Partial Disclosure Research Articles

Exploring Partial Disclosure in Research: Challenges, Justifications, and Recommendations for Ethical Oversight

AbstractDeception in research is contentious, as ethical codes stress informed consent, yet complete disclosure may jeopardise validity. Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines classify deception into active, incomplete, and authorised forms. This study explores the ethical justification for incomplete (partial disclosure), permissible instances, and the dilemma faced by ethics committees in balancing scientific rigour and participant protection. The qualitative, non-experimental cross-sectional research, using in-depth interviews, identifies themes through thematic analysis. Findings reveal challenges for ethics committees, as incomplete information hampers understanding, amongst others. The paper proposes an ethics committee framework, urging researchers to minimise or avoid partial deception and recommending institutional awareness campaigns and standard operating procedures for minimal-harm studies using partial disclosure. Therefore, it proposes that partial disclosure should be justified by the 3Vs—value, validity, and veracity to preserve research integrity.

The Influence of R&D Intensity on Supply Chain Transparency: Evidence From the Disclosure Substitution Perspective

ABSTRACTThis paper shows that the existence of disclosure‐related costs and benefits explains the influence of R&D intensity on supply chain transparency. We find that R&D‐active firms are more likely to redact supply chain identities but disclose supply chain distribution as a substitution. The effect of withholding (disclosing) the specific identities (distribution) of supply chain is more (less) pronounced when firms are in higher competitive industries or non–state‐owned enterprises. Our study provides evidence of disclosure substitution behavior in a unified voluntary setting of supply chain transparency and shows that partial disclosure of nonproprietary information may be optimal.

Score Disclosure

Abstract We study verifiable disclosure by a seller when the product has multiple quality attributes. We identify an equilibrium in which, for some qualities, the seller discloses its score—the average of the qualities—and does not reveal anything else. This occurs when its score is sufficiently high or when the qualities are sufficiently similar and the score is not too low. Otherwise, the seller fully discloses. While full unraveling is still an equilibrium, it is dominated by this partial score disclosure equilibrium in terms of ex ante as well as ex post profits.

Il natal di Amore by Giulio Strozzi: interactions and echoes with the early modern literary and operatic world and Monteverdi

ABSTRACT As many scholars of early modern musical theatre certainly know, a careful perusal of literature not specifically meant for music may at times hold pleasant surprises for the discerning musical scholar. This may be particularly rewarding in the study of the first decades of Venetian opera, when librettists were often also active as novelists and/or playwrights and were in any case affiliated to or personally acquainted with members of the most outspoken literary academy of the early seventeenth century, the ‘Accademia degli Incogniti’, itself very closely involved in the establishment of public opera. Moreover, as several studies have shown, the conception and production of early opera libretti can be better understood if analysed within the context of contemporary purely literary works. And sometimes, as I will try to show here, a literary work, in this case a theatre play, may both have provided inspiration for as well as have been inspired by musical drama. As I hope to demonstrate, the implication of these musico-literary interconnections is the partial disclosure of a tight network of cultural products of the period and the significant role therein played by Claudio Monteverdi’s operas, not the least also in providing unconventional and alternative outlooks on gender and gender roles.

Informing or concealing — Dynamics of telling disease-related bad news among family members of older cancer patients: A qualitative study

BackgroundWith the dramatic rise in the number of older cancer patients, the question of whether or not to tell older patients of bad news becomes an urgent and common challenge. However, existing studies concentrated on the three types of disclosure decisions and their reasons, including full disclosure, partial disclosure, and avoidance of disclosure, and the evolution process and factors influencing family members' disclosure decisions are unclear. ObjectiveExplore the experience and factors of the shift between disclosure and concealment among family members of older cancer patients. MethodsA qualitative study was employed. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 33 family members at two general hospitals and one community hospital between December 2022 and June 2023. The interview data were analyzed using a content analysis approach. ResultsThe treatment plan symbolizes the “hope of survival” and it is the fundamental factor for the shift between concealment and disclosure. There are three themes of family members in making decisions during the diagnostic and therapeutic process: (a) When bad news is approaching: Keep calm in the midst of chaos, (b) when a treatment plan is determined: Hope for survival dictates disclosure decisions, and (c) when the patient's disease deteriorated: Finding hope in hopelessness. ConclusionsDisclosure and concealment are a complex and dynamic process. The factor of the shift lies in the “hope of survival” symbolized by the treatment plan. The key to disclosure by family members is to give patients enough hope to control or cure a patient's disease, or prolong the life of patients and improve their quality of life.

