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From the Editors

Editors European Respiratory Journal

From the Editors:

The editors and the European Respiratory Journal very much welcome responses from our readership on issues published in the Journal! We therefore gladly received comments by R. O'Driscoll in relation to declaration of conflicts of interest that was raised following an editorial 1 written by one of us commenting on a paper on combination therapy for COPD 2.

A slight correction in relation to the letter of R. O'Driscoll should be allowed at this stage, however. The editorial did not reference Barnes 3 as stating that "inhaled steroids are more beneficial if given in a combined inhaler device than as separate inhalers", as was suggested by R. O'Driscoll; it was explicitly stated that the Barnes 3 reference merely gave a "reasonable scientific basis" for the use of combination therapy, indicating the degree of uncertainty that does remain around this issue.

The more relevant point, and here we fully agree with R. O'Driscoll, is the necessity for declaration of conflicts of interest in scientific journals. We as editors acknowledge the necessity to openly address academic–industrial relationships 4, 5 by authors and, therefore, the instruction to authors for the European Respiratory Journal clearly state that, "Authors of manuscripts are responsible for recognising and disclosing financial and other conflicts of interest related to the study or to the subject of the review of editorial article. The authors have to acknowledge in a manuscript all financial support for the work and other financial or personal connections to the work". While the instructions for authors are explicit on this issue, the Publication Committee and Executive Committee of the European Respiratory Society together with the editors of the European Respiratory Journal are preparing an even more transparent way to disclose any potential for conflict of interest with statements appended to the articles submitted, a practice that is adopted by more and more reputable journals.

References

1. Rabe KF. Combination therapy for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; one size fits all?. Eur Respir J 2003;22:874–875.[Free Full Text]
2. Calverley PM, Boonsawat W, Cseke Z, Zhong N, Peterson S, Olsson H. Maintenance therapy with budesonide and formoterol in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Eur Respir J 2003;22:912–919.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
3. Barnes PJ. Scientific rationale for inhaled combination therapy with long-acting B₂ agonists and corticosteroids. Eur Respir J 2002;19:182–191.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
4. Blumenthal D. Academic-industrial relationships in the life sciences. N Engl J Med 2003;349:2452–2459.[Free Full Text]
5. Bekelman JE, Li Y, Gross GP. Scope and impact of financial conflicts of interest in biomedical research. A systematic review. JAMA 2003;289:454–465.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Permissions Request Permissions Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Rabe, K.F. Articles by Sterk, P.J. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Rabe, K.F. Articles by Sterk, P.J.