B – ICMJE requirements on competing interests: do they solve the problems?

Hutchinson L, DeVita VT. Conflict of interest disclosures. Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology 7:1
http://www.nature.com/nrclinonc/journal/v7/n1/full/nrclinonc.2009.215.html

While the ICMJE uniform requirements for disclosure of competing interests are welcome, all journals still rely on authors to disclose all information that may be perceived as relevant. If an individual does not wish to disclose information, there is no universal form that will avoid this problem. Journals can experience harsh criticism if an author is discovered not to have disclosed competing interest, but how do journals police this? Disclosure forms also do not prevent scientific fraud. The best deterrent to fraud is the scientific process itself.