Media CenterIntegrity Safeguards

The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) is committed to publishing the highest qualityresearch and reliable, authoritative review articles that are free from commercial influence.  The mainstays of NEJM’s credibility are editorial independence, content uninterrupted by commercial advertising, and academic rigor in reviewing research.

Since the 1980s, NEJM editors have set policies to ensure that authors disclose their financial associations and that those financial associations do not influence published content.  Its rules are methodical and stringent. NEJM is sensitive to even the appearance of impropriety.

NEJM announced its first conflict-of-interest policy in 1984.  Since then, the policy has undergone limited, considered revisions owing to the changing environment of medical research.

For all research articles published, NEJM lists study sponsorship and all relevant financial information as disclosed by the authors. The disclosure forms of all authors are available online with the full text of each article.  Additional information about the contributions of authors may also appear in the methods section of research articles. 

A separate policy applies to Review Articles and Editorials, which comment on published articles but do not present new research. NEJM expects that authors of such articles not have any significant financial interest in any biomedical company relevant to the topics and products discussed in the article.  When a prospective author does have financial ties to disclose, the editors decide whether they are relevant to the topic and whether they are de minimis.

None of the NEJM editors has any financial relationship with any biomedical company.