Conflicts of Interest Disclosures Journal of Observational Pain Medicine is
consistent with that of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.1
The journal has a primary responsibility to its readers and to the public to
provide in its pages clear and unbiased results and analyses. Although we
rely on the expertise of our Editors, Editorial Board members and our peer
reviewers to help us accomplish this, we believe that our readers should be
informed of additional relationships of our authors that could pose a conflict of
interest. Thus, for readers to evaluate the data and opinions presented in this
journal, they must be informed of financial and other interests of our authors
that may be at odds with unbiased presentation of data or analysis.
Therefore, Journal of Observational Pain Medicine requires that all
manuscripts be accompanied by clear disclosures from all authors of their
affiliations, funding sources, or financial holdings that might raise questions
about possible sources of bias.
Disclosure is accomplished in three ways: 1) By a complete listing of the
current institutional affiliations of the authors. 2) Through the acknowledgment
of all financial contributions to the work being reported, including contributions
“in kind.” 3) Through the execution of a statement disclosing to the Editors all
financial holdings, professional affiliations, advisory positions, board
memberships, patent holdings and the like that might bear a relationship to
the subject matter of the contribution.
The authors must acknowledge any conflict of interest they may have in the
submission. The conflicts of interest may fall under any of the following
categories:
• Guarantor of the article;
• Specific author contributions;
• Financial support;
• Potential competing interests.
For example, [Name of individual] has received fees for serving as a speaker,
a consultant and an advisory board member for [names of organizations], and
has received research funding from [names of organization]. [Name of
individual] is an employee of [Name of organization]. [Name of individual]
owns stocks and shares in [name of organization]. [Name of individual] owns
patent [patent identification and brief description]. Conflict of interest
statements will be published with each article.3
1 (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Uniform requirements
for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals. http://www.icmje.org.
Updated 2009.)