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Conflicts of interest in institutional review boards are a threat to ethical research

The introduction of publicly funded not-for-profit institutional review boards would realign incentives to promote research participants’ interests and improve accountability.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank C. Grady, H. Fernandez-Lynch, E. Hurley, C. Auston and R. Dresser for their thoughtful critique of this manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jonathan M. Green.

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Competing interests

S.R. is co-founder of North Star Review Board, a nonprofit IRB.

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Disclaimer J.M.G. is employed by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), but this paper is being submitted in his personal capacity and not in his official capacity. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and not necessarily the views of the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Health and Human Services, and/or the USA.

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Green, J.M., Rosenfeld, S. Conflicts of interest in institutional review boards are a threat to ethical research. Nat Med 29, 2701–2703 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-023-02442-0

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