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Editorials

Disclosure of competing interests

BMJ 2009; 339 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.b4144 (Published 12 October 2009) Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b4144
  1. Jeffrey M Drazen, editor in chief, New England Journal of Medicine,
  2. Martin B Van Der Weyden, editor, Medical Journal of Australia,
  3. Paush Sahni, representative and past president, World Association of Medical Editors,
  4. Jacob Rosenberg, editor, Journal of the Danish Medical Association,
  5. Ana Marusic, editor in chief, Croatian Medical Journal,
  6. Christine Laine, editor, Annals of Internal Medicine,
  7. Sheldon Kotzin, associate director for library operations, National Library of Medicine,
  8. Richard Horton, editor, Lancet,
  9. Paul C Hébert, editor in chief, Canadian Medical Association Journal,
  10. Charlotte Haug, editor in chief, Norwegian Medical Journal,
  11. Fiona Godlee, editor in chief, BMJ,
  12. Frank A Frizelle, editor in chief, New Zealand Medical Journal,
  13. Peter W de Leeuw, executive editor, Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde (Dutch Journal of Medicine),
  14. Catherine D DeAngelis, editor in chief, JAMA
  1. jdrazen{at}nejm.org

    A new standardised format that all journals could use

    Disclosure of financial associations of authors of articles published in biomedical journals has become common practice. The information provided in these disclosures helps the reader to understand the relationships between the authors and various commercial entities that may have an interest in the information reported in the published article. At present, many journals ask authors to report such relationships by completing a form with information about their financial associations. The journals then either post the complete information online or create a summary of the information and publish it with the article in question. Although efforts are under way to establish uniform reporting systems, there is currently no uniform vehicle for the disclosure of financial associations. Thus authors may provide similar information to different journals in multiple formats. In addition, slight differences among journals in requirements for reporting can lead to confusion, because the same individual may report different information to different journals. With this …

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