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Conflicts of Interest
Jump to full article: The Economist, 2001-05-17
Author: May 17th 2001 From The Economist print edition
Intro: Some people feel that corporate sponsorship of scientific research amounts to the purchase of it. Editors of scientific journals reckon that vigilance is the answer
NEVER look a gift horse in the mouth, goes the adage, and the University of Nottingham, in England, certainly did not. . .
To Nottingham’s critics, allowing a firm from one of the world’s least socially responsible industries to sponsor a centre for the study of corporate responsibility smacks of the ludicrous. But such curiosities are not new. Alfred Nobel made his fortune from dynamite, yet the Nobel Peace prize is a coveted tribute. . .
Phil Campbell, the editor of Nature, says that within a few months the journal will create a policy on the disclosure of financial interests. . .
These editors are quick to point out that such requests, and the disclosures they elicit, are not a watertight way of ensuring the integrity of science. A scientist who is determined to conceal a conflict of interest will have little trouble doing so. But there is a natural check on such trickery—if an observant reader points out the ruse, the journal will publish a correction.
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