How to Write a Conflicts of Interest Statement for Your Manuscript
Most journals require that authors disclose any conflicts of interest related to the work in a manuscript. Many journals require authors to complete and sign specific forms. And others ask for specific language in a section of the manuscript or in the cover letter.
But how do you know whether something is a conflict of interest?
What is a conflict of interest?
A conflict of interest, also known as a competing interest, is a situation in which an interest or connection—direct or indirect—could influence your research.
What are the types of conflicts of interest?
Conflicts of interest generally fall into one of two categories: financial and non-financial.
Examples of financial conflicts of interest include:
Employment or voluntary involvement
Collaborations with advocacy groups related to the content of the manuscript
Grants to the author or organization
Personal fees (eg, honoraria, consulting fees, lecture fees)
Intellectual property (eg, patents, copyrights, royalties)
Stock or share ownership
Benefits related to the development of products
Examples of non-financial conflicts of interest include:
Gifts (eg, drugs, equipment, tools, software)
Access to data repositories
Holding a position on boards
Close relationships with editors at the journal
Competing interests (eg, personal, political, religious, academic)
Involvement in legal action (eg, paper retraction)
When choosing what conflicts of interest to disclose in a manuscript, you want to consider whether that conflict is connected to the work in that particular manuscript. You do not need to disclose an unrelated interest or connection. For example, if your manuscript describes a study of zebrafish, then you do not need to disclose that you are on the board of your local food pantry. However, if your study tested a drug from Company A, and you own stock in that company, then you would need to disclose that connection.
Some journals have specific requirements about what interests must be disclosed and the date range that you need to include (eg, conflicts over the past 3 years). Check the journal requirements carefully to ensure that you include the correct information.
What are some examples of conflicts of interest statements?
In general, you want to list conflicts of interest for each author separately by name.
Examples
John Smith declares no conflicts of interest. Jane Williams has received a research grant from Organization A. Mike Miller is an employee and owns stock in Company B.
ABC was executive director of Organization A and received a part-time salary for this work. DEF is on the board of Journal X. GHI has a patent pending for Compound Y. The remaining authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
If all authors declare no conflicts of interest, you may use a simple statement.
Examples
We have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
All authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
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