Title: Reviewer Fails to Disclose Conflict of Interest
Author: Matthew Wroblewski and Tristan McIntosh
Description: A researcher fails to disclose a conflict of interest prior to reviewing an article by an author that is his academic rival.
Keyword(s): Conflict of Interest, Peer Review
Case: After reviewing a manuscript, Adem, a reviewer at a prestigious medical research journal, strongly advocates for the rejection of the submission asserting that the research fails to add value to the journal. The paper is subsequently rejected. The journal is later contacted by the author. He asserts that he had not received a fair review. According to the author, “I took a risk submitting my manuscript to the Almighty Journal of Genetics, which has an impressive impact factor, as I know Adem is a reviewer there. Adem runs a lab that is extremely similar to mine in scope and purpose. We have competed for years, vying to solve salient issues in the field of genetics. This puts us in direct conflict with each other and therefore makes a fair review of my work by him utterly impossible.” The journal editor was disturbed that Adem did not disclose this conflict of interest.
- What would you do if you were the journal editor?
- What should Adem have done when he realized that he had a conflict of interest?
- What action(s) should the journal take?