On the pitfalls of disclosure statements

Abstract

On the pitfalls of disclosure statements Disclosure statements are now such standard procedure for scientific journals that it is difficult to remember a time when they were not required. So it is interesting to see disclosure and transparency up for debate again in the medical literature, with some recent editorials raising concerns over the pitfalls of disclosure (1-8). In this Public Health Nutrition (PHN) editorial we describe two instances that bring some of these pitfalls to light.

Disclosures of Coca-Cola funding: transparent or opaque?

“…As we have stated previously (10) , disclosure and transparency are necessary. But they are not by themselves sufficient to ensure the highest standards of research, both in terms of how it is conducted and what is being studied.…”

“…The problem with incomplete disclosure, of course, is that readers are not given the complete information needed to critically assess an article fully. In a previous editorial, we discussed the problem of disclosed conflicts of interest (CoI) ( 10 ) . Our editorial focused on how CoI disclosures might affect readers’ reactions to an article, and on the importance of considering non-financial CoI.…”