Requirements and definitions in conflict of interest policies of medical journals.
BACKGROUND
Conflicts of interest (COIs) may influence medical literature. However, it is unclear whether medical journals have consistent policies for defining and soliciting COI disclosures.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the prevalence of author COI policies, requirements for signed disclosure statements, and variability in COI definitions among medical journals.


METHODS
A cross-sectional survey of Instructions for Authors and manuscript submission documents, including authorship responsibility forms, for high-impact medical journals across 35 subject categories available from March through October 2008.


METHODS
Presence of language referring to COI disclosure in the Instructions for Authors or manuscript submission documents.


RESULTS
Of 256 journals, 89% had author COI policies. Fifty-four percent required authors to sign a disclosure statement, and 77% provided definitions of COI. Most definitions were limited to direct financial relationships; a minority of journals requested disclosure of other potential conflicts such as personal relationships (42%), paid expert testimony (42%), relationships with other organizations (26%), or travel grants (12%). The prevalence of policies varied by subject category: all internal medicine, respiratory medicine, and toxicology journals studied had comprehensive COI definitions, with 19 of these 24 journals requiring signed disclosure attestations. In contrast, 6 of 19 geriatrics, radiology, and rehabilitation journals requested author COI disclosure. Most journals that officially endorsed International Committee of Medical Journal Editors guidelines had COI policies (68/69), compared with 84% of journals not endorsing the guidelines (158/187).


CONCLUSIONS
In 2008, most medical journals with relatively high impact factors had author COI policies available for public review. Among journals, there was substantial variation in policies for solicitation of author COIs and in definitions of COI.
Blum
Jared A
JA
Brown University College of Medicine, Providence, Rhode Island, USA.
Freeman
Kalev
K
Dart
Richard C
RC
Cooper
Richelle J
RJ
D001319:Authorship; D015706:Bibliometrics; D016265:Conflict of Interest; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D030881:Disclosure / Q000592:standards*; D035081:Editorial Policies; D005378:Financial Support; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D055811:Journal Impact Factor; D018156:Journalism, Medical / Q000592:standards*; D008511:Medicine; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*