Schneider Nils, Lingner Heidrun, Schwartz Friedrich W
Department of Epidemiology, Social Medicine and Health System Research, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
BMC Health Serv Res. 2007 Jun 1;7:78. doi: 10.1186/1472-6963-7-78.
The influence of the pharmaceutical industry and other stakeholders on medical science has been increasingly criticised. When dealing with conflicts of interest in scientific publications it is important to ensure the best possible transparency. The objective of this work is to examine the disclosure practice of financial and non-financial conflicts of interest in German language publications concerning health services research for the first time.
We performed a systematic literature search in the PubMed data base using the MeSH term "health services research". The review was conducted on July 10, 2006, setting the limits "dates: published in the last 2 years" and "languages: German" (only articles with abstracts). 124 articles in 31 magazines were found. In the magazines the instructions for authors were examined as to whether a statement on conflicts of interest is expected--and if, in which form. Regarding the articles in the journals which require a statement, we examined whether the statement is explicitly published. The results are descriptively represented.
13 magazines (42%) do not require any statement on conflicts of interest, whereas 18 journals (58%) expect a statement. Two of these 18 magazines refer explicitly to the uniform requirements of the International Committee of the Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE); the remaining 16 magazines give differently accentuated instructions on how to disclose conflicts of interest, whereby the focus is primarily on financial issues. A statement on conflicts of interest is explicitly published in 11 of the 71 articles (15%) which are found in the magazines that require a statement with the submission of a manuscript. Related to the total number of included articles, this means that the reader explicitly receives information on potential conflicts of interest in 9% of the cases (11 of 124 articles). Statements of others that are involved in the publication process (reviewers, editors) are not available in any of the articles examined.
A better sensitization for possible conflicts of interest in German publications concerning health services research is necessary. We suggest tightening the criteria for disclosure in the instructions for authors in the scientific journals. Among other things the equivalent consideration of financial and non-financial conflicts of interest as well as the obligatory publication of the statements should be part of good practice.
制药行业及其他利益相关方对医学科学的影响日益受到批评。在处理科学出版物中的利益冲突时，确保尽可能高的透明度非常重要。这项工作的目的是首次研究德语健康服务研究出版物中财务和非财务利益冲突的披露情况。
我们在PubMed数据库中使用医学主题词“健康服务研究”进行了系统的文献检索。该综述于2006年7月10日进行，设置了“日期：过去两年内发表”和“语言：德语”（仅含摘要的文章）的限制。共找到31种杂志上的124篇文章。在这些杂志中，检查了作者须知中是否要求提供利益冲突声明，以及要求的话，以何种形式。对于要求声明的期刊上的文章，我们检查了声明是否明确发表。结果以描述性方式呈现。
13种杂志（42%）不要求任何利益冲突声明，而18种期刊（58%）要求声明。这18种杂志中有两种明确提及医学期刊编辑国际委员会（ICMJE）的统一要求；其余16种杂志就如何披露利益冲突给出了侧重点不同的说明，其中主要侧重于财务问题。在要求投稿时提供声明的杂志所收录的71篇文章中，有11篇（15%）明确发表了利益冲突声明。就纳入文章的总数而言，这意味着在9%的情况下（124篇文章中的11篇）读者能明确获得有关潜在利益冲突的信息。在所检查的任何文章中均未提供参与出版过程的其他人（审稿人、编辑）的声明。
有必要提高德语健康服务研究出版物对可能存在的利益冲突的敏感度。我们建议在科学期刊的作者须知中收紧披露标准。除其他事项外，对财务和非财务利益冲突同等重视以及强制发表声明应成为良好做法的一部分。
