ArticleBMJ (Clinical research ed.)2018
Collaboration between academics and industry in clinical trials: cross sectional study of publications and survey of lead academic authors.
Article in BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 32 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- A landscape analysis of clinical trials and infant clinical trials in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Nigeria.Frontiers in epidemiology · 2024Pooled it
- Association between financial links to indoor tanning industry and conclusions of published studies on indoor tanning: systematic review.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2020Pooled it
- National-, institutional-, and individual-level determinants of pharmacology and pharmacy research excellence: an analysis of stanford-elsevier lists of the top 2% scholars (2017-2023).Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology · 2026Article
- Dynamic clinical trial success rates for drugs in the 21st century.Nature communications · 2025Article
- SPIRIT 2025 explanation and elaboration: updated guideline for protocols of randomised trials.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2025Article
- CONSORT 2025 explanation and elaboration: updated guideline for reporting randomised trials.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2025Article
- Physician-Patient Communication about Novel Drugs and High-Risk Medical Devices.Medical decision making : an international journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making · 2025Article
- Academic vs. industry-sponsored trials: A global survey on differences, similarities, and future improvements.Journal of global health · 2024Article
- The Buzz Surrounding Precision Medicine: The Imperative of Incorporating It into Evidence-Based Medical Practice.Journal of personalized medicine · 2023Article
- Selective Publication within Vascular Surgery: Characteristics of Discontinued and Unpublished Randomized Clinical Trials.Annals of vascular surgery · 2023Article
- Optimizing patient recruitment into clinical trials of antimicrobial-resistant pathogens.JAC-antimicrobial resistance · 2023Review
- Protection of the human gene research literature from contract cheating organizations known as research paper mills.Nucleic acids research · 2022Review
- Rules of engagement: Promoting academic-industry partnership in the era of digital pathology and artificial intelligence.Academic pathology · 2022Review
- Scientometrics Analysis of World Scientific Research of Pathology and Forensic Medicine.Iranian journal of pathology · 2022Article
- A Multidisciplinary Perspective of Ultra-Processed Foods and Associated Food Processing Technologies: A View of the Sustainable Road Ahead.Nutrients · 2021Review
- Mapping conflict of interests: scoping review.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2021Article
- Do we really know how many clinical trials are conducted ethically? Why research ethics committee review practices need to be strengthened and initial steps we could take to strengthen them.Journal of medical ethics · 2021Review
- Authorship Patterns in Cancer Genomics Publications Across Africa.JCO global oncology · 2021Article
- Building a Fit for Purpose Clinical Trials Infrastructure to Accelerate the Assessment of Novel Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation Strategies and Cellular Immunotherapies.Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology · 2021Review
- Facilitators of and barriers to collaboration between universities and the food industry in nutrition research: a qualitative study.Food & nutrition research · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
- Commented on by
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesTo determine the role of academic authors, funders, and contract research organisations in industry funded trials of vaccines, drugs, and devices and to determine lead academic authors' experiences with industry funder collaborations.
designCross sectional analysis of trial publications and survey of lead academic authors. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR SELECTING STUDIES: The most recent 200 phase III and IV trials of vaccines, drugs, and devices with full industry funding, at least one academic author, published in one of the top seven high impact general medical journals (
resultsEmployees of industry funders co-authored 173 (87%) of publications; 183 (92%) trials reported involvement of funders in design, and 167 (84%) reported involvement of academic authors. Data analysis involved the funder in 146 (73%) trials and the academic authors in 79 (40%). Trial reporting involved the funder in 173 (87%) trials and academic authors in 197 (99%). Contract research organisations were involved in the reporting of 123 (62%) trials.Eighty (40%) of 200 lead academic authors responded to the survey. Twenty nine (33%) of the 80 responders reported that academics had final say on the design. Ten responders described involvement of an unnamed funder and/or contract research organisation employee in the data analysis and/or reporting. Most academic authors found the collaboration with industry funder beneficial, but 3 (4%) experienced delay in publication due to the industry funder and 9 (11%) reported disagreements with the industry funder, mostly concerning trial design and reporting.
conclusionsIndustry employees and academic authors are involved in the design, conduct, and reporting of most industry funded trials in high impact journals. However, data analysis is often conducted without academic involvement. Academics view the collaboration as beneficial, but some report loss of academic freedom.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.