Purpose: The purpose of this 2-part study was to determine the importance of specific topics relating to publication ethics and adequacy of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association's (ASHA's) policies regarding these topics.
Method: A 56-item Web-based survey was sent to (a) ASHA journal editors, associate editors, and members of the Publications Board (Group 1); (b) authors, reviewers, and members of ASHA's Board of Ethics (Group 2); and (c) a random sample of the ASHA membership, characterized as journal readers (Group 3). The survey contained 4 questions related to ethical principles associated with the publication of research: (a) In regard to scientific integrity in research publications in general, how important is the issue of [topic]? (b) Should ASHA publication policies address this issue? (c) Do ASHA policies address this issue? (d) If yes, how adequately do ASHA policies address this issue? A second study evaluated the contents of ASHA's publication policy documents in regard to their coverage of the survey topics.
Results: Results indicated many of the topics deemed most important by all groups were included in ASHA's publication policy documents; other topics, although included, were not adequately addressed.
Conclusions: ASHA needs a single, unifying publication policy document, and increased education of all groups in the realm of ethics in the publication process is indicated.