Many scientists “don’t perceive . . . a potential conflict of interest because they think they are incorruptible.”DR. ALLAN DETSKY Scientists seldom reveal financial ties to companies whose products they’re researching, a new study shows.
The analysis of 210 biomedical journals found that scientists hardly ever disclose any conflicts of interest they have.
The finding raises questions about the independence of researchers in an age in which industry lavishes grants, gifts and consulting fees on scientists.
The study was carried out by Sheldon Krimsky of Tufts University and L.S. Rothenberg of the University of California.
They analyzed 62,000 articles published in the scientific journals, mostly in the biomedical field, in 1997.
The researchers found that scientists disclosed their financial ties in only one-half of 1 percent of the articles.
Krimsky said that in a separate study of 800 scientific papers two years ago, he found that 34 percent of the authors had conflicts of interest but none were disclosed.
Until the early 1990s, few journals insisted on disclosing the funding source.
Now, the practice is more widespread.
But Krimsky and Rothenberg found that while all 210 journals in their study had funding and personal-interest disclosure policies, 142 of them printed no disclosures.
Krimsky said the disclosure of scientists’ personal financial interests is rare, Krimsky said.
“That suggests the system is not working,” he said.
Krimsky said disclosing financial interests is an overdue response to the growing commercialization of science.
“Now science has as a goal not only the pursuit of knowledge, but the marketing of knowledge,” he said.
A New England Journal of Medicine study last year found that almost every researcher publicly supporting the use of new drugs to fight high blood pressure had financial ties to the drug manufacturers, none of which were disclosed.
Many scientists “don’t perceive that these ties put them in a potential conflict of interest because they think they are incorruptible,” said the study’s author, Dr. Allan Detsky.
Detsky, who is a member of the journal’s editorial board, said that even that publication, a leader in setting disclosure standards, gives scientists too much leeway in deciding what needs to be disclosed.