Background
Methods
Overall design
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Funding: any sort of support to the planning, conduct or reporting of a study, in either monetary or non-monetary form (e.g. logistical support or writing assistance)
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Funding statement: any text in the paper that provides information about the funding of the study, including a report of ‘no funding’
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Funding policy: a policy that requires, at a minimum, the authors to disclose any source funding of the study
Survey of HPSR papers
Eligibility criteria and search
Study selection and data extraction
Survey of journals publishing HPSR papers
Journal selection
Data extraction
Statistical analysis
Results
Survey of HPSR papers
All n = 400 | Primary studies n = 200 | Systematic reviews n = 200 | P valueb | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Number of authors, median (interquartile range) | 4 (3–6) | 4 (3–6) | 5 (3–7) | 0.048 |
n (%) | n (%) | n (%) | ||
First author affiliationsa | ||||
Private academic institution | 71 (18) | 46 (23) | 25 (13) | 0.006 |
Public academic institution | 288 (72) | 135 (68) | 153 (77) | 0.045 |
Government | 40 (10) | 18 (9) | 22 (11) | 0.505 |
Not-for-profit organisation | 33 (8) | 23 (12) | 10 (5) | 0.018 |
Private for profit | 5 (1) | 2 (1) | 3 (2) | 0.999 |
Intergovernmental | 1 (0.3) | 1 (1) | 0 (0) | 0.999 |
Classification of country of affiliation of the first author | 0.909 | |||
High income | 368 (92) | 183 (91) | 185 (92) | |
Upper-middle income | 18 (5) | 10 (5) | 8 (4) | |
Lower-middle income | 9 (2) | 4 (2) | 5 (3) | |
Low income | 5 (1) | 3 (2) | 2 (1) |
All | Primary studies | Systematic reviews | P valueb | |
---|---|---|---|---|
n (%) | n (%) | n (%) | ||
Study funding | n = 200 | n = 200 | 0.001 | |
Not reported | 126 (31) | 62 (31) | 64 (32) | |
Reported as funded | 240 (60) | 131 (65) | 109 (54) | |
Reported as not funded | 34 (9) | 7 (4) | 27 (14) | |
Source of fundinga | n = 240 | n = 131 | n = 109 | |
Internal fund | 42 (18) | 21 (16) | 21 (19) | 0.511 |
Governmental | 186 (78) | 101 (77) | 85 (78) | 0.871 |
Private for-profit | 10 (3) | 4 (3) | 6 (6) | 0.345 |
Private not-for-profit | 71 (30) | 37 (28) | 34 (31) | 0.618 |
Role of funder | n = 240 | n = 131 | n = 109 | |
Not reported | 214 (89) | 121 (93) | 93 (85) | 0.061 |
Reported as a general statement of ‘no involvement’ | 4 (2) | 3 (2) | 1 (1) | |
Reported as a specific statement of involvement in any of the stage(s) of the research | 22 (9) | 7 (5) | 15 (14) |
Stage of the research process | Not involved | Involved |
---|---|---|
1. Protocol/design of the study | 19 (86) | 0 |
2. Data collection | 15 (68) | 0 |
3. Data analysis/interpretation/management | 19 (86) | 0 |
4. Funded a writer | 0 (0) | 0 |
5. Preparation of the manuscript | 20 (91) | 0 |
6. Review of the manuscript | 2 (9) | 1 (5) |
7. Approval of the manuscript | 2 (9) | 0 |
8. Decision to submit the manuscript | 17 (77) | 1 (5) |
9. Verified data accuracy/fact checking | 0 | 0 |
10. Auditing of study conduct | 0 | 0 |
11. Conduct of study | 0 | 0 |
12. Study oversight | 0 | 0 |
13. Logistical support | 0 | 0 |
14. Team assembly | 0 | 0 |
15. Management | 1 (5) | 1 (5) |
16. Any of the above | 20 (91) | 2 (9) |
Median number of research stages reported per study | 5 (4–5) |
Survey of journals publishing HPSR papers
Journals of all 400 studies | Journals of the 200 primary studies | Journals of the 200 systematic reviews | |
---|---|---|---|
Unique articles journals | 198 | 55 | 153 |
Journal is an HPSR journal | 55 (28) | 55 (100) | 11 (7) |
Journal impact factor | 1.90 (1.30–2.82) | 2.15 (1.48–2.68) | 1.92 (1.23–3.05) |
Membership of ICMJE | 40 (20) | 4 (7) | 37 (24) |
Membership of COPE | 154 (78) | 44 (80) | 119 (78) |
Affiliation with a professional organisation | 132 (67) | 33 (60) | 106 (69) |
Journal requires disclosure of conflicts of interest | 189 (96) | 53 (96) | 146 (95) |
Journal requires reporting of source of funding | 176 (89) | 53 (96) | 133 (87) |
Journal requires reporting of role of funder | 56 (34) | 10 (19) | 49 (37) |
HPS journals | Non-HPS journals that published HPSR studiesa | P value | |
---|---|---|---|
Number of journals | 72 | 142 | |
Journal impact factor | 1.62 (1.02–2.32) | 1.92 (1.26–3.05) | 0.062 |
Membership of ICMJE | 5 (7) | 36 (25) | 0.001 |
Membership of COPE | 54 (75) | 109 (77) | 0.775 |
Affiliation with a professional organisation | 45 (63) | 98 (69) | 0.339 |
Requires disclosure of conflicts of interest | 67 (93) | 135 (95) | 0.545 |
Requires reporting of source of funding | 65 (90) | 122 (86) | 0.364 |
Requires reporting of role of funder | 11 (15) | 46 (32) | 0.007 |
Regression analysis
Reporting of funding | Unadjusted OR (95% CI) | Adjusted OR (95% CI) |
---|---|---|
Systematic review versus primary study a | 0.95 (0.63–1.46) | 0.95 (0.61–1.48) |
Journal impact factor | 1.15 (1.00–1.33) | 1.13 (0.97–1.31) |
Membership of ICMJE | 1.15 (0.63–2.08) | 1.08 (0.58–2.01) |
Membership of COPE | 1.09 (0.65–1.81) | 1.15 (0.66–1.98) |
Affiliation with a professional organisation | 1.12 (0.72–1.74) | 1.03 (0.65–1.63) |
Journal requires disclosure of conflicts of interest | 1.73 (0.63–4.76) |
b
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Journal requires reporting of source of funding | 2.04 (0.99–4.24) | 1.73 (0.80–3.77) |
Journal requires reporting of role of funder | 1.28 (0.77–2.12) | 1.12 (0.66–1.92) |