Conflict of Interest and financial disclosure policies of journals that publish weather and climate research

Weather and climate research is an area of science in which private companies, government agencies, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have substantial interests at stake, but little is known about how academic journals address these interests. The primary aim of this study was to help address this question by analyzing the content of funding disclosure polices of journals that publish research on weather and climate. We reviewed and analyzed policies from 100 journals that focus on weather and climate research and found that most of them have comprehensive policies for disclosing conflicts of interest (COIs) and funding sources. 98% of the journals require disclosure of COIs; 91.8% require funding disclosure; 87.9% require disclosure of non-financial COIs; 86.9% define COIs, 80.8% provide examples of COIs, and 65.7% policies that apply to reviewers and editors, and 55.6% have enforcement mechanisms for violations of COI policies. Several of the policies were positively associated with a higher journal impact factor. Although most journals that publish research on weather and climate research have comprehensive COI and funding disclosure policies, additional research is needed to determine the extent to authors, reviewers, and editors understand and follow these policies.