>Science journal seeks authors' disclosure
>
>Financial Times, Aug 24, 2001
>By GAUTAM MALKANI
>
>Nature, the scientific journal, is to urge its authors to disclose any
>financial interests related to their
>studies in response to growing concerns over increasing links between
>industry and science.
>
>The move is the latest to address potential conflicts of interest within
>the scientific community and
>Nature said it was particularly keen to promote transparency in research
>affecting public policy.
>
>Philip Campbell, Nature's editor-in-chief, said the new policy was not
>based on the assumption that
>commercial interests led to a lack of research integrity, but said it
>would promote stronger foundations
>for public trust.
>
>"If financial interests are disclosed, readers will be able to make an
>informed judgment about their
>significance or lack of significance," he said. "But we are not changing
>the way we assess our papers
>and we are not saying science is undermined by industrial funding."
>
>Nature publishes a broad range of scientific studies and its new policy
>echoes those of specialised
>medical journals such as The Lancet and British Medical Journal - both
>of which have long required
>authors to disclose financial interests.
>
>"This a pervasive problem in medical research and it's now creeping into
>basic science," said Richard
>Horton, editor of The Lancet.
>
>Pharmaceutical companies have traditionally sponsored trials of new
>drugs but in recent years there
>have been growing concerns that the close relationship between industry
>and scientists could
>compromise the independence of the latter.
>
>Funding concerns have also been fuelled by recent political disputes
>over issues such as genetically
>modified crops and potential health risks associated with mobile
>telephony.
>
>In May the US General Accounting Office, Congress's watchdog, published
>a report identifying
>"concerns about the objectivity of industry-funded research" and
>encouraged greater involvement by
>federal bodies, such as the Food and Drug Administration.
>
>Nature will not require authors to declare their financial interests,
>but where they decline their decision
>will be published.
>
>Full article at:
>http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/articles.html?print=true&id=01
>0824001626

Robert Maxwell Young, Prof. Emeritus of Psychotherapy & Psychoanalytic Studies,
Centre for Psychotherapeutic Studies, Univ. of Sheffield,
http://www.shef.ac.uk/~psysc/
Co-Director, Bulgarian Institute of Human Relations & Honoured Prof.,
New Bulgarian Univ., Sofia. http://www.nbu.bg/bihr/psy.htm
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