TY - JOUR T1 - Editors' conflicting interests remain in the shadows JF - Journal of Medical Ethics JO - J Med Ethics SP - 685 LP - 685 DO - 10.1136/medethics-2012-100721 VL - 38 IS - 11 AU - Harvey Marcovitch Y1 - 2012/11/01 UR - http://jme.bmj.com/content/38/11/685.abstract N2 - It seems that all is not plain sailing when navigating the homepages of journals to identify their policies towards editorial conflicts of interest (COI), and the editors' actual declarations. So say Smith et al in their accompanying paper searching the ‘top ten’ medical journals (by impact factor).1 In the last decade, the risks to scientific integrity of authorial and reviewer COIs have come under increasing scrutiny. Could editors be the last bastion of privilege, or does this small study merely expose poor website design? Editors hold a powerful position as gatekeepers to knowledge. It would be shameful if any of them departed from strictly intellectual grounds for accepting or rejecting a submission, and particularly shameful if decisions were perverted by financial interest. Thus, readers are entitled to know if … ER -