The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) has published a report, according to which nearly 90 percent of medical journals with relatively high impact factors have policies addressing author conflict of interest (COI) available for public review. But many journals do not require authors to sign disclosure statements, and there is variability in how COI is defined.
In an effort to protect the integrity of research and improve public trust, a number of organisations have published guidelines that include specific recommendations for disclosure of information about authors' COIs. Similarly, journal policies calling for authors to disclose COIs have evolved. However, it is unclear whether medical journals have consistent policies for defining and soliciting COI disclosures.
The JAMA report examined the COI policies of medical journals in the top 10 percent by impact factor to determine the prevalence and variability of disclosure requirements and definitions. The study consisted of a survey and analysis of Instructions for Authors and manuscript submission documents, including authorship responsibility forms for the journals, across 35 subject categories available from March through October 2008.
The authors found that 228 of 256 sampled journals (89 percent) had language requesting author COI disclosure, and that 54 percent (138) of the sampled journals required authors to submit signed disclosure statements. Definitions or examples of possible COIs for submitting authors were provided by 197 journals (77 percent). Of these COI definitions, most included direct financial relationships such as ‘equities interest or stock ownership’ (89 percent) or ‘consultancies’ (84 percent). A minority included other potential conflicts such as personal relationships (42 percent), paid expert testimony (42 percent), relationships with organisations (26 percent), or travel grants (12 percent), the study authors note.
The authors add that in comparison to findings of a 1997 study, there appears to have been a substantial increase in the prevalence of COI policies over the past decade.
The study only assessed the means by which the journals defined and solicited disclosures and did not determine their publication practices. Future investigations should determine whether all disclosures of authors are published by journals. Furthermore, it is important to assess whether detailed COI policies and mandating signed disclosure statements from all authors increases accurate reporting of author COIs, the study concludes.
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