Conflicts of interest in one Irish academic publication in 2017 and a comparison with voluntary declarations of pharmaceutical payments from 2016

Problem

Transparency in disclosures of potential conflicts of interest (COI) has been advocated in academic medical publications. Section Three, of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest, outlines clear recommendations for authors with regards to their responsibilities. Authors must declare monies from sources with relevance to the submitted work, not just monies from the entity that sponsored the research, for 36 months prior to submission of the work. Its recommendations state, ‘it is usually better to disclose a relationship than not to do so’. It is uncertain how Irish published-authors meet this standard.

Approach

A descriptive analysis of all publications in the Irish Medical Journal in 2017 was performed, including declarations of potential COI. Voluntary declarations of pharmaceutical payments (transfers of value) were analysed for each IMJ author in the previous year.

Findings

694 authors, in 172 academic articles, published in the IMJ in 2017. 1.2% (n=8) of authors reported a potential conflict of interest. Four of the eight conflicts of interests related to a direct pharmaceutical payment. None of the conflicts of interests were reported in the transfers of value from 2016. Pharmaceutical payments in 2016 were made to 81 (12%) of the IMJ authors in 2017. None were reflected in the conflicts of interest or acknowledgements.

Consequences

A low number of potential COIs were declared in the IMJ in 2017. Furthermore, looking at voluntary declarations of pharmaceutical payments to these authors from 2016, it would appear that there is a possible under-reporting of potential conflicts of interest.