5 Ways to identify a conflict of interest

5 Questions you should ask yourself to identify potential conflicts of

interest in your manuscript
A conflict of interest arises whenever there is any potential bias that could affect a
researcher’s work. They are an inevitable part of an academic career and it is
every researcher’s responsibility to identify potential or actual conflicts.

Here are 5 questions you should ask yourself in order to identify potential
conflicts of interest in your research paper:

 Do I or my research funder stand to gain personally or financially from

the research project?

 Could this conflict or be perceived to conflict with the interests and

Vested interest
welfare of the general public?

 Could these potential benefits cast doubts on the credibility of my

research and data?

 How will others perceive my involvement or my research funder’s

involvement in study conception, study supervision, study design,
research conduct, and manuscript writing?
Funder
involvement
 Would any bias in research design, sample selection, data reporting,
data modification, and manuscript preparation be perceived as a conflict
of interest associated with me, my organization, or research funder?

Unbiased
 Does my involvement or my research funder’s involvement in all the
decision-
decisions regarding the research appear to be fair and reasonable?
making

 What consequences will I face if I ignore or do not disclose a conflict of

interest?
Accountability
 Can I give a reasonable answer if editors, reviewers, or readers question
my involvement in the research project or that of my research funder?

 Have I, my organization, or research funder made any promises or

Future commitments in relation to conducting or publishing the research?
commitment
 Do I stand to gain or lose from the promised action/decision?

This template has been created under a Creative Commons license – CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Under this license, you
are free to copy, reuse, share, redistribute, or adapt our content for non-commercial purposes. Do remember
to give us appropriate credit and share our material under the same license. Learn more about the terms of
use for the CC-BY-NC-SA license.
 5 Ways to identify a conflict of interest

References:
 Conflicts of interest
 How to identify and deal with conflicts of interest in research publication

To learn more, read the following posts:

 Disclosure of conflicts of interest: what do journals expect from authors?

 What should be included in a disclosure of conflict of interest?
 Conflicts of interest and journal disclosure policies: what every author should know

This template has been created under a Creative Commons license – CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Under this license, you
are free to copy, reuse, share, redistribute, or adapt our content for non-commercial purposes. Do remember
to give us appropriate credit and share our material under the same license. Learn more about the terms of
use for the CC-BY-NC-SA license.