Declaration of conflict of interest
Declaration of conflict of interest
A conflict of interest (COI) is any kind of situation in which a researcher’s own interests might influence his or her professional behaviour or judgement. These interests can for instance be:
- financial (e.g. secondary employment, research funding coming from private companies, stock ownership);
- non-financial (e.g. receiving product samples, media attention);
- personal (e.g. family relationships, career ambitions).
Because perceptions of conflicts of interest can sometimes be as damaging as real conflicts, it is important to uphold the practice of being open and honest about all such potential conflicts.
ALLEA Code:
- Authors disclose any financial and non-financial conflicts of interest as well as sources of support for the research or the publication.
- Reviewers or editors declare any actual or perceived conflicts of interest and, when necessary, withdraw from involvement in discussion and decisions on publication, funding, appointment, promotion, or reward.
A conflict of interest may compromise the impartiality and independence of a researcher in all steps of the research process (study design, data collection, data analysis, reporting etc.). It may interfere with peer review procedures, funding decisions etc. It may also affect hiring, evaluation and promotion procedures. A (non-dosclosure of) conflict of interest risks compromising the integrity of the research(er), and could cause damage to the (perception of the) reputation of the researcher, research unit(s), department, faculty and university.
Researchers have a right to their opinions and preferences (for instance, with regards to the economic or societal usefulness of certain activities) but these should not interfere with their scientific work. When publishing their research results, especially the conclusions and recommendations for application that could be drawn from them, the researcher must make a clear distinction between scientific judgements and personal preferences.
Therefore researchers should disclose and if necessary withdraw from involvement in decisions on publication, funding, appointment, promotion or reward whenever a conflict of interest arises (or the perception thereof) that might influence their decision making is impartial. They should disclose any conflict of interest according to their university’s policy. Also financial or other types of support for the research or for the publication of its results should be disclosed as detailed and specific as possible. It is not up to you to decide whether or not an ‘interest’ represents a ‘conflict of interest’: it is up to the university, funding body, editor, reviewers and readers to manage and evaluate this. This transparency not only allows the university, funding body or journal to identify (potential problematic) conflicts of interest. It also allows for openness within the research community and towards society at large, and diminishes the risk that research and researchers are perceived as being compromised by conflicts of interest. Correct author affiliation is also one of the steps that can be taken in order to prevent a possible conflict of interest.
Cope-case: Undisclosed conflict of interest
Two peer-reviewed and published papers with the results of a comparative analysis that compared a group of people associated with a specific “complementary medicine health care organization” (CMG), with the general population. The papers concluded that the study group has “unusual health indicators” (that were more favourable than the general population). Shortly after publication, a freelance journalist sent the journal a 12-page letter that contradicts the COI statement the authors submitted.
- In order to always make clear all conflicts of interest, for Life Sciences the framework of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) must be followed. The framework can potentially be used as guidance for all disciplines. Irrelevant of the framework, the funding of the research must always be mentioned, in any type of dissemination.
- Oxford University: Illustrative examples of conflict of interest.
Cartoon by Patrick Hochstenbach under a Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0 license
Who is involved?
Researchers in general
As a researcher it’s important to be open about any potential conflicts of interest to safeguard impartiality and independence.
Journals have a responsibility to evaluate and present research results in an open manner, with full disclosure of their context.
Peer Reviewer - Editor
The assessment of manuscripts for scientific journals must be carried out in an impartial manner, only guided by considerations of a scientific order and within a reasonable deadline.
Reader(s)
All those reading and using information disseminated from the research are involved in detecting and/or reporting a possible conflict of interest.
Code of Ethics for Scientific Research in Belgium (2009):
- Commissioned scientific research is carried out without interventions from the sponsor during the execution of the scientific work entrusted to the researcher. The sponsor’s policy (public or private) is expressed in the choice of research themes. The researcher does fail his/her independence by accepting contracts or in responding to calls for proposals within this context, insofar as he/she retains his/her freedom in the execution of the research, as regards the organisation of the research, the hypotheses, the methods used and the formulation of conclusions. A scientific conclusion can only be formulated on the basis of scientific arguments.
- Commissioners and external sponsors, as well as their relations with the researcher, are mentioned in the publications of the results. The possible links between sponsors and researchers, such as their expert or advisory role, will also be mentioned. Any conflicts of interests must be mentioned in scientific communication and publications.
- If a project is carried out by a team, the rights and obligations of the various parties involved must be specified, including the research institution where the research is being carried out as well as the bodies that are the source of financing. The agreements relating to the ownership of results, their use and their dissemination must be clearly established.
Cope-case: Author requests for certain experts not to be included in the editorial process
(Anonymised) A prospective author contacted the editorial board of a medical journal to request that an intended submission was not reviewed or consulted on by experts involved in a number of published guidelines on the topic of the paper. The author named some of these experts, which included members of the journal’s editorial board. The author justified this request by explaining that his paper disagrees with the published guidelines, and therefore he believed that the experts who contributed to the guidelines would “likely to be very negative and possibly biased”. The author stated that these experts, including some members of the editorial board, may have conflict of interest.