Update on JAMA's Conflict of Interest Policy

Abstract

SINCE THE MID-1980S, JAMA AND OTHER MEDICAL JOURnals have encouraged authors to disclose conflicts of interest that they may have in the subject matter of their manuscripts. In 1989, JAMA began requiring authors to sign a statement declaring all potential financial conflicts of interest and began including all such disclosures in published articles. Since that time, the journal’s conflict of interest policy has continued to evolve with the goal of improving disclosures and transparency for all involved. For example, the policy applies to all types of manuscripts, including letters and book reviews, and to all individuals involved in the review, editorial evaluation, and publication process, including peer reviewers, editorial board members, and editors. Most recently, JAMA began requiring authors to specifically indicate if they have no conflicts of interest in the subject matter of their manuscript. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), the Council of Science Editors (CSE), and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) have similar policies. However, biomedical journals have a wide range of conflict of interest policies (eg, some request disclosures, some require disclosures, and some publish disclosures and some do not). Journals also define relevant conflicts of interest in different terms to include financial and nonfinancial conflicts or only financial interests, and for financial interests, may define relevance in different monetary amounts or lengths of time. Perhaps because of these different policies, some authors may not fully understand JAMA’s requirements for reporting potential conflicts of interest and might not fully disclose their conflicts of interest to JAMA at the time they submit their manuscripts. For example, some authors completely disclose all relevant conflicts of interest in the submitted manuscript, whereas other authors disclose relevant interests in a cover letter or only in the authorship form. The result is an inconsistent approach whereby for some authors, the disclosure is completely transparent to all involved in the manuscript evaluation process, including peer reviewers; but for other authors, the disclosure is made public only at the time of publication. In addition, some authors continue to misunderstand what is expected and provide inaccurate or incomplete disclosures that are discovered after publication and result in a published correction or letter of explanation. To further improve the transparency of reporting of potential conflicts of interest and to encourage more accurate and complete disclosures, an important new policy is that JAMA will begin requiring all authors to disclose all potential conflicts of interest in the Acknowledgment section of the manuscript at the time of submission. This includes specific financial interests and relationships and affiliations relevant to the subject of the manuscript. Between now and the end of 2006, JAMA will permit submissions of manuscripts in which authors’ conflict of interest information is not yet included in the manuscript, but with the understanding that this information will be obtained and submitted promptly—and definitely before any revisions are considered. Beginning January 2007, JAMA will require that complete disclosures of conflicts of interest from all authors, including declaration of no conflicts of interest, are included in the Acknowledgment section of the manuscript. JAMA’s Web-based manuscript submission system will require the corresponding author to indicate that this information is included in the manuscript at the time of submission. Authors will continue to complete and sign an authorship responsibility form that includes statements on conflict of interest as well as funding and support. Conflicts of interest in biomedical science continue to be under intense and increasing scrutiny. To help ensure transparency and complete reporting of this information, JAMA’s policies on conflicts of interest have been updated (as noted below). All authors are encouraged to read these policies carefully and to follow them completely. By doing so, peer reviewers and editors can expect full disclosure of potential conflicts of interest in manuscripts submitted to JAMA, and physicians, other health care professionals, and the public can expect complete reporting of conflict of interest information in articles published in JAMA.