DECLARATION OF COMPETING INTEREST

Guidance for authors

A competing interest exists when professional judgement concerning a primary interest (such as patients' welfare or the validity of research) may be influenced by a secondary interest (such as financial gain or personal rivalry). It may arise for the authors of a BMJ article when they have a financial interest that may influence用robably without their knowing葉heir interpretation of their results or those of others.

We, the editors of the BMJ, believe that to make the best decision on how to deal with a paper we should know about any such competing interest that authors may have. We are not aiming at eradicating competing interests葉hey are almost inevitable. We will not reject papers simply because you have a competing interest, but we will make a declaration on whether or not you have competing interests.

We used to ask authors about any competing interests, but we have decided to restrict our request to financial interests. This is largely a tactical move. We hope that it will increase the number of authors who disclose competing interests. Our experience, supported by some research data, was that authors often did not disclose them.

Please answer the following questions

1. Have you in the past five years accepted the following from an organisation that may in any way gain

or lose financially from the results of your study or the conclusions of your review, editorial, or letter:

· Reimbursement for attending a symposium? _____

· A fee for speaking? _____

· A fee for organising education? _____

· Funds for research? _____

· Funds for a member of staff? _____

· Fees for consulting? _____

2. Have you in the past five years been employed by an organisation that may in any way gain or lose financially from the results of your study or the conclusions of your review, editorial, or letter?

3. Do you hold any stocks or shares in an organisation that may in any way gain or lose financially from the results of your study or the conclusions of your review, editorial, or letter?

4. Do you have any other competing financial interests? If so, please specify.

________________________________________________________________________________

If you do have competing interests please draft a statement that we might publish with the article. It might, for example, read:

Competing interests: RS has been reimbursed by Shangri La Products, the manufacturer of elysium, for attending several conferences; TD has been paid by Shangri La Products for running educational programmes and has her research registrar paid for by the company; JS has shares in the company.

If you have none, we will publish: Competing interests: None declared.

We are restricting ourselves to asking directly about competing financial interests, but you might want to disclose another sort of competing interest that would embarrass you if it became generally known after publication. The following list gives some examples.

Guidance for referees

A competing interest exists when professional judgment concerning a primary interest (such as patients' welfare or the validity of research) may be influenced by a secondary interest (such as financial gain or personal rivalry). It may arise for the referees of a BMJ article when they have a financial interest that may influence用robably without their knowing葉heir interpretation of an article.

We, the editors of the BMJ, believe that to make the best decision on how to deal with a paper we should know about any such competing interests that referees may have. We are not aiming at eradicating competing interests葉hey are almost inevitable. We will not reject opinions simply because you have a competing interest, but we would like to know about it.

We used to ask authors and referees about any competing interests, but we have decided to restrict our request to financial interests. This is largely a tactical move. We hope that it will increase the number of people who disclose competing interests. Our experience, supported by some research data, was that people often did not disclose them.

Please answer the following questions

1. Have you in the past five years accepted the following from an organisation that may in any way gain

or lose financially from the publication of this paper:

· Reimbursement for attending a symposium? _____

· A fee for speaking? _____

· A fee for organising education? _____

· Funds for research? _____

· Funds for a member of staff? _____

· Fees for consulting? _____

2. Have you in the past five years been employed by an organisation that may in any way gain or lose financially from the publication of this paper?

3. Do you hold any stocks or shares in an organisation that may in any way gain or lose financially from the publication of this paper?

4. Do you have any other competing financial interests? If so, please specify.

________________________________________________________________________________

We are restricting ourselves to asking directly about competing financial interests, but you might want to disclose another sort of competing interest that would embarrass you if it became generally known after publication. The following list gives some examples.

To learn more about the thinking that has led to this policy please read the editorial by Richard Smith BMJ 1998;317:291-2 (www.bmj.com/guides/advice.shtml#conflict).

Please complete option 1 or 2 as appropriate and sign below

__________________________________________________________________________________

1. I have no competing interest in relation to this paper. ¨ (please tick)

or

2. I have the following competing interests:

 
Title of paper:
 

 
Signed:_____________________________________ Date________________