Disclosing and managing non-financial conflicts of interest in scientific publications

Abstract

In the last decade, there has been increased recognition of the importance of disclosing and managing non-financial conflicts of interests to safeguard the objectivity, integrity, and trustworthiness of scientific research. While funding agencies and academic institutions have had policies for addressing non-financial interests in grant peer review and research oversight since the 1990s, scientific journals have been only recently begun to develop such policies. An impediment to the formulation of effective journal policies is that non-financial interests can be difficult to recognize and define. Journals can overcome this problem by providing guidance concerning the types of non-financial interests that should be disclosed, including direct research interests, direct professional interests, expert testimony, involvement in litigation, holding a leadership position in a non-governmental organization, providing technical or scientific advice to a non-governmental organization, and personal or professional relationships. The guidance should apply to authors, editors, and reviewers.

Conflicts of Interest in the Assessment of Chemicals, Waste, and Pollution

“…Conflation of conflicts of interest with interests [including research/ professional interests and holding a position in or advising a nongovernmental organization (NGO)] in general serves to muddy the waters about how to manage conflicts of interest, generating confusion about the nature and definition of the problem and doubt about whether conflicts of interest can be addressed at all. 24 Managing conflicts of interest is important so that the functions of regulatory and scientific bodies are not impaired. For example, unchecked participation with equal footing in a process or activity of an actor with a conflict of interest that is in opposition to the goal of that process or activity is likely to result in conflicting and/or incompatible outcomes or delayed implementation of solutions.…”

“…Conflicts of interest should not be confused with interests, which are a commitment, goal, obligation, or duty associated with a particular social or scientific role or practice. Conflation of conflicts of interest with interests [including research/professional interests and holding a position in or advising a nongovernmental organization (NGO)] in general serves to muddy the waters about how to manage conflicts of interest, generating confusion about the nature and definition of the problem and doubt about whether conflicts of interest can be addressed at all …”

Policy Actors’ Perceptions of Conflicts of Interest and Alcohol Industry Engagement in UK Policy Processes

“…Strategies to identify and mitigate COI have focussed largely on transparency and disclosure mechanisms and, where the actual or perceived risk of a COI is seen to exist, recusal of actors from specific processes or decisions. 16 , 17 …”

“…Some scholars have argued that there is no meaningful conceptual or practical distinction between financial and non-financial COIs and that individual characteristics such as religious denomination or political convictions should be treated in the same way, and subject to the same mitigation strategies as financial COI. 17 - 19 Others, meanwhile, have argued that not all interests represent potential COIs and that extending the definition of COIs beyond financial interests runs the risk of undermining the concept and muddying the waters of how to manage more serious financial conflicts. 20 …”

Authors, Reviewers and Nonfinancial Conflict of Interest: Can We Manage This Bond?

“…Generally, NCOI may be defined as a set of circumstances that creates a risk that the primary interest—the quality and integrity of the systematic review—will be unduly influenced by a secondary or competing interest that is not mainly financial [ 5 ]. Unfortunately, there are different opinions as to what constitutes a competing NCOI [ 3 ] and some authors have developed several critiques of the idea that journals should develop policies pertaining to NCOI since these policies will divert attention away from financial COI, or could cause confusion and undermine efforts to address COI and, most importantly, NCOIs are so poorly defined that COI policies are perceived as extremely difficult to implement [ 6 , 7 ]. All the following items could be potentially related to NCOI: institutional affiliations and/or academic associations, friendships and enmities, personal relationships, personal beliefs, type of training including professional or academic education, career advancement or promotion, a dominant researcher in an area of research, personal or even academic competition or rivalry, strong personal beliefs and participation in heated scientific debates, co-authoring publications with author(s) or being colleagues within the same section/department or similar organization unit in the recent years, supervising or having supervised the doctoral work of the author (s) or being supervised or having been supervised by the author(s), receiving professional or personal benefit resulting from the review, and having a personal relationship (e.g., family, close friend) with the author(s).…”