Following the examples of
many scientific journals and complying with the guidelines of continuing medical
education organizations, the International Academy of Cytology (IAC) is requiring
financial disclosure statements by authors and coauthors of manuscripts submitted
after December 31, 1997.
The IAC must ensure balance, independence, objectivity and scientific rigor
in all its publications. The IAC does not view the existence of financial interests
or commitments as necessarily implying bias or decreasing the value to readers.
Nevertheless, authors are expected to disclose to the readership any significant
financial interest or other relationship within the past three years (1) with
the manufacturer(s) of any commercial product(s) and/or provider(s) of commercial
services discussed in the publication, and (2) with any commercial supporters
of the subject or materials discussed in the manuscript. Significant financial
interests or other relationships includes such phenomena as grants or research
support to the author or to the author's department, consultantships, employment,
direct payments, retainers, patent-licensing arrangements, travel support to
the author or the author's department, major stock holdings, etc. The intent
of the disclosure is not to prevent an author with a significant financial or
other relationship from making a contribution but to provide our readers with
information from which they can make their own judgments. It remains for the
reader to determine whether the author's interests or relationships influence
the presentation with regard to exposition or conclusion. Although every reasonable
effort will be made by the editorial office to obtain such information, the
IAC, its affiliated societies and the editorial board members cannot be held
responsible for incorrect and/or deficient data supplied by the authors.