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As keepers of the journal, we continuously seek to optimize its quality and integrity. In this editorial, we update you on our evolving policies about the disclosure items we require from authors as well as the statements we publish within an article to address potential bias: author contributions, financial and relationship disclosures, and copyright transfers. As our policies on transparency evolve, we seek new ways to increase the quality of the information provided by authors. We are guided by the assumption that in matters regarding scientific integrity, there can be no compromise in our standards of veracity. Every article we publish should be free of bias, spin, and secondary gain.
THE INCREASING NEED FOR TRANSPARENCY
Many facets of medicine have been monetized. Not all threats to objectivity, however, come from commercial interests, because ownership of ideas and self-promotion are also important sources of bias in scientific work. However, commercial conflicts have become the major surrogate for bias—the forces of marketing and sales, as well as the promise of lucrative reward that could wreak havoc on the objectivity of scientific publication. We are not singling out authors' relationships with pharmaceutical or device manufacturers; we also refer to circumstances in which an author holds a patent or performs a diagnostic or therapeutic intervention that is well-compensated, or in which the content of the article being considered could influence the monetary value of some piece of medical knowledge.
We have no reservations about author relationships with industry. Many authors are inventors, hold patents, perform innovative diagnostic or therapeutic interventions, or engage in other entrepreneurial activities that seek to improve the health of patients. We simply ask that our authors disclose all of these relationships. Our goal is to provide a comprehensive list of the authors' relationships that may affect their views of efficacy or utility of the results …
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Letters: Rapid online correspondence
- Reporting potential bias: Neurology's evolving policies
- Reporting potential bias: Neurology's evolving policies
- Reply from the Authors
REQUIREMENTS
You must ensure that your Disclosures have been updated within the previous six months. Please go to our Submission Site to add or update your Disclosure information.
Your co-authors must send a completed Publishing Agreement Form to Neurology Staff (not necessary for the lead/corresponding author as the form below will suffice) before you upload your comment.
If you are responding to a comment that was written about an article you originally authored:
You (and co-authors) do not need to fill out forms or check disclosures as author forms are still valid
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- Submissions must be < 200 words with < 5 references. Reference 1 must be the article on which you are commenting.
- Submissions should not have more than 5 authors. (Exception: original author replies can include all original authors of the article)
- Submit only on articles published within 6 months of issue date.
- Do not be redundant. Read any comments already posted on the article prior to submission.
- Submitted comments are subject to editing and editor review prior to posting.
