Conflicts of Interest, Authorship, and Disclosures in Industry-Related Scientific Publications–Reply–I

Abstract

I concur with Dr Garber that there is far more commonality of interest than COI between industry, physicians, and academia and applaud the AACE for taking a clear stand. Although I used the term conflict throughout my commentary, I believe the time has come to stop its indiscriminate use. The term conflict of interest can prejudice the audience or reader to the material being presented and to the presenter(s), a form of framing bias that leads to presumptions of guilt until proven innocent; the term competing interests is much more neutral. Dr Garber's support for balanced and equitable implementation of COI-disclosure policies by journal editors is greatly appreciated.