Disclosure of conflict of interest and/or financial support is required when work is accepted and drafts are sent (this rule applies to all manuscripts, including regular articles, brief reports, editorials, reviews, book reviews, clinical case conferences, and letters to the Editor). The authors are responsible for informing the Journal of any additional conflicts of interest or financial support that may arise prior to the date of publication of their paper. Financial support for the study is always disclosed, whether from governmental, non-profit, or commercial sources. Other non-financial forms of support, such as drugs, analytic support, or other assistance with preparation of the manuscript, must also be acknowledged. In addition, all authors must individually disclose all potential conflicts of interest and financial support, whether or not directly related to the subject of their paper; for example all equity ownership, profit-sharing agreements, royalties, patents, and research or other grants from private industry or closely affiliated non-profit funds. For income from pharmaceutical companies, the purpose must be specified, e.g., speakers’ bureau honoraria or other CME activity, travel funds, advisory panel payments, research grants. Reporting should encompass the previous 12 months. There may be other potential conflicts of interest. It is the author’s responsibility to disclose anything in addition to the above that might be construed as potentially affecting the reporting of the study. If an author has no interests to disclose, this must be explicitly stated and will be acknowledged in print as “Dr. X reports no competing interests.” A Disclosure of Conflict of Interest and Financial Support Form, which must be completed and signed by all authors upon provisional acceptance of the paper, is available here.
The Editors will review all author statements of conflict of interest and financial support to determine if there is evidence of bias from these sources. If it appears that there may be, then further review and possible rejection of the manuscript may occur. Authors are encouraged to contact the Editor at any stage in the manuscript review process if they believe that they have conflicts of interest that require review.