Conflicts of interest among committee members in the National Academies' genetically engineered crop study

PLoS One. 2017 Feb 28;12(2):e0172317. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0172317. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) publishes numerous reports each year that are received with high esteem by the scientific community and public policy makers. The NASEM has internal standards for selecting committee members that author its reports, mostly from academia, and vetting conflicts of interest. This study examines whether there were any financial conflicts of interest (COIs) among the twenty invited committee members who wrote the 2016 report on genetically engineered (GE) crops. Our results showed that six panel members had one or more reportable financial COIs, none of which were disclosed in the report. We also report on institutional COIs held by the NASEM related to the report. The difference between our findings and the NASEM reporting standards are discussed.

MeSH terms

  • Academies and Institutes
  • Agriculture / economics*
  • Agriculture / methods
  • Biomedical Research
  • Biotechnology / economics
  • Biotechnology / methods
  • Committee Membership*
  • Conflict of Interest / economics*
  • Crops, Agricultural / economics*
  • Disclosure
  • Ethics, Research*
  • Genetic Engineering*
  • Humans
  • Organizations
  • Plants, Genetically Modified*
  • Publishing

Grants and funding

The authors acknowledge the Committee on Faculty Research Awards, Tufts University for their grant to fund the publication of this paper. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.