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Conflict of interest and bias
When reading a paper and getting to the conflict of interest part, I often see that there is no conflict of interest noted, but in some of these cases I believe the authors to have a vested financial interest via selling books, consulting gigs, or having a company whose brand depends specifically on advocating something the topic of the paper covers.
This is confusing to me so I’m left to wonder if maybe I’m misunderstanding the nature and specific requirements of what is considered a conflict of interest in an academic paper. Are some types of papers less strict on this than others?
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Hi Josh. It is not you. You are right. Many people, especially in sport, do not declare their conflict of interest. Here is what you need to know. Journals generally require authors to declare if they have conflicts. When they do, an author can do one of two things: declare a conflict or declare no conflict. The latter is by far the most popular option, and unless the editor of the journal has a keen understanding of the private and professional life of the authors, they can almost never police whether this declaration was accurate. So, in short, not declaring a conflict of interest when there is one (or at least a perceived conflict of interest which should also be declared) is one of the most pertinent issues related to credibility in our area. For example, when you read through papers, have a look at how often people have multiple affiliations next to their name, including sometimes their own company or external funders, but declare that no conflict exists. Just FYI, this is what a declaration of conflict of interest looks like when I have written work that can potentially be affected by owning SkillACQ: "Declaration of conflict of interest: The author declares that he works as a skill acquisition specialist in professional sports practice. There may be a (perceived) conflict of interest as a result."