Researchers and research institutions have a variety of financial, personal,
and political interests that sometimes conflict with their professional, eth-
ical, or legal obligations. These situations can create conflicts of interest
or the appearance of conflicts of interest. This chapter discusses how con-
flicts of interest affect research, how they are defined, and how they
should be managed. It also describes how government agencies and re-
search institutions have responded to conflicts of interest in research and
describes some cases from science.

Individual scientists and research organizations daily encounter situations
where personal, financial, political, and other interests conflict with profes-
sional, ethical, or legal obligations or duties. Although conflicts of all types are
a normal part of human existence, some are called “conflicts of interest”
(COIs) because they involve conflicts between interests and duties. Most of
the concern with COIs arises because personal interests can undermine duties
relating to scientific objectivity (Shamoo 1992, 1993, Resnik 2001b). For ex-
ample, a researcher with stock in a pharmaceutical company that sponsors his
research overestimates the clinical significance of his research on one of the
company's drugs, which drives up the price of his stock. An academic re-
searcher in a National Institutes of Health (NIH) study section reviews a grant
from a competitor in the same field (Shamoo 1993). A scientist receives orders
not to publish results that are contrary to the interests of the company that
funds her research. A medical journal runs an advertisement for a new drug.
Other COIs may undermine other duties, such as the duty to protect human
subjects. For example, a physician-researcher receives $3,000 in patient care
costs per patient she recruits to be in a clinical trial. A university's institutional
review board (IRB) reviews a research proposal sponsored by a company that
has recently given $30 million to the university.

It is helpful to remember that a nation's ability to deal with problems, such
as COIs in research, are a sign of a stable democratic society with reasonable
public confidence in the system and the willingness of its population to abide
by its rules. From this perspective, the national will to deal with such issues is
an apparent luxury compared with the constraints presented by the poverty,
limited health care, genocide, war, and corruption that exist in many other
countries. Nonetheless, if a privileged society does not deal effectively with
COIs in research, the erosion of public confidence in science that may occur
can be extremely damaging and corrosive to democracy.

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