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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/23867 |
| Date | January 2018 |
| Creators | Jaffer, Anushka |
| Contributors | Brouwers, Melissa, Health Research Methodology |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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