Abstract
Almost all medical journals now require authors to publicly disclose conflicts of interests (COI). The same standard and scrutiny is rarely employed for the editors of the journals although COI may affect editorial decisions. We conducted a retrospective observational study to determine the prevalence and magnitude of financial relationships among editors of 60 influential US medical journals (10 each for internal medicine and five subspecialties: cardiology, gastroenterology, neurology, dermatology and allergy & immunology). Open Payments database was reviewed to determine the percentage of physician editors receiving payments and the nature and amount of these payments. 703 unique physician editors were included in our analysis. 320/703 (46%) received 8659 general payments totaling $8,120,562. The median number of payments per editor was 9 (IQR 3-26) and the median amount per payment was $91 (IQR $21-441). The median total payment received by each editor in one year was $4,364 (IQR $319-23,143). 152 (48%) editors received payments more than $5,000 in a year, a threshold considered significant by the National Institutes of Health. COI policies for editors were available for 34/60 (57%) journals but only 7/34 (21%) publicly rep...Continue Reading
References
Jul 1, 1994·Psychological Bulletin·T D Wilson, N Brekke
Apr 16, 1997·JAMA : the Journal of the American Medical Association·B J DongF S Greenspan
Dec 17, 1998·Neurology·K Kieburtz
Sep 1, 2004·CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association Journal = Journal De L'Association Medicale Canadienne·Irina HaivasRichard Smith
Apr 28, 2006·Neuropsychopharmacology : Official Publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology·Charles B NemeroffStephen K Brannan
Feb 27, 2008·Accountability in Research·Kevin C Elliott
Aug 23, 2008·Science·Timothy D Wilson, Yoav Bar-Anan
Aug 13, 2009·Croatian Medical Journal·Ana Marusić
Oct 12, 2010·The Spine Journal : Official Journal of the North American Spine Society·Brian L JuJonathan N Grauer
Oct 13, 2011·BMJ : British Medical Journal·Jennifer NeumanSalomeh Keyhani
Aug 18, 2012·PLoS Medicine·Aaron S KesselheimJerry Avorn
Oct 16, 2012·The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics : a Journal of the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics·Robert Steinbrook, Bernard Lo
Apr 5, 2013·European Journal of Clinical Investigation·Xavier BoschPamela Doti
May 7, 2013·BMC Medical Ethics·Julie Bolette Brix BindslevAndreas Lundh
Jan 1, 2014·Psychological Science·Sunita Sah, George Loewenstein
Jun 5, 2015·PloS One·Stein J JanssenJorrit-Jan Verlaan
Jan 15, 2016·Mayo Clinic Proceedings·Deborah C MarshallJona A Hattangadi-Gluth
May 7, 2016·Mayo Clinic Proceedings·Daniel T Oberlin, Chris M Gonzalez
May 10, 2016·JAMA Internal Medicine·James S YehAaron S Kesselheim
May 18, 2016·PloS One·Roy H Perlis, Clifford S Perlis
Jun 21, 2016·JAMA Internal Medicine·Colette DeJongR Adams Dudley
Jan 24, 2017·JAMA Internal Medicine·Akilah A Jefferson, Steven D Pearson
Citations
Jul 30, 2019·Cancer·Ramy R SalehEitan Amir
Jul 26, 2019·BMJ Open·Rafael Dal-RéAna Marusic
Apr 10, 2020·The Oncologist·Waqas HaqueDavid Hsiehchen
Sep 8, 2018·Intensive Care Medicine·Julian BionCharles Sprung
Apr 25, 2019·Journal of Bioethical Inquiry·Jaime A Teixeira da SilvaCharles T Mehlman
Sep 25, 2020·BMJ : British Medical Journal·Rafael Dal-RéAna Marušić
Mar 20, 2019·Aesthetic Surgery Journal·Hunter Alexander
Jun 14, 2020·The Journal of Surgical Research·Syed Z KaleemJuan L Poggio
Dec 15, 2020·European Journal of Public Health·Alyssa RalphAndrew Hutchings
Mar 25, 2021·Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice·Michael MakhinsonIndra Neil Guha
Dec 9, 2021·European Journal of Oral Sciences·Clovis Mariano Faggion
Aug 18, 2020·Journal of Dentistry·Clovis Mariano FaggionRafael R Moraes