Wednesday, June 5, 2024

10:30 - 12:00

Skalkotas Hall

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Details

Corporations across sectors engage in systematic behind-the-scenes efforts and strategies to shape the available scientific knowledge and to influence experts in ways that allow maximizing earning-capacity. Meta-research has documented associations between industry sponsorship and author conflicts of interest with biases favoring commercial interests at all phases of the research process including agenda setting, framing research questions, study design, reporting of results, drawing conclusions, and dissemination. Despite concerns about diminished public trust, compromised research integrity, and harms to public health, little has been done to implement meaningful policy change regarding industry’s activities related to scientific research. Drawing from perspectives in biomedicine, rhetoric, political economy, and investigative journalism, presenters will describe the multi-faceted, strategic mechanisms by which corporations seek to influence scientific research including research funding, industry affiliation, publication planning, ghost writing, and author conflicts of interest across scholarly disciplines and industry sectors. We will report on our research that sought to map the range of relevant policy mechanisms to address the risks of industry sponsorship, author conflict of interest, and ‘ghost management’ more broadly. Participants will be engaged in a structured and interactive discussion to chart a research and policy agenda to address risks to research integrity from industry sponsorship.

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Chair

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Contributor