Other relevant financial relationships outside the submitted work (section 3 of the form) were reported by a small proportion of authors for the following categories: board members paid to the institution, travel and subsistence expenses (Table 3). The other categories listed in this section have not been reported. Financial relationships between spouses/partners/children (section 4 of the form) and non-financial relationships (section 5 of the form) have not been disclosed by any author. Public confidence in the scientific process and the credibility of published articles depend in part on the transparency with which conflicts of interest are treated in the planning, implementation, writing, peer review, editing and publication of scientific articles. In one case, the text of the sample form was sent to us from the ICMJE website (Sample ICMJE Uniform Disclosure Form for Potential Conflicts of Interest, available at www.icmje.org/sample_disclosure.pdf). This may be due to the confusion of authors who are not native English speakers and who probably confused the sample form with the official form available for download. This could be avoided by providing the sample form as a protected document that cannot be edited. ICMJE is currently developing a glossary of terms used in the declaration form, which will be translated into the main languages and hopefully facilitate the use of the form for non-English speaking authors. The risk of conflicts of interest and distortion exists when the professional evaluation of a principal interest (e.B. of patient well-being or the validity of research) may be influenced by a secondary interest (p.B. financial gain).

The perception of conflicts of interest is just as important as actual conflicts of interest. Your completed form must NOT be sent to the ICMJE and cannot be stored on the ICMJE website. Save the form on your own computer and check with the magazine that you are sending specific instructions on how to send your completed form to it. On 1 July 2010, the International Committee of Editors of Medical Journals (ICMJE), of which the Croatian Medical Journal (CMJ) is a member, published the revised Uniform Form for the Declaration of Conflicts of Interest (1). ICMJE journals used the trial version of the form last year after the publication of their first declaration on the new conflict of interest declaration form (2). The form has been available to the public since October 2009 (2). The main objective of the Unified Declaration was to simplify and standardize conflict of interest reporting in the biomedical research community, but also to make important information accessible to a wider readership. The ICMJE Unified Declaration Form came amid the debate in the United States about the need for transparency in physician-industry relations. The debate culminated in the Physician Payment Sunshine Act (3), which will come into force in the United States in 2013.

This bill would require an annual report on all physician payments for a cumulative value of $100 and the statement would be made available to the public. In order to provide evidence of the revision of the declaration form and to establish the baseline data for future follow-up, we present our experience with the use of the new unified conflict disclosure obtained from the authors of selected manuscripts to complete the ICMJE form (264 contributors for 67 manuscripts submitted from 18 November 2009 to 30 June 2010). You do not submit your completed form to the ICMJE. Download the ICMJE form, fill it out and save it to your computer. You must then submit the completed form to the journal where you are submitting your manuscript. The ICMJE has developed its disclosure form to promote a standardized approach to these statements. Some journals may use different forms or mechanisms to report conflicts of interest and potential disclosures, and you should review the information for journal authors to whom you wish to send your manuscript. Reviewers should be asked to review a manuscript when asked if they have any relationships or activities that could complicate their review. Reviewers must disclose to publishers any relationships or activities that could distort their opinion of the manuscript and must withdraw from the review of certain manuscripts if there is a risk of bias. Reviewers are not allowed to use knowledge of the work they are reviewing to promote their own interests prior to publication.

We cordially invite our authors to continue to submit their comments and suggestions to further improve the declaration form. As of July 1, 2010, the completion of the form will be mandatory for all submitted manuscripts. We will continue to track and analyze by explaining our contributors` potential conflicts of interest as part of our standard publishing policy and actively participating in promoting transparency in the collaboration of biomedical researchers and funding agencies. Intentional failure to report relationships or activities identified on the journal disclosure form is a form of misconduct as described in Section III.B. No, and we won`t. The ICMJE does not receive or accept disclosure forms. Your completed form must be submitted to the journal to which you are submitting your work. Some journal websites contain links to the ICMJE website, from which you must download, register and complete the disclosure form before sending it directly to the journal yourself. Some journal websites provide a link where you can complete the disclosure form and send it directly to the journal`s editorial board.

In such cases, your completed form was sent to this journal (not to the ICMJE). The ICMJE cannot tell you if a journal has received your form. You must contact the journal. We observed misunderstandings when filling out the form, again perhaps due to the lack of familiarity with the specific English terminology. For example, several authors reported that grants or projects funded by a similar department or institution were personal payments. We hope that the next ICMJE glossary and its translations will help authors not only fill out the form, but also learn more about the principles of the Declaration of Conflicts of Interest and their different categories. We also plan to assist our writers by reviewing submitted forms and clarifying misunderstandings in direct communication with authors. Publishers who make final decisions regarding manuscripts should withdraw from editorial decisions if they have relationships or activities that present potential conflicts related to the articles under consideration. Other members of the editorial board involved in editorial decisions must provide editors with an up-to-date description of their relationships or activities (how they may relate to editorial judgments) and withdraw from any decision where there is an interest that represents a potential conflict. The editorial team may not use information obtained in the course of working with manuscripts for private purposes. Publishers should regularly publish their own disclosure statements and those of their journal staff.

Guest editors must follow the same procedures. When authors submit a manuscript of any type or format, they are responsible for disclosing any relationships and activities that could distort or distort their work. The ICMJE has developed a disclosure form to facilitate and standardize the disclosure of authors. ICMJE member journals require authors to use this form, and ICMJE encourages other journals to adopt it. FAQ How do I submit my Interest Disclosure Form to the ICMJE? A conflict of interest was rarely reported – the total number of such statements was 37 (14%), regardless of the nature of the conflict. A conflict of interest, since the money paid to the author was reported by 15 (5.5%) authors (Table 1). This money was reported in the form of grants, consulting fees, travel assistance, payment for writing/verification or assistance in written form or chemicals/equipment. Funding to the institution was reported by 22.3% of authors (Table 1), mainly in the form of grants and less often than writing and editing activities, consultation fees or travel assistance. In the section on support provided in the form of writing, medication, or equipment, the authors listed computerized equipment and the provision of reagents in several cases. .