ISAJE have developed a form for use by member journals for authors to declare any conflicts of interests when submitting papers. The form can be adapted by individual journals to their own needs. 

Guidance for editors

A competing interest exists when professional judgment concerning a primary interest (such as the validity of research findings) may be influenced by a secondary interest (such as financial gain or personal rivalry). By requiring the disclosure of all funding sources and competing interests, we are seeking to improve the transparency of scientific communications by providing information that could be useful in the review process and in the interpretation of the author's conclusions.  

If any author has answered "yes" to any of the questions on the form we consider that to be a possible competing interest, which, in the spirit of openness, should be declared in a footnote to the published article. The authors should draft a statement to publish with the article. It might, for example,
read:
  • "Competing interests: RS has been reimbursed by the International Centre for Responsible Drinking for attending several conferences; TD has been paid by Monte Carlo Resorts Casino for running educational programmes and has her research registrar paid for by the company; JS has shares in the Kingfisher Brewing company."
The Editor will review and approve the statement prior to its publication with the paper. The editor should reserve the right to amend the authors' competing interest declaration based on the information provided as well as space limitations. If none of the authors answered "yes" to any of the questions it is still important to indicate in the publication that there were no funding sources and/or no competing interests. Thus every manuscript should have headings labeled "Funding Sources" and "Competing Interests" even if the answers to the questions on the form were "None."

Thomas F. Babor, Ph.D., MPH
Professor and Chairman
Dept of Community Medicine & Health Care
University of Connecticut School of Medicine
Farmington, CT