title: [Status of ethical awareness based on 88 medical journals in China and combined evaluation].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the status of ethical awareness of medical journals in China.
  
  
  METHODS
  We surveyed editorial awareness based on 88 medical journals by using self-made questionnaire. Five aspects were selected by literature and systematic analysis: Instruction for authors, the first review stage, the peer-review stage, the editing stage, as well as education and training, which covered 11 indexes in the system. Weight values of indexes were gained by scoring of senior editors, and analytic hierarchy process, TOPSIS method, and weight rank-sun ratio were used to evaluate the status of editorial awareness.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 88 biomedical journals, 56 (63.6%) had no ethical requirement in the instruction for authors in 2010, 14 (15.9%) were at high level of ethical awareness, 45 (51.1%) were at medium level, and 29(33.0%) were at low level. There were significant differences in the scores of instruction for authors and peer-review stage among the journals administrated by different authorities (H(C)=10.175, H=7.305, P<0.05). There were significant differences in the scores of instruction for authors, the first review stage, the peer-review stage, and the editing stage among the journals covered by different databases (H(C)=11.951, 7.661, 6.146, or 8.085, P<0.05), meanwhile, there was significant difference in the multi-level results of comprehensive evaluation for different databases covered journals (H(C)=6.109, P<0.05). The results from 3 comprehensive approaches were positively correlated.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Ethical awareness of medical journals in China should be improved. Comprehensive approach is more reliable and practical than that of single approach.
authors.affiliation: Editorial Office of Medical Journal, Central South University, Changsha 410078, China.
authors.forename: Liwen
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Statistics,  School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha 410078, China.
authors.forename: Yiren
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Mental Health Institute, Second Xiangya Hospital,  Central South University, Changsha 410011, China.
authors.forename: Lingjiang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D035081:Editorial Policies; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000941:ethics*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires