Conflicts of Interest

A piece of writing's resilience to criticism and public confidence partly depends on how well conflicts of interest are handled during the writing, editing, and peer-review stages. A conflict of interest arises when authors, reviewers, or editors have financial or personal ties that unduly influence (bias) their work. These connections are sometimes known as competing loyalties, competing interests, or dual commitments. The possible impact of these links on judgment ranges from negligible to substantial. In relationships, there aren't always real conflicts of interest. Even if individuals believe that their relationship has no bearing on their capacity to make scientific decisions, they may nonetheless be in a conflict of interest. The conflicts of interest that are most likely to harm the standing of the journal, the authors, and science itself are those with financial ties because they are the easiest to identify. Employment, consulting, stock ownership, honoraria, and compensated expert testimony are a few examples of these connections. However, there are more factors that could lead to conflict, such as strained personal ties, competitiveness in the classroom, and intense intellectual curiosity.

In this sense, disclosure of such relationships is especially important, since it can be more challenging to detect bias in editorials and review articles than in reports of original research. Editors may form their conclusions depending on the information provided in financial interest and conflict of interest disclosures.