Table 1 Exclusion criteria

1. No drug/device industry financial ties

Included studies must address financial COI or industry sponsorship. Articles that address financial ties to other industries (e.g., food, alcohol, tobacco), non-financial COI and/or other kinds of bias should be excluded

2. Not drug or device research

Included studies must focus on research contexts. Articles focusing on medical/clinical education, continuing medical/professional education, clinical practice, clinical practice guidelines, and drug/device regulation should be excluded. Articles focusing on drug/alcohol use, food/nutrition/food safety, or exercise/activity should also be excluded

3. No policy

Included studies must focus on at least one extant, identifiable COI/sponsorship policy. Articles that merely describe extant COI, evaluate the effects of COI, propose future policies, explore hypothetical policies, describe processes for policy creation (without evaluation), or only use policies to set study inclusion criteria (e.g. post-Sunshine) should be excluded

4. Not empirical or analytical

Included articles must offer an empirical analysis or evaluation of the described policy or policies. This can include policy evaluation/analysis, legal analysis, social scientific methods. Studies that simply describe/explain a new policy being promulgated or present an opinion on the policy in the absence of empirical investigation should be excluded