On March 13, 2012 PLoS Medicine published an analysis by Lisa Cosgrove and Sheldon Krimsky [1] that examined the financial conflicts of interest of members of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) responsible for updating the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the so-called bible of psychiatry. Despite a new APA policy designed to address conflicts of interest (CO...

Conflict of interest (COI) affects every aspect of medicine, including clinical care, teaching, and research. According to one definition, “A conflict of interest exists when professional judgment concerning a primary interest (such as patients' welfare or the validity of research) may be influenced by a secondary interest (such as financial gain). Perceptions of conflict of interest are as imp...

As stewards of the JCI, we are responsible for instituting and sustaining the highest possible standards for integrity. To this end, we have established a very specific set of guidelines for handling potential conflicts of interest - not only for authors and referees, but also for ourselves.

M ORETHAN 30YEARSAGO, BRONOWSKI, WHO SPOKE so poetically about the ethos of science, wrote that “the body of scientists is trained to avoid and organized to resist every form of persuasion but the fact.” The values of science, he argued, are “inescapable conditions for its practice." But the practice of science, especially the biomedical sciences, has changed significantly since Bronowski made ...