It is easy to understand what the ICMJE Disclosure Form is asking to be disclosed.
Yes
The information collected by the ICMJE Disclosure Form is appropriate.
Yes
Avery Hart
Role(s): A reader of medical journals
Date Submitted: Thursday, April 30, 2020 - 22:14
It is easy to understand what the ICMJE Disclosure Form is asking to be disclosed.
Yes
The information collected by the ICMJE Disclosure Form is appropriate.
Yes
Katherine Mullins
Role(s):
Date Submitted: Thursday, April 30, 2020 - 21:07
Bill Jeffery
Centre for Health Science and Law
Role(s):
An author who publishes work in medical journals
A reader of medical journals
Other
a public health lawyer focussing on food, nutrition and conflict of interest issues
Date Submitted: Thursday, April 30, 2020 - 20:07
It is easy to understand what the ICMJE Disclosure Form is asking to be disclosed.
No
Comments: Medical journals serve a public trust of the highest order, arguably discharging more consequential responsibilities than those exercised by judges, regulators, and journalists, because medical editors are custodians of the global collectivity of evidence that proximately and mainly determines the care upon which billions of lives depend in perpetuity. Moreover, journals that accept advertising revenue from pharmaceutical, medical technology, and insurance companies should be as proactively transparent as they expect of researchers.
1. The pathways of possible undue financial influence is not constrained by the research topic. The editorial explaining the rationale for the proposal should place more emphasis on public health and transparency than possible stigma of researchers. The proposal invites researchers to minimize the appearance of conflicts of interest by declaring them "directly" or “topically” unrelated. This incorrectly indicates that influence follows the logical nexus of the stated purpose for funding and is meaningfully compartmentalized by institutional sub-units or recipients’ minds. Money is fungible and funding provided to a researcher or institute for one purpose, foreseeably influences other research in the proximate institute. Instead, ask: “Does the funder have a foreseeable interest in the research or the other activities of the researcher or her/his employer?”
The information collected by the ICMJE Disclosure Form is appropriate.
No
Comments: 2. Expand the scope of disclosure from 3-10 years. People and institutions are required by law to retain payment records for six years for tax purposes and 10 years for care. Active researchers continually update their cvs. Recipients of grants for multi-year drug trials, for example, should not be relieved of disclosing funding by publishing articles 37 months later.
3. Researchers should disclosure the quantum of financial support by year. Research indicates that even small reciprocities (such as a single paid meal) can bias opinions of researchers, but transparency requires that readers see amounts of compensation which likely have a commensurately larger influence.
4. Vetting and penalizing flawed disclosures: Journal editors should judge the most relevant and probative disclosures to prominently display in articles, and publish full disclosures open-source on journal websites. The form should guide editors on fact-checking disclosures and penalizing errors and omissions like academic dishonestly.
5. Do not blur the distinction between financial and non-financial conflicts of interest. So-called “non-financial conflicts” can destructively impugn selfless collaboration with public interest groups or expert knowledge translation, and can enable researchers to misleadingly dilute reports of real conflicts of interest with long lists of roles in “board, society, committee or advocacy group” activities.
I will submit the full text of this comment with a few scientific references after it is vetted for publication next month in our consumer magazine, Food for Life Report, a science based consumer publication that carries no advertising and accepts no funding from industry.
Douglas Einstadter
MetroHealth System / Case Western Reserve University
Role(s):
An author who publishes work in medical journals
A health care professional
A patient
A reader of medical journals
Date Submitted: Thursday, April 30, 2020 - 20:03
It is easy to understand what the ICMJE Disclosure Form is asking to be disclosed.
No
Comments: Form too crowded. Grants from public sources (e.g., NIH) generally are already reported as part of the work.
The information collected by the ICMJE Disclosure Form is appropriate.
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Displaying 11 - 15 of 129 commentsIt is easy to understand what the ICMJE Disclosure Form is asking to be disclosed.
The information collected by the ICMJE Disclosure Form is appropriate.
It is easy to understand what the ICMJE Disclosure Form is asking to be disclosed.
The information collected by the ICMJE Disclosure Form is appropriate.
It is easy to understand what the ICMJE Disclosure Form is asking to be disclosed.
The information collected by the ICMJE Disclosure Form is appropriate.
It is easy to understand what the ICMJE Disclosure Form is asking to be disclosed.
The information collected by the ICMJE Disclosure Form is appropriate.
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