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Introduction: Conflict of interest (COI) exists when an individual in the publication process has a competing interest that could compromise their publication process responsibility. COI is commonly associated with authors and less so with editors. Many organizations (e.g. World Association of Medical Editors (WAME)) provide resources and recommendations for addressing COIs at medical journals. However, there are no data describing journals’ utilization of these resources for editor COI policy development or adoption, and little data on the value of editor COI policies. This study aimed to understand current editor COI practices and editors’ perceptions of COI policies, along with barriers to their implementation. Methods: An online survey developed in LimeSurveyTM was distributed to editorial board members of oncology and health care sciences and services journals to measure respondents’ attitudes about COI definitions and features and COI policy experience; barriers to implementing editor COI policies; and editors’ perceptions of COI policies. Frequency analysis of survey data was conducted. Free-text responses were summarized. Results: Response rate was 20.2% (66/327), and comprised complete and partial survey respondents. The majority of respondents were editors-in-chief. Overall, respondents agreed that defined WAME COI domains were important components of an editor COI policy. Nearly 50% of respondents belonged to journals with existing editor COI policies, which they continued to use. Nearly 25% were unaware of the current editor COI policy status at their journal. Few implementation barriers were identified, the most common being challenges with verification of disclosures. Overall, respondents did not report strong attitudes in favour of or against editor COI policies, but respondents agreed that journals with an editor COI policy were more credible and trustworthy. Conclusion: This study shows that editor COI policy development and utilization is not a universal standard of practice and suggests that recognition of the value of an editor COI policy may not be widespread among editorial board members. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / Conflict of interest (COI) can play an important role in the stages of getting research published. However, COI of journal editors has not been studied. The aim of this study was to find whether COI policies for editors exist and to probe editors’ perceptions about the policies. The study found that editors believe COI policies are important but for the most part, whether a journal has an editor policy or not, does not affect their perception of the journal’s validity, quality, and transparency. This study also suggests there are few barriers to implementing an editor COI policy. Additional research is needed to demonstrate the role COI plays in the research enterprise with regard to research integrity, and journal credibility and trustworthiness.

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Tesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 1992. / Een kopie mikrofiche. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The lack of scientific psychometric aids for use during the critical stages of developmental phases of German-speaking Namibian pupils, necessitated this investigation. When careerrelated decisions like subject, course and career choices are made, most pupils require scientific information about themselves. Of all these sources of information, those pertaining to the measurement of interests play the most significant role in the making of career decisions. By means of the present study an attempt was made to develop an interest questionnaire for German-speaking pupils. The way in which items of Afrikaans and English interest questionnaires were formulated, as well as the vocabulary that was used in these questionnaires, resulted in uncertainties. Insufficient face validity together with irrelevant norms resulted in distorted pictures of pupils' interests with the subsequent non-optimal decisions or doubts regarding the validity of the instruments. Given the Southern African nature of the items of the KODUS-BelangstellingsvraelysjKODUS Interest Questionnaire as well as the more than satisfactory results that were achieved by the thorough research that went into the original standardisation, it was decided to translate and adapt these questionnaires for use with German speaking Namibian pupils. In translating and adapting the questionnaire various factors had to be taken into consideration ·in order to produce an instrument that would measure the same fields of interest as the original Afrikaans·· and English questionnaires. Following a pilot study, it was found that no alterations to the questionnaire would be required. The subsequent standardisation yielded results indicating that the questionnaire was translated and adapted satisfactorily and that it measures the same interest fields as the Afrikaans and English questionnaires. Separate norms had to be compiled for the various sex and standard groups. The "KODUS-Interessenfragebogen (Deutsch)" in its present form is suitable for scientific use with German-speaking pupils of Namibia. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die afwesigheid van wetenskaplik-gefundeerde psigometriese hulpmiddels wat op kritieke oomblikke in die ontwikkelingsfases van Duitssprekende leerlinge van Namibie gebruik kan word, het hierdie ondersoek genoodsaak. Wanneer vak-, studiekursus- en beroepskeuses gemaak word, benodig die meeste leerlinge wetenskaplik-verkree inligting oor hulleself. Van al die tipes hulpmiddels wat sodanige inligting verskaf, speel die wat belangstelling meet die belangrikste rol in die neem van beroepsbesluite. Deur middel van hierdie ondersoek is gevolglik 'n poging aangewend om 'n belangstellingsvraelys vir Duitssprekende leerlinge te ontwikkel. Die items van Afrikaans- en Engelstalige vraelyste is so gestel en die woordeskat wat gebruik is was van so 'n aard, dat dit dikwels tot onduidelikheid by leerlinge aanleiding gegee het. Gebrekkige gesigsgeldigheid wat tesame met nie-toepaslike norms in sommige gevalle 'n verwronge beeld van die leerlinge se belangstellings weerspieel het, het hieruit voortgevloei. In ag genome die Suider-Afrikaanse aard van die KODUS belangstellingsvraelysjKODUS Interest Questionnaire se items sowel as die meer as bevredigende resultate, wat met behulp van deeglike navorsing tydens die oorspronklike standaardisering van hierdie vraelyste verkry is, is besluit om hierdie vraelys vir Duitssprekende leerlinge van Namibie te vertaal, aan te pas en te standaardiseer. Tydens die vertaling en aanpassing moes verskeie faktore in aanmerking geneem word, sodat 'n vraelys daargestel kon word wat dieselfde belangstellings as die oorspronklike Afrikaanse en Engelse vraelyste sou meet. Na afloop van 'n vooraf-ondersoek. kon 'n normberekeningsondersoek sonder enige veranderings uitgevoer word. Uit hierdie normberekeningsondersoek is bevind dat die aanpassings en die vertaling wei bevredigend was en dat die vraelys dieselfde belangstellings as die oorspronklike Afrikaans- en Engelstalige vraelyste meet. Afsonderlike norms moes vir die verskillende geslagte en die onderskeie standerd-groepe opgestel word. Die KODUS-Interessentragebogen (Deutsch) is in sy huidige vorm geskik vir wetenskaplike gebruik deur Duitssprekende leerlinge van Namibie. / pdv201410

Ever since the big recession of the world economy 2007, the central banks in Europe have struggled to regain financial stability. Their goals have been hard to reach and 2014 The European Central bank (ECB) introduced negative interest rates for the first time in the world history. However, today, year 2016, many countries still have not been able to reach their inflation target. During this time with expansive monetary policies, many European Union (EU) members have faced rising level of household debts to GDP. This study focus on EU-members and uses a Vector Autoregressive method, Granger causality test and an impulse-response test to give a greater understanding about the association between the level of household debt and interest rate. Further, it aims to investigate if the negative interest rate has an impact on that association. However, our empirical results show that there is a significant negative association between the level of household debt and the interest rate in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Finland, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden. Further, they show that there is a granger causality from the interest rate to the level of household debt for Belgium, Finland, Germany, Poland, Slovakia and Sweden. For all these countries, our findings show that a shock in the interest rate have a short-term effect on the level of household debt. Lastly, we found no statistical significant evidence for that the negative association between the interest rate and the level of household debt does increase when the interest rate is negative.