Why Having a (Nonfinancial) Interest Is Not a Conflict of Interest
Item Type
Author
Language
English
Abstract
A current debate about conflicts of interest related to biomedical research is to question whether the focus on financial conflicts of interest overshadows “nonfinancial” interests that could put scientific judgment at equal or greater risk of bias. There is substantial evidence that financial conflicts of interest such as commercial sponsorship of research and investigators lead to systematic biases in scientific research at all stages of the research process. Conflation of “conflicts of interest” with “interests” in general serves to muddy the waters about how to manage conflicts of interest. We call for heightened disclosure of conflicts of interest and policy action beyond disclosure as the sole management strategy. We propose a different strategy to manage interests more broadly to ensure fair representation and accountability.
Subject
Finance
Careers in research
Industrial research
Research funding
Research grants
Research integrity
Scientists
Social research
Publication Title
Publication Year
2016
Publication Date
2016-12-21
Journal abreviation
PLOS Biology
Source
PLoS Journals
License
ISSN
1545-7885
Physical Description
vol. 14, n. 12, pp. e2001221