Abstract
Purpose: :
To survey the disclosure policy for authors, peer-reviewers and editors of English language ophthalmology journals.
Methods: :
Cross-sectional survey of English language ophthalmology journals. All indexed English language ophthalmology journals were identified. The journals’ web pages were reviewed for published conflict of interest disclosure policies for authors, peer-reviewers and editors. In cases where no policy was found the journals’ editor was contacted directly to confirm if a policy existed. The main outcome measure was the existence of a conflict of interest policy for authors, peer-reviewers and editors.
Results: :
42 English language ophthalmology journals were identified. Web based published conflict of interest policies were found for authors in 33 (79%), peer-reviewers in 3 (7%) and editors in 2 (5%) of the 42 journals. After contacting those journals with no published policies these numbers increased to 37/37 (100%) for authors, 18/30 (60%) for peer-reviewers and 10/30 (33%) for editors. Seven journals with published disclosure policies for authors but not for peer-reviewers or editors, did not respond to the survey, and a further 5 journals without any published disclosure policy did not respond to the survey. Journals with a higher impact factor were more likely to have a web based published disclosure policy for peer-reviewers and a disclosure policy for editors.
Conclusions: :
Most English language ophthalmology journals have a conflict of interest policy for authors however they are not publicly available in 21% of journals. Conflict of interest policies for peer-reviewers and editors are less common and more likely not to be published compared to authors.
Keywords: clinical research methodology