Two economies of medical knowledge: The publishing oligopoly and the clinical trial shadow profession: Accountability in Research: Vol 0, No 0 - Get Access

Abstract:  Contemporary medical knowledge is generated within two interconnected economies that are often examined separately. First, the publishing market has become increasingly oligopolistic, transforming unpaid academic labour and public funding into substantial profits through subscription models and article processing charges. Second, a parallel clinical research economy has emerged around industry-sponsored trials, where per-patient payments and investigator fees can create a shadow profession that provides both income and prestige to physicians. This article argues that these systems do not merely coexist but mutually reinforce and obscure one another. The normalization of industry-mediated clinical advantages weakens awareness of publisher-mediated extraction, while the opacity of publishing finances renders the incentive structures of clinical trials ethically unremarkable. Using the metaphor of “mud” to describe the gradual internalization of structural distortions, the article examines how silence emerges at the intersection of prestige dependence, organizational conflicts of interest, and the entrepreneurial transformation of academic identity. Finally, it proposes practical individual-, institutional-, and policy-level measures, including greater transparency regarding trial-related income and support for community-governed publishing models, to strengthen ethical visibility and accountability in medical research.