JAMA Editor-in-Chief Catherine D. DeAngelis, M.D., M.P.H., issues editorial on "The Influence of Money on Medical Science"
Because of the importance of the issue of the influence of money in science and in light of recent incidents involving authors failure to disclose all of their potential conflicts of interest to JAMA, Dr. DeAngelis has written an editorial on the subject which will be posted online at www.JAMA.com Monday, August 7, 2006.
"… we have made no attempt to conceal the episodes of failure to disclose in a simple correction published in JAMA, and we will continue this approach until it becomes unnecessary," Dr. DeAngelis writes. "While our efforts to educate authors about the importance of full disclosure of relevant conflicts of interest and to enforce compliance with tightened rules has not always been received as warmly as we might hope, we do see a silver lining – even in the harshest scrutiny. The intensity of public discussion is invaluable not only for raising the visibility of JAMA's requirements, but also for increasing awareness of the potential influence of money in science and for increasing appreciation for the role that full disclosure of potential conflicts of interest plays in ensuring that physicians and patients can properly interpret, and more importantly, trust, what they read in JAMA." (doi: 10.1001/jama.296.8.jed60051)
For an embargoed copy of the entire editorial, please go to www.jamamedia.org or call 312.464.JAMA or email: mediarelations@jama-archives.org.
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JAMA