Skip to main content
Maternal-Fetal MedicineSociety

Transparency

Conflict of interest policy

Trust in a standard starts with who wrote it and how. Our policy sets out how we manage potential conflicts of interest.

The core rules

  • Every author and reviewer completes a declaration before work on a guideline begins.
  • The declaration covers financial and non-financial interests from the past 36 months.
  • The chair of a working group must have no relevant financial interest.
  • No more than 50% of a group's members may hold a relevant interest.
  • Declarations are published in full in the guideline's appendix.
  • A member with an interest is recused from voting on the relevant recommendation.

What counts as an interest

Financial interests include consulting fees, speaker honoraria, research funding, shares or a stake in a company, patents, and reimbursement of travel expenses.

Non-financial interests include authorship of a published paper directly related to the question under discussion, or a leadership role in an organisation with a declared position.

Procedure

Declarations are reviewed by the ethics committee. Where a significant conflict is identified, the member may be recused from a particular discussion or, if necessary, from the working group entirely.

Complaints

If you believe a declaration is incomplete or a conflict is not being managed properly, write to us. Every complaint is reviewed within 30 days.