A typology of nonfinancial conflict in population health research

Nonfinancial conflicts pose particular challenges for population health science. Although financial sources-and their attendant potential conflicts-are easy to enumerate, it is much more difficult for investigators to articulate biases that are reinforced by their desire for professional advancement, membership in disciplinary networks, or ideology. Would articulating these biases improve science? Is it appropriate to even call these forces “conflicts,” or is some other label that acknowledges potential biases better in this context? These seem to me open questions. Identifying these challenges may be a first step, and I look forward to learning the views of colleagues who agree or disagree with this typology and, most important, to discussing how-if at all-we should tackle such issues in population health science.