and implementation of publication guidelines among publication professionals working in or for the pharmaceutical industry. Design/setting ...Web-based survey publicised via email and social media to members of the International Society for Medical Publication Professionals (ISMPP) and other organisations from November 2012 to February 2013. Participants 469 individuals involved in publishing industry-sponsored research in peer-reviewed journals, mainly working in pharmaceutical or device companies (‘industry’, n=144), communication agencies (‘agency’, n=238), contract research organisations (CRO, n=15) or as freelancers (n=34). Most respondents (78%) had worked on medical publications for ≥5 years and 62% had a PhD/MD. Results Over 90% of industry, agency and CRO respondents routinely refer to Good Publication Practice (GPP2) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors’ Uniform Requirements. Most respondents (78% industry, 79% agency) received mandatory training on ethical publication practices. Over 90% of respondents’ companies had publication guidelines or policies and required medical writing support to be acknowledged in publications (96% industry, 99% agency). Many industry respondents used publication management tools to monitor compliance with company guidelines and about half (46%) stated that their company had formal publication audits. Fewer agencies audited adherence to guidelines but 20% of agency respondents reported audits of employees and 6% audits of freelancers. Of concern, 37% of agency respondents reported requests from authors or sponsors that they believed were unethical, although 93% of these requests were withdrawn after respondents explained the need for compliance with guidelines. Most respondents’ departments (63% industry, 58% agency, 60% CRO) had been involved in publishing studies with negative or inconclusive results. Conclusions Within this sample, most publication professionals working in or for industry were aware of, and applying, major publication guidelines. However, the survey also identified specific areas where education and promotion of guidelines are needed to ensure ethical publication practices.
PDF
