Table 3. Editorial leadership demonstrated by Italian (IT) and UK journals indexed in Medline, as apparent from instructions to authors and other editorial policy statements. Values are numbers of journals.

Characteristic	IT journals (n = 76)	UK journals (n = 76)	p a
Adopts ICMJE uniform requirements	27	11	0.003
Defines authorship as “substantial contribution” or “scientific responsibility”	22	36	0.019
Inquires about individual authors' contributions	1	11	0.005
Requires statements about
Funding or sponsorship	29	55	<0.001
Conflict of interest	22	48	<0.001
Adherence to Declaration of Helsinki	35	35	0.740b
Ethics committee review	19	50	<0.001
Informed consent	16	42	<0.001b
Registration of clinical trials	0	21	<0.001b
Adherence to animal research laws	26	33	0.082c
Adheres to CONSORT statement	0	15	<0.001b
Adheres to QUOROM statement	0	11	<0.001b
Adheres to COPE guidelines	0	33	<0.001

^a Chi-square test; ^b For journals that publish research on humans; ^c For journals that publish research on animals.