Top articles in medicine in April 2012

Here are my suggestions for some of the top articles in medicine in April 2012:

Rise in Scientific Journal Retractions Prompts Calls for Reform - NYTimes http://goo.gl/6qB8H. The higher a journal’s impact factor, the higher its retraction rate. The highest “retraction index” naturally belongs to NEJM. Retractions are “a symptom of a dysfunctional scientific climate”. Each year, every laboratory produces a new crop of Ph.D.’s, who must compete for a small number of jobs, and the competition is getting fiercer. In 1973, more than half of biologists had a tenure-track job within six years of getting a Ph.D. By 2006 the figure was down to 15 percent. Yet labs continue to have an incentive to take on lots of graduate students to produce more research (“pyramid scheme”).

Harvard University says it can't afford journal publishers' prices: $3.5m a year, 145% increase over 6 years http://goo.gl/tlxWP

Warren Buffett may be the richest man in America, but he appears to be getting the poorest medical advice. In medicine, "watchful waiting" is now called "active surveillance with delayed intention to treat" - Harvard http://hvrd.me/JsK3vK

Lab Testing in Erectile Dysfunction: glucose, testosterone, prolactin, and lipid profile may reveal comorbidities http://goo.gl/MdBrn

75% of diabetics who had gastric bypass surgery no longer were diabetic after 2 years. Bariatric surgery costs $18,000-35,000 without insurance - for those with coverage, $5,000 deductibles are common j.mp/Ie0xYl

30% of U.S. workers are not getting enough sleep - 41 million sleep 6 or fewer hours putting the public at risk http://goo.gl/mnQJg

Survey lists "Best Paid and Worst Paid Doctors". Only 11% of U.S. doctors consider themselves rich. 45% of doctors think: "My income probably qualifies me as rich, but I have so many debts and expenses I don't feel rich." http://goo.gl/a5gq8

Among children and adolescents in a low-income, urban area, text messaging increased rate of influenza vaccination http://goo.gl/waznJ

Most major British universities are paying £4-6 million a year to journal publishers like Elsevier, Springer, etc. Most publishers have to pay for content they publish. Not journal publishers. Content is provided free by researchers. The peer reviewing that ensures quality of publications is provided free (value of UK unpaid peer reviewing is £165m) http://bit.ly/HYzonu

The articles were selected from my Twitter and Google Reader streams.