To the Editor: A recent editorial in the Journal focused on the "blurring of research ideals and corporate interests".1 But there are other funding and commissioning bodies, including government, whose wants or needs also have the potential to blur research ideals and exert control over what can be published. In recent times, those who pay the piper increasingly want to call the tune. Understandably, this is also an issue for research into Aboriginal ill health.2,3 Van Der Weyden's plea for the development of national guidelines on institutional conflict of interest should therefore be broadened to include all funding bodies.
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- Department of General Practice, University of Western Australia, Claremont, WA.
- 1. Van Der Weyden MB, Confronting conflict of interest in research organisations: time for national action [editorial]. Med J Aust 2001; 175: 396-397.
- 2. Eades SJ, Read AW, and the Bibbulung Gnarneep Team. The Bibbulung Gnarneep Project: practical implementation of guidelines on ethics in Indigenous health research. Med J Aust 1999; 170: 433-436.
- 3. Kamien M. The Bibbulung Gnarneep Project: practical implementation of guidelines on ethics in Indigenous health research [letter]. Med J Aust 1999; 171: 389-390.
- 4. O'Dowd T, Research in general practice: who is calling the tune? [editorial] Br J Gen Pract 1995; 45: 515.