Data collection & payment source
The JCR CPG for rheumatoid arthritis and associated official
institutional webpages provided data on author names, gender,
affiliations, and positions. Additionally, individual author COI
statements and recommendations were extracted from the CPG. As
previously described [18-21], all pharmaceutical companies
affiliated with the Japan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association
disclose their payment data concerning speaking, writing, and consulting
on their company webpages. However, these companies update this payment
data annually and remove data from previous years. Therefore, payment
data for the CPG authors between 2016 and 2019 were extracted from a
publicly accessible payment database maintained by the Medical
Governance Research Institute [22]. Payments to the CPG authors in
2020 were collected directly from each pharmaceutical company’s webpage.
When necessary, the author contacted the JCR’s development committee and
professional offices responsible for publishing these guidelines for
further information on the development process and COI statements and
policies.