School of Public Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW.
Med J Aust. 2012 Apr 16;196(7):452-6. doi: 10.5694/mja11.11224.
To document the existence and provisions of Australian universities' policies on the competing interests of academic staff and university practices in recording, updating and making these declarations publicly accessible.
A 14-item survey was sent to the vice-chancellors of 39 Australian universities and university websites were searched for relevant policies.
Twelve universities declined to provide any information. Of the 27 that did, all had policies on staff competing interests. Fifteen did not require regular declarations from staff and only four required annual declarations. Eight universities maintained a centralised register of COIs of all staff and six had a mechanism in place that allowed members of the public to access information on COIs. None reported that they required that staff place their COI declarations on their website profiles and none had policies that indicated that staff should declare COIs when making a public comment.
Australian universities vary significantly in their approaches to the declaration and management of competing interests. While two-thirds of Australian universities require staff to declare competing interests, this information is mostly inaccessible to the public. Australian universities should adopt a standard approach to the declaration and management of competing interests and commit to meaningful transparency and public accountability. This could include frequently updated declarations on website profiles of all staff. In addition, dialogue about what is needed to effectively deal with competing interests should be encouraged.
记录澳大利亚大学学术人员利益冲突政策的存在和规定，以及记录、更新和公开这些声明的大学实践。
向 39 所澳大利亚大学的副校长发送了一份 14 项调查，并且还搜索了相关政策的大学网站。
12 所大学拒绝提供任何信息。在 27 所提供信息的大学中，所有大学都制定了员工利益冲突政策。其中 15 所大学没有要求员工定期申报利益冲突，只有 4 所大学要求每年申报。有 8 所大学维护所有员工利益冲突集中登记册，有 6 所大学制定了允许公众获取利益冲突信息的机制。没有大学报告要求员工在其网站简介上发布利益冲突申报，也没有大学政策表明员工在发表公开评论时应申报利益冲突。
澳大利亚大学在利益冲突的申报和管理方法上存在显著差异。尽管三分之二的澳大利亚大学要求员工申报利益冲突，但这些信息大多公众无法获取。澳大利亚大学应采用统一的利益冲突申报和管理方法，并承诺实现有意义的透明度和公众问责制。这可能包括在所有员工的网站简介上定期更新申报。此外，还应鼓励开展关于有效处理利益冲突所需内容的对话。
