Conflict of Interest and the Journal Revisited

Transparency: Disclosure of Financial Interests

In keeping with the Journal's policies,1 we provide a listing of disclosures for all members of the editorial masthead and the ad hoc and guest editors (marked with an asterisk) as of September 15, 2023. This list, based on annually updated signed statements on file in the editorial office, includes all biomedical financial interests and potential conflicts of interest disclosed for the previous 24 months and the foreseeable future.

A cross-sectional examination of conflict-of-interest disclosures of physician-authors publishing in high-impact US medical journals

OBJECTIVE

To assess the accuracy of self-reported financial conflict-of-interest (COI) disclosures in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) and the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) within the requisite disclosure period prior to article submission.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional investigation.

DATA SOURCES

Original clinical-trial research articles published in NEJM (n=206) or JAMA (n=188) from 1 January 2017 to 31 December 2017; self-reported COI disclosure forms submitted to NEJM or JAMA with the authors' published articles; Open Payments website (from database inception; latest search: August 2019).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Financial data reported to Open Payments from 2014 to 2016 (a time period that included all subjects' requisite disclosure windows) were compared with self-reported disclosure forms submitted to the journals. Payments selected for analysis were defined by Open Payments as 'general payments.' Payment types were categorised as 'disclosed,' 'undisclosed,' 'indeterminate' or 'unrelated'.

RESULTS

Thirty-one articles from NEJM and 31 articles from JAMA met inclusion criteria. The physician-authors (n=118) received a combined total of US$7.48 million. Of the 106 authors (89.8%) who received payments, 86 (81.1%) received undisclosed payments. The top 23 most highly compensated received US$6.32 million, of which US$3.00 million (47.6%) was undisclosed.

CONCLUSIONS

High payment amounts, as well as high proportions of undisclosed financial compensation, regardless of amount received, comprised potential COIs for two influential US medical journals. Further research is needed to explain why such high proportions of general payments were undisclosed and whether journals that rely on self-reported COI disclosure need to reconsider their policies.

Transparency: Disclosure of Financial Interests

In keeping with the Journal's policies,¹ we provide a listing of disclosures for all members of the editorial masthead and the ad hoc and guest editors (marked with an asterisk) as of October 21, 2020. This list, based on annually updated signed statements on file in the editorial office, includes all biomedical financial interests and potential conflicts of interest disclosed for the previous 24 months and the foreseeable future.

Transparency: Disclosure of Financial Interests

In keeping with the Journal's policies,¹ we provide a listing of disclosures for all members of the editorial masthead and the ad hoc and guest editors (marked with an asterisk) as of October 3, 2019. This list, based on annually updated signed statements on file in the editorial office, includes all biomedical financial interests and potential conflicts of interest disclosed for the previous 24 months and the foreseeable future.

Transparency: Disclosure of Financial Interests

In keeping with the Journal's policies,¹ we provide a listing of disclosures for all members of the editorial masthead and the ad hoc editors (marked with an asterisk) as of October 19, 2018. This list, based on annually updated signed statements on file in the editorial office, includes all biomedical financial interests and potential conflicts of interest disclosed for the previous 24 months and the foreseeable future.