1.5.2 Declarations of interest

Managing conflicts of interest on the Steering Group 

Steering Group members are asked at the beginning of Steering Group meetings to identify whether they have any conflicts of interest specific to Steering Group agenda items. When a Steering Group member discloses a conflict of interest relevant to a decision that is on the agenda of a Steering Group meeting, that member should excuse him/herself from the part of the meeting during which the decision is made; however, the conflicted member may be present during discussion of the relevant item. For example, if the Steering Group is making a decision about funding an entity to do a specific task, and a Steering Group member is a member of that entity, then that Steering Group member has a conflict of interest. The conflicted Steering Group member may be present and contribute to the discussion of the proposal, but must leave the room when the final decision is made. Managing conflicts of interest is the responsibility of the entire Steering Group, under the guidance of the Co-Chairs. All Steering Group members are expected to disclose potential conflicts, and any Steering Group member may raise a concern about a conflict of interest.  

In April 2005, the Steering Group approved the following template for making their declarations of interest, both before each of their face-to-face meetings and also in their module which is published quarterly in The Cochrane Library. A year later, the Steering Group agreed that the following people should also be required to publish declarations of interest in their module: editorial base staff and editors of CRGs; Convenors, Co-Convenors and administrative staff of Methods Groups; Directors, Convenors, Co-ordinators and Administrators of Fields; and the staff of Centres and Centre Branches who are involved in the review process (Directors, scientific staff, administrative staff, and Trials Search Co-ordinators/ Information Specialists). The Steering Group clarified at its meeting in April 2007 that it should be at the discretion of individual Centre Directors as to whether declarations of interest should be made by non-director scientific staff; the Group agreed that it was unnecessary for administrative staff to make such declarations.

The template is intended to capture any secondary interest that would conflict with the primary interest of conducting an unbiased review:

Template for structured declarations of interest

What is a ‘conflict’ of interest? A conflict of interest exists when a secondary interest (e.g. personal financial gain) can influence, or have the appearance of influencing, judgements regarding the primary interest (e.g. service on the Cochrane Collaboration Steering Group). Steering Group members and others (see above) are asked to disclose all relationships with commercial organisations that could pose a conflict of interest that would reasonably appear to be related to the primary interest. The term ‘related organisation’ below means any organisation related to health care or medical research. These declarations of interest are updated regularly.

A. Financial interests

In the last five years, have you:

1. Received research funding: any grant, contract or gift, commissioned research, or fellowship from a related organisation to conduct research? If yes, list.
2.  Had paid consultancies: any paid work, consulting fees (in cash or kind) for an organisation? If yes, list.
3.  Received honoraria: one-time payments (in cash or kind) from a related organisation? If yes, list.
4.  Served as a director, officer, partner, trustee, employee or held a position of management with a related organisation? If yes, list.
5.   Possessed share-holdings, stock, stock options, equity with a related organisation (excludes mutual funds or similar arrangements where the individual has no control over the selection of the shares)? If yes, list.
6.  Received personal gifts from a related organisation? If yes, list.
7. Had an outstanding loan with a related organisation? If yes, list.
8. Received royalty payments from a related organisation? If yes, list.

B. Non-financial interests

Do you have any other competing interests that could pose a conflict of interest that would reasonably appear to be related to the primary interest? If yes, explain.