Objective
To analyze conflict of interest and funding disclosure policies of 224 journals listed in Journal Citation Reports as focusing on environmental, occupational, or public health research.
Method
Survey of journal policies and content analysis.
Results
96.0% of the policies required COI disclosure, 92.4% required funding disclosure, 75.9% defined COIs, 69.6% provided examples of COIs, 68.8% addressed non-financial COIs, 33.9% applied to editors and reviewers, 32.1% required discussion of the role of the funding source, and 1.8% included enforcement mechanisms. Policies were significantly associated with journal impact factor and publisher.
Conclusion
Although a high percentage of journals in our sample have COI policies that provide substantial guidance to authors, there is room for improvement. Journals which have not done so should consider developing enforcement mechanisms and applying COI policies to editors and reviewers.
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