| Study characteristics |
| Methods |
To investigate the possible association between the presence of personal conflicts of interest and favourable opinions. Editorials commenting on phase III clinical trials published between January 2007 and December 2009 in four major oncology journals |
| Data |
54 editorials |
| Comparisons |
Editorials with financial conflicts of interest (defined as at least one author with financial relationships to a for‐profit organisation) and editorials without financial conflicts of interest |
| Outcomes |
Recommendations (classified as favourable, neutral, and unfavourable) |
| Funding source |
No funding was received for the study |
| Declaration of conflicts of interest |
The authors disclosed no conflicts of interest related to any for‐profit organisation |
| Notes |
|
| Risk of bias |
| Item |
Authors' judgement |
Support for judgement |
| Adequate document inclusion process |
No |
Only one author assessed editorials for inclusion (according to personal correspondence with corresponding author) |
| Adequate coding of conflicts of interest |
Yes |
Three authors independently coded each editorial |
| Adequate coding of recommendations |
Yes |
Two authors independently coded the recommendations of each editorial |
| Adequate dealing with confounding |
No |
Compared editorials of different drugs with different publication years |
