正视、公开和管理利益冲突,促进学术健康发展

2020年11月21日在重庆召开的第十二届慢性病毒性肝炎抗病毒治疗难点和热点学术会议上,庄辉院士发言评价了当前颇受争议的两个药物在某一领域的收益问题。演讲一开始他就声明与这两家药企无利益冲突,以表明自己发言的独立和公正立场。这种利益冲突声明在国内学术活动中很少见,因为并没有被明确要求。因此,庄辉院士主动进行利益冲突声明的做法更显得难能可贵,值得我们学习。     

Tobacco industry sponsorship of a book and conflict of interest

AIM: The tobacco industry has hidden its involvement in the design, conduct and publication of scientific research articles and has used the articles to argue against tobacco regulation. The objective of this study is to examine tobacco industry involvement in the development of scientific books. DESIGN: Qualitative analysis of previously secret internal tobacco industry documents retrieved from the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library (http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu). Information from the documents was supplemented with material from Internet searches, the National Center for Biotechnology Information Pubmed database and interviews with individuals involved in book publication. FINDINGS: Between 1997 and 1999 the tobacco industry sponsored a monograph, entitled 'Analytical Determination of Nicotine and Related Compounds and their Metabolites', that examined the measurement and metabolism of nicotine. The tobacco industry recruited Elsevier Science to publish the monograph. Tobacco industry executives, lawyers and scientists reviewed the chapters. One use of the monograph was to stimulate collaborative efforts between academic and tobacco industry scientists. Another was to provide the book to a government regulatory agency reviewing the teratogenic effects of nicotine. CONCLUSION: Our findings show the breadth of tobacco industry engagement in scientific knowledge production and dissemination, and its motives for sponsoring scientific literature. The industry's effort to gain credibility through collaboration with academic scientists raises questions regarding the ethics of accepting tobacco industry funding for publication. Scientists who collaborate on publications sponsored by the tobacco industry must consider the full implications of these joint efforts.     

A common standard for conflict of interest disclosure in addiction journals

This paper presents a common standard for conflict of interest disclosure. The common standard was drafted by the authors, following consultation with a multi-disciplinary group of journal editors, publishers, bioethicists and other academics. It is presented here for the benefit of authors, editorial managers, journal editors and peer reviewers to stimulate discussion and to provide guidance to authors in reporting real, apparent and potential conflicts of interest. It is particularly relevant to addiction specialty journals because of the potential conflicts of interest associated with funding from the alcohol, tobacco, pharmaceutical and gambling industries. Following an appropriate period of vetting the common standard within the scientific community, it is recommended that journal editors adopt journal policies and reporting procedures that are consistent across journals.