Policies of biomedical preprint servers on conflicts of interest, authorship, and research integrity lacked important details

Lama Hamade; Amr Ali; Ayat R A Hijazi; Dima Itani; Hala Al Habob; Ghena Lababidi; Joanne Khabsa; Elie A Akl

doi:10.1016/j.jclinepi.2022.02.007

Policies of biomedical preprint servers on conflicts of interest, authorship, and research integrity lacked important details

J Clin Epidemiol. 2022 Jun:146:47-59. doi: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2022.02.007. Epub 2022 Feb 20.

Authors

Lama Hamade¹, Amr Ali², Ayat R A Hijazi³, Dima Itani¹, Hala Al Habob¹, Ghena Lababidi², Joanne Khabsa⁴, Elie A Akl⁵

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Arts and Sciences, American University of Beirut, Bliss Street, P.O Box: 11-0236. Beirut, Lebanon.
² Faculty of Medicine, American University of Beirut, Bliss Street, P.O Box: 11-0236. Beirut, Lebanon.
³ Department of Family Medicine, American University of Beirut Medical Center, Bliss Street, P.O Box: 11-0236. Beirut, Lebanon.
⁴ Faculty of Medicine, Clinical Research Institute, American University of Beirut, Bliss Street, P.O Box: 11-0236. Beirut, Lebanon.
⁵ Department of Internal Medicine, American University of Beirut Medical Center, Bliss Street, P.O Box: 11-0236. Beirut, Lebanon. Electronic address: ea32@aub.edu.lb.

PMID: 35196564
DOI: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2022.02.007

Abstract

Objectives: To assess the policies of biomedical preprint servers on the reporting of funding, conflict of interest (COI), author contributions, and research integrity.

Study design and setting: We generated a list of potentially eligible preprint servers then judged their eligibility in duplicate and independently. Between July and September 2021, we extracted information from the websites of these servers in duplicate and independently and through a simulated submission.

Results: We included 37 preprint servers. A variable percentage of these servers had policies for reporting of funding (43%), disclosure of COI (78%), specification of authors' contributions (54%), and research integrity (76%). While 97% of the COI policies required authors to disclose their own interests, only 7% addressed interests related to family members. About a third of authors' contribution policies (30%) did not specify the types of contributions to report. While a majority of research integrity polices described screening checks for plagiarism (71%), a minority described screening checks for fabrication (39%), falsification (36%), and image manipulation (32%).

Conclusion: Less than half of biomedical preprint servers have policies on reporting on funding. Policies related to COI disclosure, reporting of author contributions, and research integrity lack important details.

Keywords: Authorship; Conflict of interest; Funding; Preprint server; Preprints; Research integrity.

MeSH terms

Authorship*
Biomedical Research*
Conflict of Interest
Cross-Sectional Studies
Disclosure
Humans
Policy