Abstract
BackgroundMajor research-reporting statements, such as PRISMA and CONSORT, require authors to provide information about funding. The objectives of this study were (1) to assess the reporting of funding in health policy and systems research (HPSR) papers and (2) to assess the funding reporting policies of journals publishing on HPSR.MethodsWe conducted two cross-sectional surveys for papers published in 2016 addressing HPSR (both primary studies and systematic reviews) and for journals publishing on HPSR (both journals under the ‘Health Policy and Services’ (HPS) category in the Web of Science, and non-HPS journals that published on HPSR). Teams of two reviewers selected studies and abstracted data in duplicate and independently. We conducted descriptive analyses and a regression analysis to investigate the association between reporting of funding by papers and the journal’s characteristics.ResultsWe included 400 studies (200 systematic reviews and 200 primary studies) that were published in 198 journals. Approximately one-third (31%) of HPSR papers did not report on funding. Of those that did, only 11% reported on the role of funders (15% of systematic reviews and 7% of primary studies). Of the 198 journals publishing on HPSR, 89% required reporting of the source of funding. Of those that did, about one-third (34%) required reporting of the role of funders. Journals classified under the HPS category (n = 72) were less likely than non-HPS journals that published HPSR studies (n = 142) to require information on the role of funders (15% vs. 32%). We did not find any of the journals’ characteristics to be associated with the reporting of funding by papers.ConclusionsDespite the majority of journals publishing on HPSR requiring the reporting of funding, approximately one-third of HPSR papers did not report on the funding source. Moreover, few journals publishing on HPSR required the reporting of the role of funders, and few HPSR papers reported on that role.
Highlights
Major research-reporting statements, such as PRISMA and CONSORT, require authors to provide information about funding
We considered 72 journals listed under the ‘Health Policy and Services’ (HPS) category in Web of Science as of June 2016 [15]
Journals classified under the health policy and services (HPS) category were less likely than the non-HPS journals that published the health policy and systems research (HPSR) studies to Journals of all 400 studies
Summary
Major research-reporting statements, such as PRISMA and CONSORT, require authors to provide information about funding. The objectives of this study were (1) to assess the reporting of funding in health policy and systems research (HPSR) papers and (2) to assess the funding reporting policies of journals publishing on HPSR. There is growing evidence that source of funding is associated with the reporting of research results. A literature survey of randomised controlled studies published in 2011 found that the majority of studies sponsored by industry reported favourable results [2]. The reporting of funding in published evidence might help in interpreting results and highlight possible bias [3]. One study found that physicians were less confident in the results of trials that disclosed industry funding compared to those that did not [4]. Another study evaluating 106 review articles found that affiliation of the review author with the tobacco industry was the only factor associated with concluding that passive smoking is not harmful [5]
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