Industry payments to physician journal editors

Background: Open Paymentsis a United States federal program mandating reporting of medical industry payments to physicians, increasing transparency of physician conflicts of interest (COI).Study objectives were to assess industry payments to physician-editors, and compare their financial COI rate to all physicians within the specialty. 

 

Methods and Findings: We performed a retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data, reviewing Open Paymentsfrom August 1, 2013 to December 31, 2016. We reviewed general payments (“… not made in connection with a research agreement”) and research funding to “top tier” physician-editors of highly-cited medical journals. We compared payments to physician-editors and physicians-by-specialty. In 35 journals, 333 (74.5%) of 447 “top tier” US-based editors met inclusion criteria. Of these, 212 (63.7%) received industry-associated payments in the study period. In an average year, 141 (42.3%) of physician-editors received any direct payments to t...