Research on Driving Scenario Knowledge Graphs

Despite the partial disclosure of driving scenario knowledge graphs, they still fail to meet the comprehensive needs of intelligent connected vehicles for driving knowledge. Current issues include the high complexity of pattern layer construction, insufficient accuracy of information extraction and fusion, and limited performance of knowledge reasoning models. To address these challenges, a hybrid knowledge graph method was adopted in the construction of a driving scenario knowledge graph (DSKG). Firstly, core concepts in the field were systematically sorted and classified, laying the foundation for the construction of a multi-level classified knowledge graph top-level ontology. Subsequently, by deeply exploring and analyzing the Traffic Genome data, 34 entities and 51 relations were extracted and integrated with the ontology layer, achieving the expansion and updating of the knowledge graph. Then, in terms of knowledge reasoning models, an analysis of the training results of the TransE, Complex, Distmult, and Rotate models in the entity linking prediction task of DSKG revealed that the Distmult model performed the best in metrics such as hit rate, making it more suitable for inference in DSKG. Finally, a standardized and widely applicable driving scenario knowledge graph was proposed. The DSKG and related materials have been publicly released for use by industry and academia.

Drug trials are more likely to disclose full placebo control information than non-drug trials: A cross-sectional study of participant information leaflets of placebo-controlled trials

BackgroundThis study aimed to investigate whether placebo control is differently disclosed in drug and non-drug randomised clinical trial (RCT) participant information leaflets (PILs) and how this might affect participant blinding and direction of study outcomes. MethodsPILs were obtained from trials registered in the International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number database via email. Placebo descriptions in PILs were categorised as Full Disclosure (FD), Partial Disclosure (PD), or Missing Information (MI). Associations between intervention type (drug or non-drug)/placebo disclosure (FD or PD/MI) and participant blinding success/trial outcome direction (positive or non-positive) were examined using a two-sided Fisher's exact test. ResultsOf 116 collected PILs, 56 % were for drug trials and 44 % were for non-drug trials. Among them, 88 PILs had the corresponding publications available and 68 reports specified primary outcomes. Drug trials were more likely to fully disclose placebo information than non-drug trials (92.3 % vs. 74.5 %, p < 0.05). However, the success rate of blinding was only reported in 3 out of 88 trial publications (3.4 %), precluding further analysis. Furthermore, there was no significant association between the direction of trial results and the type of intervention or placebo disclosure. ConclusionOur study findings suggest that drug and non-drug RCTs might differ in the way they reveal placebo control information. Further research is warranted to understand what leads to more common PD of placebo information in non-drug trials than drug trials and to determine the optimal placebo control disclosure in specific trial context.

A study of a blockchain-based judicial evidence preservation scheme

To address the challenges of low credibility, difficult data sharing, and regulatory supervision issues involving electronic evidence storage in the judicial preservation process, this paper proposes a blockchain-based judicial evidence preservation scheme. The scheme utilizes the characteristics of blockchain’s immutability to achieve credible forensics of electronic evidence on the chain and employs the decentralized storage of the interplanetary file system for secure and efficient off-chain storage. Simultaneously, it resolves the problem of declining throughput due to limited block capacity. Additionally, it leverages smart contract technology to encompass major aspects of the judicial process, including user case registration, authority management, judicial evidence uploading and downloading, case data sharing, partial disclosure of case information, and regulatory review. Simulation experiments demonstrate that the scheme significantly improves throughput and stability. Performance tests indicate that the transfer speed of the interplanetary file system can meet the data-sharing needs of judicial organizations.

The Influence of Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure, Acceptance of Going Concern Audit Opinion and Audit Quality on Abnormal Returns

This research aims to examine the influence of CSR disclosure, acceptance of going concern audit opinion and audit quality on market reactions as measured by abnormal returns. The information content in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) disclosure, receipt of going concern audit opinion and audit quality are signals from the company that are predicted to cause a market reaction. The sample was obtained using a purposive sampling method and 20 mining sector companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2010-2013 were selected. The analytical method used in this research is multiple regression analysis. The results of hypothesis testing show that CSR disclosure, acceptance of going concern audit opinion, audit quality, company size and asset growth rate simultaneously influence abnormal returns. Meanwhile, partial CSR disclosure, acceptance of going concern audit opinion and audit quality do not affect abnormal returns. This implies that financial information is still a reference for investors in making investment decisions. They do not pay much attention to CSR disclosure information, going concern audit opinion and audit quality as a tool for predicting the future. This also shows that the characteristics of investors in the Indonesian capital market are more long-term oriented.

