Explanation & Elaboration

19. Funding

• Describes funding sources, if any, and role of funding organization in design, implementation, interpretation, and publication of study

Example

"Role of the Funding Source
This study was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (Veterans Integrated Service Network [VISN] Implementation grant), Clinical Research Center of Excellence, and Center for Patient Healthcare Behavior. The principal investigators and coinvestigators had full access to the data and were responsible for the study protocol, statistical analysis plan, study progress, analysis, study reporting, and the decision to publish the paper. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs-VISN 9 had the opportunity to comment on the manuscript before submission." [15]

Elaboration

Funding for improvement may arise from many sources: local institutional, a group of organizations that join together, a governmental granting agency, a foundation granting organization, or even from a third party payment. The description of the funding source can be brief, as in the example above, but should be thorough enough for the reader to understand which parties had a financial stake in the project.

This example also clearly describes that the regional VA leadership in VISN 9 had an opportunity to comment on the paper. Transparency regarding the source of the funding as well as the level of input from the funding agency assists with the interpretation of the outcomes. This level of unambiguous clarity is particularly important in light of recent data that cast doubt on the role of authors in some studies funded from industry. [43]

References

15. Roumie CL, Elasy TA, Greevy R, et al. Improving blood pressure control through provider education, provider alerts, and patient education: a cluster randomized trial. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2006;145(3):165-175.

43. Ross J, Hill K, Egilman D, Krumholz H. Guest Authorship and Ghostwriting in Publications Related to Rofecoxib: A Case Study of Industry Documents From Rofecoxib Litigation. JAMA. 2008;299(15):1800-1812.

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