Healthy Skepticism Library item: 14237

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Publication type: news

Editorial Board of Psychiatric Times to Disclose COIs
Integrity in Science Watch 2008 Sep 2
http://www.cspinet.org/integrity/watch/200809021.html#3

Full text:

The ongoing congressional investigation into conflicts of interest in medicine has prompted Psychiatric Times to begin disclosing its editorial board’s conflicts of interest to readers. In an editorial, Ronald Pies, editor-in-chief of Psychiatric Times, said “it is the editor-in-chief’s job to know of potential conflicts and to make executive decisions accordingly.” However, the move only raises further questions about who is calling the shots at leading psychiatric journals. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors’ “Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals” says “editors who make final decisions about manuscripts should have no personal financial involvement in any of the issues they might judge.” Top editors of psychiatric journals, though, frequently have such ties and include Pies, Robert R. Freedman, editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Psychiatry, Jan Fawcett, medical editor of Psychiatric Annals, and Alan J. Gelenberg, editor-in-chief of the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, all of whom receive education grants or consulting fees from pharmaceutical companies that sell psychiatric medicines.