Research Funding,Conflicts of Interest,and the “Meta-Methodology” of Public Relations

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Authors'correspondence with Norman Bauman. See also: Bauman N. Medical writers get $300-$700/day working for drug companies. 1991 Apr 1 [cited 2001 Dec 12]. Available from: URL: http://www.nasw.org/users/nbauman/ghost.htm as well as Burton R. Selling drugs—with a little help from a journalist. British Medical Journal 2001; 323:1258.

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For NEJM's response to the controversy over this incident, see Angell M Kassirer JP . Editorials and Conflicts of Interest. New Engl J Med 1996; 335:1055–6. For the researchers’ side, see Manson JE . Adventures in scientific discourse. Epidemiology 1997;8:324–7.

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U.S. expenditures for research and development by source of funds and performer. Wall Street Journal Almanac 1999. New York: Ballantine Books; 1998. p. 363.

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Collaborations between business and academia are mediated by groups such as the Business-Higher Education Forum, a partnership of the American Council on Education and the National Alliance of Business, as well as the Government-University-Industry Research Round-table (GUIRR), established in 1984 and sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine, in order to “convene senior-most representatives from government, universities, and industry to define and explore critical issues related to the national science and technology agenda.” For examples of some of these collaborations, see Press E Washburn J . The kept university. Atlantic; 2000 March.

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Special report: what happens when universities become businesses? Research Corporation Annual Report, 1997. p. 9.

Rochon PA Gurwitz JH Simms RW Fortin PR Felson DT Minaker KL , A study of manufacturer-supported trials of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in the treatment of arthritis. Arch Int Med 1994; 154:157–63. The study looked at all randomized control trials of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs used in the treatment of arthritis, based on a MEDLINE search between the dates of September 1987 and May 1990 “Researchers, ‘blinded’ to manufacturer status, evaluated the narrative interpretation of results and extracted numeric data on efficacy and toxicity.” For both efficacy and toxicity, the question of whether trial data supported the study's conclusions was answered by defining “adequate documentation as being the reporting of a test of statistical significance (p≤0.05) for one or more comparisons.”

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Journals fail to adhere to guidelines on conflicts of interest. BMJ 2001; 323:651.