More than half of the US peer reviewers for four major medical journals received industry payments between 2020 and 2022, new research shows. Altogether they received more than $64 million in general, non-research payments, with a median payment per physician of $7614. Research payments — including money paid directly to physicians as well as funds related to research for which a physician was registered as a principal investigator — exceeded $1 billion.
Male reviewers received a significantly higher median total payment than did female reviewers . General payments were higher for men as well ."Additional research and transparency regarding industry payments in the peer review process are needed," the authors of the study wrote.Christopher J. D. Wallis, MD, PhD, with the division of urology at the University of Toronto, Canada, was the corresponding author for the study.
This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.