Evidence that funding relationships can distort objectivity is growing — but money isn't the only source of bias.
Sir
We commend your adoption of a policy that requires disclosure of financial interests and biases of authors who publish in Nature (Opinion, Nature 412, 751; 2001). Your effort to achieve transparency is an important response to the growing evidence of the adverse impacts that funding relationships can have on the integrity of science generally and on the reputations of individual institutions and researchers specifically.
More stringent conflict-of-interest policies are being adopted by universities, scientific societies and journals in the light of recent examples of publication and editorial interference by research funders; scientific misconduct; and even deaths of human testing volunteers. Several of the US medical schools receiving the most National Institutes of Health funding have been developing principles for conflict-of-interest policies (Nature 408, 630; 2000), recommending full public disclosure of research funding when research results are presented or published.
For university policies to be effective, science journals must also adopt and enforce policies of full public disclosure of funding sources and other potential financial conflicts. Several medical journals have announced plans to adopt more stringent, uniform conflict-of-interest policies in response to increased collaboration between industry and universities.
We support Nature's leadership role in this extremely important issue, and challenge other scientific journals to adopt and enforce similar policies in a global effort to maintain public trust in the integrity of science.
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Gurney, S., Sass, J. Public trust requires disclosure of potential conflicts of interest. Nature 413, 565 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/35098242
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/35098242
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