利益冲突

在论文的出版过程中,所有参与者,包括作者、审稿人、编辑和编委会成员,如与文中所涉及的内容存在经济/个人关系,则需要在文章结尾处正式说明利益关系。

(1)作者在投稿时有责任声明可能引起文章发生偏倚的利益冲突。

(2)当被邀请审阅文章时,审稿人应被问及是否存在利益冲突,避免审稿复杂化。必要时,审稿人应主动回避审阅与其有利益冲突的文章,并保证在文章发表前不会使用稿件中的内容。

(3)编辑如与文章有利益冲突,在参与收稿、初审、同行评议、定稿等文章发表过程各环节时应主动回避,以免影响文章的公正取舍。编辑不得利用文章中的内容获取私利。编辑应就可能存在的利益冲突发表冲突声明。客编应同样遵循上述要求。

文章发表时需提供如下声明:作者是否存在个人利益冲突;资助人是否在研究设计、收集、分析和解释数据、文章撰写和发表决定方面发挥作用;作者是否有权使用这些研究数据,并进一步阐释如何获取和使用这些数据,包括以后是否拥有使用权。

为支持上述声明,如果一项研究由对结果拥有所有权或经济利益的机构赞助,则编辑可能会要求作者签署一份声明,如“我有权使用该项研究的所有数据,并对数据的完整性和数据分析的准确性负全责”。

Conflict of Interest exists when an author (or the author’s institution), reviewer, or editor has financial or personal relationships with other persons or organizations that inappropriately influence (bias) his or her actions. The existence of such relationships does not necessarily represent true conflict of interest. The potential for conflict of interest can exist whether or not an individual believes that the relationship affects their judgment. Financial relationships (such as employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patents) are the most easily identifiable conflicts of interest and the most likely to undermine the credibility of the journal, the authors, and of science itself .

1. Participants

All participants in the peer-review and publication process-not only authors but also peer reviewers, editors, and editorial board members of journals-must consider their conflicts of interest when fulfilling their roles in the process of article review and publication and must disclose all relationships that could be viewed as potential conflicts of interest.

a. Authors

When authors submit a manuscript of any type or format they are responsible for disclosing allfinancial and personal relationships that might bias or be seen to bias their work.

b. Peer Reviewers

Reviewers should be asked at the time they are asked to critique a manuscript if they have conflicts of interest that could complicate their review. Reviewers must disclose to editors any conflicts of interest that could bias their opinions of the manuscript, and should recuse themselves from reviewing specific manuscripts if the potential for bias exists. Reviewers must not use knowledge of the work they’re reviewing before its publication to further their own interests.

c. Editors and Journal Staff

Editors who make final decisions about manuscripts should recuse themselves from editorialdecisions if they have conflicts of interest or relationships that pose potential conflicts related toarticles under consideration. Other editorial staff members who participate in editorial decisions must provide editors with a current description of their financial interests or other conflicts (as they might relate to editorial judgments) and recuse themselves from any decisions in which aconflict of interest exists. Editorial staff must not use information gained through working with manuscripts for private gain. Editors should publish regular disclosure statements about potential conflicts of interests related to the commitments of journal staff. Guest editors should follow these same procedures.

2. Reporting Conflicts of Interest

Articles should be published with statements or supporting documents, declaring:

  • Authors’ conflicts of interest; and
  • Sources of support for the work, including sponsor names along with explanations of the role of those sources if any in study design; collection, analysis, and interpretation of data;writing of the report; the decision to submit the report for publication; or a statement declaring that the supporting source had no such involvement; and
  • Whether the authors had access to the study data, with an explanation of the nature and extent of access, including whether access is on-going. To support the above statements, editors may request that authors of a study sponsored by a funder with a proprietary or financial interest in the outcome sign a statement, such as “I had full access to all of the data in this study and I take complete responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.”