Journals 'Fess Up to Authors' Financial Conflicts

File Photo Major peer-reviewed science journals are toughening rules that require authors to say when they have a financial stake in topics of their articles. The moves from Science and Nature come in response to letters exposing what critics say were a series of publications by people whose pocketbooks could have been hurt or helped by articles published in the journals. Nature's new policy takes effect in October, while Science has underlined its existing policy and asked its editorial board to ponder the issue. Science recently made its existing policy more explicit by requiring all authors to disclose all sources of funding for their research and to do so in a brief statement, suitable for publication within the article, according to executive editor Monica Bradford. But more sweeping changes may be in the works, she says, including a new policy for publishing the declarations of financial interests that are required of authors, something Science rarely does. Science published five articles by authors with undisclosed financial interests, according to a letter signed by a group of researchers and ethics experts. Bradford says the editorial board will decide whether the magazine erred in doing so. "We think that different interpretations could be given to some of that," Bradford says. Charles Jennings, executive editor of Nature Publishing Group (NPG), defended the authors and took responsibility for Nature Neuroscience's alleged failure to disclose financial conflicts of Charles B. Nemeroff, chairman of the neuropsychopharmacology laboratory at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta. In an invited review piece in November 2002, Nemeroff cited work that Cypress Biosciences was doing on fibromyalgia. There was no mention of Nemeroff's $48,000-per-year post as director and scientific adviser at the company, or of the stock options he holds in another biotech that was discussed in the article. Nemeroff's coauthor Michael J. Owen received similar criticism in a letter from other scientists. For the past two years, NPG has asked authors of research papers to make statements about their primary financial interests, and it has published a statement of financial interest with almost every paper. The fault, Jennings says, lay with NPG, which did not extend the disclosure policy formulated for research articles to include review and comment pieces. Nemeroff and Owen did not fail to disclose, the editor says. The magazine failed to ask. In the future, NPG will ask all authors to disclose potential financial conflicts. In a few previous cases, some authors had refused and the journals remained silent. No more. Now if a paper's authors refuse to answer questions about their financial ties to the subject of their research, NPG will publish whatever the authors say, including, "none of your business," and let readers figure it out, Jennings says. "The most important point is that every author has to make an active statement," Jennings says. "A lot of journals that claim to have a disclosure policy actually have a 'don't ask, don't tell' policy." As for policing the honesty of financial disclosure, NPG executive editor says, the recent troubles proved that inquiring minds in the research community will not let truths go unrevealed for long. Peg Brickley (pegbrickley@hotmail.com) is a freelance writer in Philadelphia. function sendData() { document.frm.pathName.value = location.pathname; result = false if (document.frm.score[0].checked) result = true; if (document.frm.score[1].checked) result = true; if (document.frm.score[2].checked) result = true; if (document.frm.score[3].checked) result = true; if (document.frm.score[4].checked) result = true; if (!result) alert("Please select") return result; } .myradio{background-color : #94bee5} Please indicate on a 1 - 5 scale how strongly you would recommend this article to your colleagues? Not recommended 1 2 3 4 5 Highly recommended Please register your vote

Journals 'Fess Up to Authors' Financial Conflicts

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