Response to B abor & Miller Editorial ‘ M c C arthyism, conflict of interest and A ddiction's new transparency declaration procedures’

Several members of the International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research (ISFAR) have drawn attention to the article published in Addiction: ‘McCarthyism, conflict of interest and Addiction's new transparency declaration procedures’ 1. We would like to make the following points clear and require you to publish clarification and an apology in Addiction. Another recent case involved two authors and their associations with alcohol industry bodies [6,7]. A check of the organizations with which the authors were involved revealed a convoluted set of financial connections among the International Scientific Forum for Alcohol Research (ISFAR), a ‘joint venture’ between Boston University's Institute on Lifestyle and Health and Alcohol in Moderation (AIM) and the alcohol industry. Neither AIM nor ISFAR is an industry organization, nor is there a ‘joint venture’ with the alcohol industry. ISFAR commissions reviews of the alcohol and drinking literature from scientists who do not receive remuneration for their essays, although three of the forum members are based at institutions that receive major support from the wine industry and six others receive a small percentage of their support (1–5%) from the beverage industry. You fail to mention that there are 41 members of ISFAR. ISFAR also worked with ICAP to organize a Symposium on Moderate Alcohol Consumption. ISFAR did not even exist (it was established in 2009) when this symposium took place. ISFAR's other co director serves as the Executive Director of AIM, which receives funding from the alcohol industry via a number of different mechanisms such as subscriptions and project grants [8]. This example of convoluted funding streams presents a challenge to the spirit, if not the letter, of current financial declaration statements in that an individual may claim he or she receives no funds from the industry to conduct one activity while at the same time receiving unrestricted donations from an industry that benefits from that activity.