Healthy Skepticism Library item: 16104

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

Freshwater F.
Sharing medical research data: Financial conflicts should be included in online abstracts
BMJ. 2009 May 12; 338:
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/338/may12_1/b1934

Abstract:

There should be not only data transparency but also financial transparency.1 Most major medical journals have made financial disclosure mandatory. Yet, now that the internet allows free access to any biomedical abstract, readers of abstracts may be blinded to papers’ relevant financial disclosure unless they have a paid subscription to the journal.

I reviewed the ICMJE uniform requirements, the author instructions for 20 journals, including the BMJ, JAMA, the nine current Archives journals, New England Journal of Medicine, and the Lancet journals. None of them required, recommended, or even mentioned financial disclosure for structured or unstructured abstracts. Thus, readers might think that there was no potential financial conflict of interest when one exists. This is particularly important when the reader is a layperson attempting self education on the internet.

Of course, a reader could access a paper by paying a fee. One time access to the New . . .