A SURVEY OF JOURNAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST POLICIES
Richard M Glass1,2 and Mindy Schneiderman2
1JAMA,2 American Medical Association, 515 N State St, Chicago, IL 60610, USA
Objective: To survey medical, biology, and (for comparison) economics journals regarding their conflict of interest policies.
Design: Mailed questionnaire survey of 1,202 English-language journals with circulations of at least 1,000 listed as academic/scholarly publications under the headings of medical sciences (excluding dentistry and nursing), biology, and economics in the 1994 Uhlrich's International Periodicals Directory. Following the initial mailing in September 1994, nonresponders were sent 2 additional mailings (November 1994 and July 1995) and also received telephone or facsimile prompting if such numbers were available. Comparisons by journal type and circulation size were performed using the chi-square test.
Results: The overall response rate was 54% (648/1,202), ranging from 36% (34/95) for economics journals published outside the United States to 61% (239/393) for medical journals published in the United States. One third or less of the publications in any of the 3 disciplines had written policies concerning conflicts of interest for authors, reviewers, editors, or editorial board members. Almost half (46%) of US medical journals did have written policies for authors, and medical journals were more likely to have such policies than biology or economics journals (P<.001). Among US medical journals, the proportions of journals having written conflict of interest policies and published statements regarding conflicts of interest increased significantly with circulation size, as did the proportion requiring signatures on conflict of interest statements from authors. Most medical and biology journals considered and published substantive articles written by their chief editors.
Conclusions: Most medical, biology, and economics journals have not developed written policies to deal with conflicts of interest. Publication of substantive articles authored by the chief editor of the journal raises questions about
conflicts of interest in oversight of the peer review and manuscript acceptance processes.
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