P.Mean: Positive statements about no conflicts of interest (created 2011-08-16).

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There is a lot of confusion about when you can report "No conflict of interest." You don't know whether this means that there is no financial relationship with any pharmaceutical product, with a phamaceutical product named in the paper, or with competitors to pharmaceutical products named in the paper. You don't know if the person making the claim about no conflict has gotten money from a drug company, but believes that this does not influlence his/her perspective. I believe that the no conflict statement should be replaced with something far more specific. Here are some examples.

There is no conflict of interest to report in this paper, because this paper does not advocate or discourage the use of any commercial product, nor does it support or oppose change in any regulations that might enhance or deter the promotion or sale of any commercial product.

There is no conflict of interest to report in this paper. Although this paper does advocate or discourage the use of a commercial product (name specific products here or specify a class of products), the authors do not have a financial interest in any of these products, nor in any commercial products that might compete with these products.

There is no conflict of interest to report in this paper. Although this paper does support or oppose changes in regulations, these regulations do not have any impact on the sales of any commercial product.

There is no conflict of interest to report in this paper. Although this paper does support or oppose changes in regulations that have an impact on the promotion or sale of commercial products (name specific products here or specify a class of products), the authors do not have a financial interest in any of these products not in any commercial products that might compete with these products.

Note that I am restricting these statements to "commercial products". If a paper advocates greater use of a general medical approach, such as surgery or massage, there is no conflict of interest to report, even if the author is a surgeon or masseuse. Also, financial ties to products that are irrelevant to the paper do not consistute a reportable conflict of interest. Finally, the mere mention of a product does not trigger the need to report a conflict of interest. It is only relevant if there is advocacy: promotion or discouragement of the use of a commercial product or suopport or oppostion to regulations that affect the promotion or sales of a commercial product.

Creative Commons License This page was written by Steve Simon and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License. Need more information? I have a page with general help resources. You can also browse for pages similar to this one at Conflict Of Interest.