PENGARUH PENGUNGKAPAN ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL, AND GOVERNANCE (ESG) TERHADAP EFISIENSI INVESTASI

This research aims to test and analyze the influence of ESG disclosure both in aggregate and the influence of partial ESG components consisting of environmental, social and corporate governance disclosures on investment efficiency in companies listed on the IDX for the 2017-2021 period. Data collection in this research used the documentation method. This research uses purposive sampling as a sampling method with a total sample of 210 companies listed on the IDX. The results of this study show that aggregate ESG disclosure has a positive effect on investment efficiency. Meanwhile, partial ESG disclosure has no influence on investment efficiency. The findings of this research provide important awareness to companies regarding the benefits of carrying out comprehensive ESG disclosures.

Strategic (Non)Disclosure: Activation and Avoidance of Social Ties among Women Seeking Abortion.

The increased politicization of sexual and reproductive health has created barriers to medically necessary care. In absence of formal health care, social ties become critical sources of information and resources, yet the disclosure of stigmatized health needs carries significant risk. How do people navigate the risks and benefits of disclosure when seeking care for stigmatized needs? Drawing on original survey data (N = 153) and in-depth interviews (N = 55) with women who attempted a self-managed abortion, I first describe the distinct roles of weak and strong ties in women's health-seeking experiences. I then demonstrate how both partial disclosure and nondisclosure are critical tools for obtaining information, resources, and emotional support during periods of health-seeking. Findings advance understanding of disclosure as a continuum that can be strategically wielded by people with stigmatized needs to confront and evade stigma and surveillance from their networks, the state, and the formal health care system.

Maximizing Social Welfare and Agreement via Information Design in Linear-Quadratic-Gaussian Games

Information design in an incomplete information game involves a designer that aims to influence players' actions through signals generated from a designed probability distribution to optimize its objective function. For quadratic design objective functions, if the players have quadratic payoffs that depend on the players' actions and an unknown payoff-relevant state, and signals on the state that follow a Gaussian distribution conditional on the state realization, the information design problem is a semidefinite program (SDP) [1]. In this note, we seek to characterize the optimal information design analytically by leveraging the SDP formulation, when the design objective is to maximize social welfare or the agreement among players' action. We show that full information disclosure maximizes social welfare when there is a common payoff state, the payoff dependencies among players' actions are homogeneous, or when the signals are public. When the objective is to maximize the agreement among players' actions, not revealing any information is optimal. When the objective is a weighted combination of social welfare and agreement terms, we establish a threshold weight below which full information disclosure is optimal under public signals for games with homogeneous payoffs. Numerical results corroborate the analytical results, and identify partial information disclosure structures that are optimal.

Textile and apparel enterprises sustainable development strategy: focus on ecologic monitoring strategic communications

Strategy determines the success of the long-term development of any enterprise. In the context of sustainability, the consumer wants to be aware of what strategic principles the company adheres to, including questions about the use of environmental materials, technological innovation, corporate social responsibility, and other aspects. All these aspects should be reflected in the sustainability strategy, which, like any document, is in closed mode. In order to broadcast certain business practices in the field of sustainable development, any brand of light industry and fashion industry needs a system of strategic communications. This paper analyzes the corporate experiences of famous brands in the industry, examining their mission, vision, principles, ideology, philosophy and so on. The study has created a unique model that can help brands with sustainability information policy from the perspective of privacy in terms of partial disclosure of their sustainability strategy. In the future, the study can be extended to quantitative and qualitative analysis of the effects of changes in the communication system.

