[Rash invocation of the Ingelfinger rule hinders scientific communication]

Abstract

The results of a Dutch trial on the use of probiotics in patients with severe pancreatitis were withheld from the public and the scientific community by The Lancet for several weeks until the time of publication. The public need for information was strong, but the researchers were not allowed to provide information and the journal did not make the article available immediately on its website for everyone to appraise the study results. The Ingelfinger rule was wrongly applied in this instance.