Survey of Conflict-of-Interest Disclosure Policies of Ophthalmology Journals

Purpose: To survey the disclosure policy for authors, peer reviewers, and editors in English-language ophthalmology journals. Design: Cross-sectional survey. Participants: English-language ophthalmology journals. Methods: All indexed English-language ophthalmology journals were identified. The journals' websites were reviewed for published conflict-of-interest disclosure policies for authors, peer reviewers, and editors. In cases where no policy was found, the journal's editor was contacted directly to confirm if a policy existed. Main Outcome Measures: The existence of conflict-of-interest policy for authors, peer reviewers, and editors. Results: Forty-two English-language ophthalmology journals were identified. Web-based published conflict-of-interest policies were found for authors in 33 (79%), for peer reviewers in 3 (7%), and for editors in 2 (5%) of the 42 journals. After contacting those journals with no published policies, these numbers increased to 37 (100%) of 37 for authors, 18 (60%) of 30 for peer reviewers, and 10 (33%) of 30 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 Conflict-of-interest policies for peer reviewers and editors are less common and are more likely not to be published compared with those for authors. Financial Disclosure(s): The author(s) have no proprietary or commercial interest in any materials discussed in this article. Ophthalmology 2009;116:1093-1196 (C) 2009 by the American Academy of Ophthalmology.