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Science 15 September 2006:
Vol. 313. no. 5793, p. 1553
DOI: 10.1126/science.313.5793.1553b
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ScienceScope

The influential officials who oversee conflict-of-interest policies for their institutions think that a little disclosure goes a long way. A survey of 45 senior U.S. researchers in the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics has found that although all believe conflicts should be disclosed to volunteers participating in clinical research, few thought that the details of those conflicts were worth sharing. "I do not really think that there is a lot of need for saying Company XYZ is paying me $6000 for every patient we enroll in this" if the money funds research, one of those surveyed explained. Thirty-four researchers believed the funding source should be disclosed, but many feared that given dollar amounts, research participants would overestimate the influence of the payment on the investigator's behavior. An earlier study by the researchers who did the survey, led by scientists at Johns Hopkins University, found that both healthy and chronically ill people rated disclosure more important as the risk of research rose.




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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)