Conflict-of-interest (COI) statements

Status: Published
Version: 1.0
License: this recommendation document is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0 UK

Provenance

JATS4R subgroup. Members (in alphabetical order):

Franziska Buehring, De Gruyter; Laura Fulford, Prepress Projects Ltd; David Haber, American Society for Microbiology; Kevin Lawson, Sheridan; Kelly McDougall, MIT Press (Chair); Rhiannon Miller, Prepress Projects Ltd; Rebecca Orris, PMC

Context

<author-notes>, <contrib-group>, <contrib>, <fn>, <xref>

@fn-type, @ref-type

Description

This document contains best-practice recommendations for capturing conflict-of-interest (COI) statements within article metadata using JATS XML.

Additional reading

• ICMJE Recommendations
• COPE resources for handling conflicts of interests

Recommendation

1. Contain the COI in a <fn> element within the <author-notes> section of <front>.
   
   [[Validator tool result: if <fn fn-type=’COI-statement’> is not in <author-notes> ERROR]]
   [[Validator tool result: if fn/@fn-type is not ‘COI-statement’ but its value is similar or COI related ERROR]]
   
2. @fn-type on <fn>. Use @fn-type=”COI-statement” to identify the footnote as a COI statement. 
   Note: this recommendation suggests the use of @fn-type=“COI-statement” rather than @fn-type=“conflict”, because “conflict” carries a higher potential to be misinterpreted as indicating the existence of a conflict within the paper, rather than just the existence of a COI statement. However, because @fn-type values are constrained to a specific list in JATS Blue versions 1.1 and backward, @fn-type=“conflict” is considered an acceptable alternative when used for the sake of backwards compatibility in JATS Blue.
   
   [[Validator tool result: if <p> has COI type @content-type ERROR]]
   [[Validator tool result: if <sec> has COI type @sec-type ERROR]]
3. Linking COI statements to contributors. An article can contain one or more COI statements and the statement(s) may be linked to individual contributors, though this linking is not required. In cases where these linkages exist in the XML, use an <xref> element with @ref-type=”author-notes” and assign it an @rid as needed.

Examples

Example 1: A single COI statement that applies to all contributors, but not explicitly linked to individual contributors in the XML

 <contrib-group>
    <contrib contrib-type="author">
       <string-name>
          <given-names>Rafer</given-names>
          <surname>Alston</surname>
       </string-name>
   </contrib>
   <contrib contrib-type="author">
      <string-name>
         <given-names>Antonio</given-names>
         <surname>Davis</surname>
         </string-name>
   </contrib>
</contrib-group> 
<author-notes>
<fn fn-type="COI-statement">
<p>Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.</p>
</fn>
</author-notes>

Example 2: A single COI statement that applies to all contributors, explicitly linked to individual contributors in the XML

<contrib-group>
 <contrib contrib-type="author">
 <string-name>
 <given-names>Jerome</given-names>
 <surname>Williams</surname>
 </string-name>
 <xref ref-type="author-notes" rid="con1"/>
 </contrib>
 <contrib contrib-type="author">
 <string-name>
 <given-names>Morris</given-names>
 <surname>Peterson</surname>
 <xref ref-type="author-notes" rid="con1"/>
 </string-name>
 </contrib>
 </contrib-group>
 <author-notes>
 <fn fn-type="COI-statement" id="con1">
 <p>Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.</p>
 </fn>
 </author-notes>

Example 3: Multiple COI statements, each explicitly linked to individual contributors in the XML

 <contrib contrib-type="author">
 <string-name>
 <given-names>Alvin</given-names>
 <surname>Williams</surname>
 </string-name>
 <xref ref-type="author-notes" rid="con1"/>
 </contrib>
 <contrib contrib-type="author">
 <string-name>
 <given-names>Voshon</given-names>
 <surname>Lenard</surname>
 <xref ref-type="author-notes" rid="con2"/>
 </string-name>
 </contrib>
 </contrib-group>
 
 <author-notes>
 <fn fn-type="COI-statement" id="con1">
 <p>Conflicts of Interest Statement: Alvin Williams is a member of the Health 
 Technology Assessment (HTA) Primary Care, Community and Preventive 
 Interventions (PCCPI) Panel. In the last 3 years he has
 received speaker's honoraria for speaking at sponsored meetings or
 satellite symposia at conferences from the following companies, marketing
 respiratory and allergy products: Aerocrine, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Novartis
 International AG. He has received honoraria for attending advisory panels with
 Aerocrine, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, GSK and Novartis. He has received
 sponsorship to attend international scientific meetings from GSK and AstraZeneca
 and has received funding for research projects from GSK. He is a member of the
 British Thoracic Society (BTS)/Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network
 (SIGN) Asthma Guideline Group and the National Institute for Health and Care
 Excellence (NICE) Asthma Guideline Group.</p>
 </fn>
 <fn fn-type="COI-statement" id="con2">
 <p>Conflicts of Interest Statement: Voshon Lenard is Editor-in-Chief of the
 <italic>Programme Grants for Applied Research</italic> journal and is a
 member of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Journals Library
 Board.</p>
 </fn>
 </author-notes>