What must be disclosed

•     Financial: employment, consultancy, advisory boards, speaker fees, research grants, travel support, equipment loans, shares, patents or royalties — especially from manufacturers of drugs, devices, ventilators, monitors, ultrasound machines, airway devices or nutrition products.

•     Non-financial: personal relationships, academic competition, roles in professional societies or guideline panels, and strongly held beliefs relevant to the work.

•     Device and drug provision: free supply of drugs, devices or consumables for a study must be declared, even if no money was received.

Funding statement

List all funders with grant numbers and state the funder’s role in design, conduct, analysis, interpretation, writing and the decision to publish. Industry-sponsored trials must confirm that the authors had full access to the data and final responsibility for the decision to submit.

Editors and reviewers

Editors and reviewers must declare conflicts and withdraw from manuscripts where a conflict exists, including consultancies with companies whose products are discussed.

Failure to disclose

Undisclosed interests are handled under COPE flowcharts and may lead to rejection, correction or retraction.