THE IMPACT OF EVENTS AFTER THE REPORTING DATE ON THE FINANCIAL POSITION AND PERFORMANCE OF BANKS

Banks maintain their accounting records and prepare financial statements in accordance with IFRS. Annual financial statements are a set of reports that characterize the financial position, results of the bank’s operations, cash flows and changes in equity for the year. It is interesting to note that the end of the reporting period is only the beginning of the stage of preparation and disclosure of financial statements. After all, in addition to the reporting date and the date of disclosure of the annual financial statements, which are known to the general public, there is a whole list of dates that are known only to managers, accountants and auditors. These are the date of completion of preparation, the date of submission to the Board of Directors, the date of partial disclosure of certain indicators, such as profit, the date of approval of the financial statements by shareholders, etc. As a rule, the reporting date is December 31 of the respective year, although it may be different in accordance with IFRS. Accordingly, the date of publication of the annual financial statements is April 30 of the year following the reporting year. At the same time, a certain period of time elapses between the reporting date and the date of approval of the financial statements. The Bank’s operations are ongoing, and therefore, there is a high probability that new events and circumstances may arise. IFRSs recommend disclosing information about events that occur between the reporting date and the date the financial statements are authorized for issue or the date the financial results or selective information is available. Such recommendations should not be ignored, as this may indicate the concealment of important information or even be classified as fraud. Events after the reporting period are any events, which may be positive or negative, favorable or unfavorable, that occur from the end of the reporting period until the financial statements are authorized for issue. The classification of these events depends on the date of their probable occurrence and, accordingly, their impact on the financial statements. In general, these are events that affect the financial statements and require adjustments or events that do not require adjustments. It is worth paying attention to events after the reporting period that may affect the going concern basis. IFRS prohibit banks from preparing financial statements on a going concern basis if events after the reporting period indicate that such an assumption is inappropriate. The decision to use the going concern basis is based on a checklist of going concern triggers and their detailed analysis. The checklist of triggers includes: economic and geopolitical situation; level of income and cash flows of the bank; liquidity and solvency of the bank, as well as current and future profitability; financial position of counterparties; external and internal factors affecting the work of employees. For the financial statements prepared for the year ending December 31, 2021, the war and its consequences are events that do not require adjustment, as they reflect conditions that arose after the reporting period. For example, the company’s assets were damaged as a result of hostilities between the end of the reporting period and the authorization of the financial statements for issue. In accordance with IFRS, any impairment losses will be recognized in the period in which they occur. Accordingly, information on significant losses from asset damage will not adjust the 2021 financial data, but should be disclosed in the notes to the financial statements. The study analyzed the notes to the annual financial statements of banks for 2019-2022.

Certification Design With Common Values

This paper studies certification design and its implications for information disclosure. Our model features a profit‐maximizing certifier and the seller of a good of unknown quality. We allow for common values as the seller's opportunity cost may depend on the quality of the good. We compare certifier‐optimal with transparency‐maximizing certification design. Certifier‐optimal certification design implements the evidence structure of Dye (1985)—a fraction of sellers acquire information while the remaining sellers are uninformed—and results in partial disclosure to the market. A transparency‐maximizing regulator prefers a less precise signal, which conveys more information to the market through a higher rate of certification and unraveling (Grossman (1981), Milgrom (1981)) at the disclosure stage.

Analisis Pelaporan Kinerja Lingkungan Pada Rumah Sakit Lavalette Tahun 2022

Lavalette Hospital Malang, located at Jl. WR. Supratman No.10 Malang City, can generate medical and hazardous waste, which can impact the environment. Many healthcare facilities still do not report their environmental performance with GRI standards as it is voluntary. However, to fulfill their environmental and social responsibilities, both external and internal, this environmental performance reporting is helpful. This research uses a qualitative method with a case study at Lavalette Hospital Malang to determine the management of responsibility and disclosure of environmental performance in accordance with GRI Standard 300 guidelines. The data used comes from documentation and interviews with environmental health staff and the Manager of Accounting, Finance, and IT at Lavalette Hospital. Then triangulation analysis was carried out. The results of the analysis show that Lavalette Hospital's environmental performance can be categorized into partial disclosure on GRI index 302: Energy, GRI 303: Water and Effluent, GRI 305: Emissions, GRI 306: Waste, GRI 307: Compliance, and GRI 308: Supplier environmental assessment.

Discrepancies in Conflict-of-Interest Disclosures Among Physicians Receiving Compensation for Monoclonal Antibody Drugs.

