Cervical cancer paper (2)

I refer to the article titled Women Dying From Failure To Do Smear Tests (April 18).

I strongly oppose that my name and designation were included in this article without my prior information or request for my consent. When a study involves more than one author, it should never be published in any form unless all authors have given their prior written consent. I was not consulted before the publication of this article by your newspaper, let alone give my consent.

It is international practice that excerpts from a scientific paper are not published within the non-scientific press, if this paper was intended for publication in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. Frequently this results in the paper being rejected by the editorial board of the scientific journal. Publication in such journals is the preferred means of communication within scientific communities.

This study was intended as preliminary exploratory research into the cervical cancer screening activity in Malta. It was also intended to encourage and instigate further research into this topic by interested parties in the local scientific and medical communities. A number of opinions and conclusions presented in this article did not form part of the original scientific paper.