Of all the biases threatening research validity, perhaps most pernicious is that introduced by a financial incentive exerting influence on a researcher. In some circumstances, remuneration from a company may support a researcher’s time used to perform a study, but unfortunately, a substantial body of literature consistently documents bias attributed to these financial payments, which are ubiquitous in medicine. In 2015, payments from industry to physicians and teaching hospitals reported under the Physician Payment Sunshine Act amounted to $7.5 billion.¹ In response, the research community has established safeguards against the potential influence of these relationships. A cornerstone of these safeguards is the requirement that researchers disclose any financial ties that may pose a conflict of interest (COI), thereby informing a reader’s interpretation of a study’s findings.

在威胁研究有效性的所有偏见中，也许最有害的是由对研究人员产生影响的经济激励所引入的偏见。在某些情况下，公司的报酬可能会延长研究人员用于进行研究的时间，但不幸的是，大量文献一致记录了归因于这些财务支付的偏见，而这些财务支付在医学中无处不在。2015年，根据《医师付款阳光法》的规定，行业支付给医师和教学医院的款项总计75亿美元。^1个作为回应，研究界已经建立了针对这些关系的潜在影响的保护措施。这些保护措施的基础是要求研究人员披露可能构成利益冲突（COI）的任何财务联系，从而为读者提供对研究结果的解释。