Monoclonal antibody drugs are widely used, highly marketed, expensive compounds. Relationships between these drug manufacturers and physicians may increase the potential for bias in relevant studies. The aim of this study is to determine the rate of disclosures among physicians receiving compensations for monoclonal antibody drugs (MAbDs). This is a retrospective, population-based, cross-sectional study. The 50 physicians who received the highest financial compensation for selected MAbDs from 2016 to 2020 were included. Payment data were obtained from the Open Payments Database, bibliometric data were obtained from SCOPUS, and disclosure data were obtained from relevant publications found in PubMed. The primary outcome was rate of disclosure concordance between self-declared conflict-of-interest and industry-reported payments documented in the Open Payments Database. Of the 50 physicians examined, 74% (N = 37) had publications examined. A cumulative 6170 payments totaling $18,484,228 were analyzed. A total of 418 relevant papers were reviewed. The rate of full disclosure (all relevant financial relationships disclosed) was 39.5%, partial disclosure (some but not all financial relationships disclosed) was 28.0%, and no disclosure was 26.3%. 6.2% did not require disclosure. Publications authored by dermatologists had the highest rate of full disclosure at 49.3%. There was no association between h-index and disclosure rate. Practice guidelines had the highest rate of full disclosure at 69.2% while basic science papers had the lowest (0%). Lastly, substantial variations in specific journal disclosure policies were found. Substantial inconsistencies were found between self-reported disclosures and the Open Payments Database among physicians receiving high compensation for MAbDs. A policy of full disclosure for all publications should be adopted.

A post-quantum associative memory

Associative memories are devices storing information that can be fully retrieved given partial disclosure of it. We examine a toy model of associative memory and the ultimate limitations to which it is subjected within the framework of general probabilistic theories (GPTs), which represent the most general class of physical theories satisfying some basic operational axioms. We ask ourselves how large the dimension of a GPT should be so that it can accommodate 2 m states with the property that any N of them are perfectly distinguishable. Call the minimal such dimension. Invoking an old result by Danzer and Grünbaum, we prove that , to be compared with when the GPT is required to be either classical or quantum. This yields an example of a task where GPTs outperform both classical and quantum theory exponentially. More generally, we resolve the case of fixed N and asymptotically large m, proving that (as ) for every , which yields again an exponential improvement over classical and quantum theories. Finally, we develop a numerical approach to the general problem of finding the largest N-wise mutually distinguishable set for a given GPT, which can be seen as an instance of the maximum clique problem on N-regular hypergraphs.

Information disclosure and pricing in the online expert service platform

The online expert service (OES) market is thriving by providing convenient professional services such as telemedicine consultation, legal advice, and financial planning. However, the practical phenomena, namely information asymmetry and the existence of naive consumers in the OES industry, motivate us to investigate how consumers’ two-dimensional heterogeneity and the expert’s agency pricing strategy with effort costs affect the OES platform’s information disclosure decision and corresponding market outcomes. By building a game-theoretic model, we consider the monopolistic OES platform in which the expert provides service to a mass of consumers, who can be either sophisticated or naive. The platform, as the designer of the disclosure framework, is thus an additional player in the seller-consumer game. Our results show that, when the marginal cost is intermediate, the platform strategically manipulates consumers’ valuation beliefs with partial disclosure to increase profitability without significant loss of market coverage. Furthermore, when naive consumers exist, the platform counter-intuitively discloses more information compared to that of all sophisticated consumers. Moreover, interestingly, when the marginal cost is low-to-intermediate, more naive consumers bring about more disclosure and thus obtain more demand for high-end sophisticated consumers, making both the expert and platform better off.

Partial portfolio disclosure, investors’ attention, and window dressing

I show that the disclosure of mutual funds’ holdings significantly affects investors’ investment decisions. As most mutual fund websites, advertisements, and fund-trading platforms only disclose a fund’s 10 largest holdings (top-10), this study finds that investors disproportionately focus on these stocks. However, this bias does not lead to additional profit because relative to their peers, funds with good top-10 performance tend to generate poor long-term returns. I design a clean and innovative discontinuity test between the performance of the 10th and 11th portfolio holdings to examine such window dressing behavior. I find that relative to their peers, funds that are small, new, and highly active are more likely to window dress and incur greater costs if they suffer from severe capital outflows. My findings suggest that partial disclosure misleads investors and allows effective window dressing.