"There is a crisis of confidence in the integrity of medical and scientific research," said Merrill Goozner, director of the Integrity in Science Project at CSPI. "I hope all of the major medical and scientific journals will revisit their policies, and let their authors know, as EHP now does, that failing to disclose ties to industry will result in a real penalty."

In an editorial in the October issue of EHP, editor-in-chief Thomas J. Goehl urges the research community to embrace such scrutiny. "Full disclosure is in the best interest of the individual scientists, the journals, and society, which must have complete faith that our research is not only of the highest quality but also is open, honest, and unbiased," Goehl wrote. EHP is published by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health.

The other journals examined in CSPI's July 12 report, Unrevealed, are the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), and Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology. JAMA had the highest rate of nondisclosure of conflicts at 11.3 percent, or six out of 53 articles.