For a journal-based CME activity, do I need to identify, mitigate, and disclose to learners the relevant financial relationships for the authors of the article?
No. If you are creating a journal-based CME activity, the ACCME does not expect you to identify, mitigate, and disclose to learners the relevant financial relationships of the article's authors and editors. That process is handled by the journal editors. Disclosure by authors is a standard component of published articles, and the editorial review process manages the mitigation of relevant financial relationships. The accredited provider does, however, need to identify, mitigate, and disclose relevant financial relationships for those involved in planning the journal-based CME activity, e.g., the person(s) choosing the article(s) and/or writing the evaluation mechanism.
The ACCME has two expectations about the publication that issued the article:
- The publication cannot be owned by an ACCME-defined ineligible company.
- The publication must have in place a process that manages the disclosure of authors, editors, and peer reviewers involved in the process of reviewing and publishing the article. The process must be accepted within the scientific publication community. For example, the publication follows the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors' (ICMJE) Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/).