Science news reporting and declarations of interest
Following on from my Peer to Peer post of a couple of weeks ago "How not to mix politics and science", I note (via Action Potential) that on 5 December, Daniel M. Cook et al. reported a highly relevant study in PLOS One 2(12): e1266. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0001266 .
Cook et al. analysed 1,152 most-searched newspaper stories. They found that "funders of the research were identified in 38% of stories, financial ties of the researchers were reported in 11% of stories, and 5% reported financial ties of sources quoted. Of 73 stories not reporting on financial ties, 27% had financial ties publicly disclosed in scholarly journals." The authors note that many journals themselves do not require authors and reviewers to declare competing interests , and that journalists work under many different constraints, but firmly conclude that "news reports of scientific research were incomplete, potentially eroding public trust in science."
In his discussion of this work, Noah Gray of Action Potential writes: "Science journalism plays an enormous part in public opinion, which influences the actions of politicians (sometimes), who have some power to control major chunks of research funding. Therefore, public trust and respect are essential for the long-term growth and stability of scientific funding, especially from the government. So let's have the press play their part both in providing full disclosure and refraining from publishing scientifically-dubious (but headline-grabbing) stories, leaving the "spin" for the politicians."
The Nature journals' competing interests policy is here, at our authors' and peer-reviewers' website. We state:
"In the interests of transparency and to help readers to form their own judgements of potential bias, Nature journals require the authors of most articles to declare any competing financial interests in relation to the work described, by sending the author a form to complete and sign before publication of the article.
In cases where the authors declare a competing financial interest, a short statement to that effect is published as part of the printed article, with a more detailed version available online. If no such statement is present in the article, the authors have declared to the editors of the journal that they do not have any competing financial interests."
However, for peer-reviewers: "The Nature journals invite peer-reviewers to exclude themselves in cases where there is a significant conflict of interest, financial or otherwise. However, just as financial interests need not invalidate the conclusions of an article, nor do they automatically disqualify an individual from evaluating it. We ask peer-reviewers to inform the editors of any related interests, including financial interests as defined above, that might be perceived as relevant. Editors will consider these statements when weighing reviewers' recommendations."