Posters · Glossary

What is a conflict of interest statement?

A conflict of interest statement is a short declaration in which the authors list financial and personal ties that a reader might think could influence the research, such as consultancies, shares, patents or payments from a company whose product was studied. If there are none, the statement says so, so that silence is never mistaken for a clean record.

A result about a device reads differently once a viewer learns the lead author consults for its maker, and the damage is far worse when that link surfaces after the talk rather than on the board. Declaring interests up front lets the evidence be judged on its merits instead of on suspicion.

Indunil Asanka · Co-founder

5 min read · Published 13 September 2026

What authors typically declare
Kind of interest	Examples	How it can read on a poster
Employment or consultancy	Salary, advisory board seat or consulting fees from a company with a stake in the result	A. Rivera has received consulting fees from the manufacturer of the device studied
Ownership	Shares, stock options or a founding role in a company that could benefit	B. Osei holds shares in a company that licenses the test
Intellectual property	Patents held or pending, royalties	C. Tanaka is a named inventor on a pending patent for the method
Payments	Honoraria, speaker fees, travel support, paid expert testimony	D. Walsh has received speaker fees from a pharmaceutical company
Non financial	Personal relationships or rivalries, academic competition, strongly held intellectual beliefs	E. Moreau has publicly advocated for the intervention tested
Nothing to declare	No relevant relationships	The authors declare no competing interests

What counts as a conflict

The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors frames it by effect rather than by wrongdoing: a conflict exists when professional judgement about a primary interest, such as patients' welfare or the validity of research, may be influenced by a secondary interest, such as financial gain. Having a conflict is not misconduct. Hiding one is. ICMJE lists financial relationships such as employment, consultancies, stock ownership or options, honoraria, patents and paid expert testimony, and also non financial ones: personal relationships or rivalries, academic competition and intellectual beliefs. The test is whether a reasonable reader would want to know, not whether the author feels influenced.

How the disclosure is gathered

Journals that follow ICMJE ask every author to complete its Disclosure Form, which standardises what is asked and in what categories, and then summarise the answers in the article. ICMJE says its member journals require the form and encourages other journals to adopt it. The completed form is kept by the journal, not sent to ICMJE. In Australia, the 2018 Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research, developed jointly by NHMRC, the Australian Research Council and Universities Australia, has a supporting guide on disclosure of interests and management of conflicts of interest, and institutions that follow the Code apply it through their own declaration processes.

When a poster needs one

Whenever the conference asks for it, and whenever an author has a relevant tie, even if nobody asks. Many medical and health conferences require disclosures in the abstract submission and on the presentation itself. Clinical and industry adjacent work is where it matters most, but it applies elsewhere: an education study of a program an author sells, or an engineering test of a product made by an author's former employer. A student poster usually has nothing to declare, and saying that plainly takes one line. The declaration should cover everyone listed in the author block, not only the person presenting. If a co-author has not confirmed before the deadline, chase them rather than guessing on their behalf, because a wrong none is worse than a late answer.

Mistakes that turn a disclosure into a problem

The first is declaring only for the presenting author. The second is vague wording, such as ties to industry, which tells a reader nothing and looks evasive. Name the kind of relationship and the kind of company, and name the company if the conference expects it. The third is mixing up funding and conflicts: who paid for the study belongs in the funding statement, while an author's personal ties belong in the conflict statement, even when the same company appears in both. The fourth is letting the statement drift out of date between the abstract deadline and the conference, when a new consultancy may have started.

Where it shows up in the poster builder

None of the 40 poster layouts has a block dedicated to competing interests, so the statement is written into a section. On the five layouts that ship with an Acknowledgements section it fits naturally there, as a second sentence after the funding line. On the others, use a section near the references or add a Section from the Poster group of the Add items panel and give it a heading such as Disclosures. The quality improvement example puts the funding position and the competing interests in its references and acknowledgements block, which keeps both close to the sources where a careful reader looks.

Wording that is complete in one line

A good poster disclosure uses each author's initials or surname, the kind of relationship and the relevant company or type of company, then covers everyone else: A. Rivera has received consulting fees from the manufacturer of the device studied; the other authors declare no competing interests. That is under twenty five words and answers the only question a viewer has. Avoid adjectives such as minor or unrelated, which invite the reader to doubt the judgement. If the list is long, summarise the categories on the board and put the full declarations behind the QR code.

Questions people ask

How far back should a disclosure go?

Follow the time window the conference or journal sets, since forms differ. Many disclosure processes ask about relationships over the past few years rather than only current ones, because a recent consultancy can still shape judgement. If no window is stated, disclose anything recent enough that a reasonable reader would consider it relevant to the work on the board.

Does a university salary need declaring?

Ordinary employment by the institution listed in the affiliations is already visible and is not usually declared as a conflict. It becomes relevant when the institution has a commercial stake in the result, such as a spin out company or a licensed patent, in which case that institutional interest should be stated alongside any personal one.

What about a reviewer or chair with a conflict?

Conflicts apply to people judging work as well as to authors. ICMJE says reviewers should declare relationships that might bias their evaluation and recuse themselves if a conflict exists. Conference programme committees usually ask members to step back from scoring abstracts by close collaborators, students or competitors, and a presenter can raise a concern with the organisers.

Can a conflict stop a poster being accepted?

Rarely on its own. Committees generally accept disclosed conflicts and judge the science, although some meetings restrict promotional content or require that industry employees are not the only authors of a clinical abstract. Failing to disclose is the bigger risk, since it can lead to withdrawal of the abstract if the tie is discovered later.

Should unpaid advocacy be declared?

If an author has publicly campaigned for or against the intervention being tested, many readers would want to know, and ICMJE's list of non financial interests includes intellectual beliefs. A short neutral line is enough. It is not an admission of bias, only information that lets the viewer weigh the conclusion with the full picture.

Do student posters need a statement?

If the conference asks for one, yes, even when the answer is none. Where it does not ask, a supervisor's industry ties can still be relevant if they relate to the project. A single line, such as The authors declare no competing interests, costs nothing and shows the student understands the convention markers look for.

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Sources

Written and checked by the OneCraft team. Last checked 13 September 2026.