'They would say that, wouldn't they?' A reader's guide toauthor and sponsor biases in clinical research
Open accessAbstract
‘This study was funded by (Company A). Professor XYZ has received honoraria and travel support for lectures and advisory boards, as well as research grants, from (Company A) and (Company B).’ Commercial sponsorship of clinical research, especially for drugs, is ubiquitous. One of the solutions to some of the dilemmas arising from this is full disclosure of authors’ financial interests and relationships with sponsors. But is disclosure enough, and what should we as readers make of the fine print at the end of journal articles? Is sponsorship bias the only bias we should watch out for? The arguments for and against are familiar. In one corner, people accuse researchers of having sold out; no one should believe anything that Professor XYZ now says. From the other corner, people energetically defend academics ’ integrity and argue that we can pretty much
Integrity signals
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Financial connections between researchers and commercial or other entities and firmly held ideological or intellectual views can lead to bias in the design, conduct, or reporting of study results.
“Financial connections between researchers and commercial or other entities and firmly held ideological or intellectual views can lead to bias in the design, conduct, or reporting of study results.”
From Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology using Mendelian Randomisation (STROBE-MR): explanation and elaboration. (2021) · cites this paper as [128]
When financial or ideological interests are not disclosed, public trust in the research enterprise is eroded.
“When such interests are not disclosed, public trust in the research enterprise is eroded.128”
From Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology using Mendelian Randomisation (STROBE-MR): explanation and elaboration. (2021) · cites this paper as [128]
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Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Skrivankova, V. W., Richmond, R. C., Woolf, B. A. R., Davies, N. M., Swanson, S. A., VanderWeele, T. J., Timpson, N. J., Higgins, J. P. T., Dimou, N., Langenberg, C., et al. (2021) · BMJ · doi:10.1136/bmj.n2233 · Cited by 1,648 · see citing works
- Authors
- Bastian, H.
- Affiliations
- Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Bastian, H.
- ORCID
- Bastian, H.
- Venue
- Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2006-12-01
- Volume
- 99
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 611-614
- ISSN
- 0141-0768 (ISSN-L)
- 1758-1095
- PMC
- PMC1676333
- OpenAlex
- W1982064849
- Cited by
- 11
- References
- 22
- Citations by year
- 2023: 1 · 2021: 3 · 2019: 1 · 2016: 2 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 0.61
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics › Pharmacology › Pharmaceutical industry and healthcare
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Academic integrity and plagiarism
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Information Systems and Management › Academic Publishing and Open Access
- Keywords
- sponsorship bias, author bias, conflict of interest disclosure, pharmaceutical industry funding, research integrity
- MeSH terms
- Research Support as Topic, Bias, Conflict of Interest, Biomedical Research
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