Disclosures, Conflict of Interest and Funding Issues in Urogynecology Articles - A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

All urogynecology articles (original articles, reviews, opinion articles) published in 2013 in the 6 journals Obstetrics & Gynecology (GREEN), American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology (AJOG), BJOG, Neurourology and Urodynamics (NAU), International Urogynecology Journal (IUJ), and Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery (FPMRS) were included in this bibliometric study. Each article was assessed for disclosure/ COI statements. Disclosure/ COI statements were not further categorized and included both nonfinancial as well as financial relationships and affiliations of the authors, either specifically related to the article, or general. Funding was categorized as “institutional (hospital/ university)”, “industry”, “grant”, “no funding”, or “no funding statement”. Instructions to authors of the included journals were screened for their requirements for disclosure/ COI and funding statements. Original disclosure/ COI statement forms provided by authors at time of manuscript submission were accessible for one journal (IUJ). Information given on these forms was compared to the disclosures in the respective published articles. IRB approval was not required.