Conflict of Interest Disclosure

[bjanes]

This week's issue of JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association, February 15) has an interesting article on disclose of conflict of interest, which is mandatory for most peer reviewed journals. Conflicts of interest are inevitable with leaders in any field, as manufacturers often seek out their advice and help. Possible conflict of interest notification is helpful, but may have unintended consequences. Two such consequences are strategic exaggeration and moral licensing. The former takes place when the writer provides additional bias to counter-effect anticipated discounting by the audience engendered by the conflict of interest statement. Moral licensing takes place when the writer may feel that the reader has been warned and he/she (the writer) is then free to offer biased information.

Regards,

Bill

[theguywitha645d]

And how is this applicable to LuLa? This is not exactly a peer-review publisher in the academic sense. I would not really trust the articles here to fall under the rigors of that type of publishing. The folks here are just having fun, but nothing published here is exactly researched and are really just personal opinion.

[bjanes]

And how is this applicable to LuLa? This is not exactly a peer-review publisher in the academic sense. I would not really trust the articles here to fall under the rigors of that type of publishing. The folks here are just having fun, but nothing published here is exactly researched and are really just personal opinion.

Where have you been? LuLa does accept advertising and reviews products and publishes articles on them and many of the principals have relationships with vendors. Michael has published a conflict of interest statement. I think Michael is a straight shooter and value his opinion. However, when I see excessive claims concerning a product, strategic exaggeration might be involved. Or possibly merely sloppy writing.

Regards,

Bill

[theguywitha645d]

Bill, this is a photo enthusiast web site. What are you expecting? You are simply going have to read and judge for yourself. Why would you take anything written here on face value?

[KirbyKrieger]

Caveat lector.

I take what I find useful from what is published here.  In no case do I think it is unbiased, though in all cases it may be that the bias is in no way venal.

I have learned a tremendous amount from the content of Michael's site, for which I am very grateful to him and to those who contribute.

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-1lmz3qreY

[Wayne Fox]

I'm certainly intelligent enough to understand that those writing have biases (which are usually pretty obvious).  This isn't science nor journalism, and I've seen plenty of criticism of most cameras by writers.  It was obvious some time ago LuLa was not going to move down the road of DPReview (why bother), and the writing was more about what was interesting.

Just curious what you do find wrong with the disclosure.

[bjanes]

I'm certainly intelligent enough to understand that those writing have biases (which are usually pretty obvious).  This isn't science nor journalism, and I've seen plenty of criticism of most cameras by writers.  It was obvious some time ago LuLa was not going to move down the road of DPReview (why bother), and the writing was more about what was interesting.

Just curious what you do find wrong with the disclosure.

Absolutely nothing. Michael's disclosure statement is a model of what is required. Other contributors of articles should also make similar statements.

Regards,

Bill

[Alan Goldhammer]

Please let's not go down this road again!!!

[jjj]

I've noticed Michael to have many serious biases in his writings. He seems dead against poor camera ergonomics and very much in favour of high image quality. The man obviously cannot be trusted.

[langier]

+1

[dreed]

If only everyone delt with their conflict of interest problems in the manner that Michael does.
The man is to be applauded for being open and straight forward about this unlike so many other people.

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

I'm with Wayne on this one, but would add a few comments.

I see LuLa as a site about the personal experience of the authors. They are certainly biased, everyone has a bias. If you like something, there will be a bias if you dislike another one.

On the other hand, I feel that the authors on LuLa have a solid integrity. I don't think that their views are affected by advertisement. It is also my very clear understanding that Michaels started working with Phase One long before getting friends within the company. I also feel it's OK to use the best equipment and feel happy about it.

Now, I would not say that Michael is completely objective, the art of photography is highly subjective. Nor would I say that LuLa is a scientific publication, far from it! It's a great site where a few great guys (No gals, a great pity!) share their experience and vision.

Sometimes we have an article that may have been goofed up a bit, at least in my view. I don't discuss which ones, because I feel the authors have spent efforts on doing their tests and sharing information. In my view we should applaud the effort even if we have issues with the results. Constructive critic is OK but just saying that someones efforts are worthless is bad. An article causing a discussion may lead to another article that may offer new insights.

Best regards
Erik

I'm certainly intelligent enough to understand that those writing have biases (which are usually pretty obvious).  This isn't science nor journalism, and I've seen plenty of criticism of most cameras by writers.  It was obvious some time ago LuLa was not going to move down the road of DPReview (why bother), and the writing was more about what was interesting.

Just curious what you do find wrong with the disclosure.

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

+1 to Eric and Wayne.

I want to add, that IMO the problem is not to discuss things like audio cables, wine, policies of disclosure conflicts of interest or whatever.
The problem simply is about respect.
Protected by the anonymity of the net things in various forums often go out of hand and end up in silly and pointless squabbleing, far away from the original intention of the OP.
Anonymity in the net, group processes with the illusion of being backed up by others and the lack of direct social interaction along with the consequence of the written conversation being prone to misunderstandings lead to situation where otherwise grown up and well behaving people are dragged into a process of regression and end up in a sand box war.

To me LuLa is an important site since I started taking photographs again some years before after a long break and it has accompanied me since then. I feel well here reading the forums, posting my own stuff and being in a general friendly interaction with others - often highly skilled people with an incredible amount of technical and artistical skill. I enjoy surfing the photo sites of the members and seeing what others do and I learn a lot from that.

I don't want to see this place beeing overrun by the stupidity, flatness, inconsideration and egomania we see so often on the net. And I feel responsible for my part in it as well as I hope others feel responsible for this place too.

For anyone interested in regressive group processes and the consequencs of them I want to suggest reading Sigmund Freud writing "Massenpsychologie und Ich Analyse" ("Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego"). Could be quite enlightening reading this piece from the pre-WWW era.

[Rob C]

Christoph

Don't remember seeing your site before; n¡ce eye you show, even if your new antique is a bit of a shocker! Almost as bad as an M-series for framing...?

;-)

Rob C

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

Christoph

Don't remember seeing your site before; n¡ce eye you show, even if your new antique is a bit of a shocker! Almost as bad as an M-series for framing...?

;-)

Rob C

Ey, thanks ..
You just reminded of updating the site - maybe I can do something on the weekend - its overdue.
This antique dinosaurus is really fun, though I didn't take too many images with it yet due to time issues.

[dreed]

Protected by the anonymity of the net things in various forums often go out of hand and end up in silly and pointless squabbleing, far away from the original intention of the OP.

I wonder sometimes if this is due to the anonymity or something else, perhaps the person themselves?

To pick a person that seems to often get .. embroiled (Jeff Schewe - please don't take offense, you're just a good non-anonymous example .. the justification usually given reads more like "you wanna pick a fight? fine with me, lets roll up our sleeves and have at it!" I don't understand why except that in many threads, that is Jeff and the best way to deal with it is to ignore it, not get worked up or involved. I've never seen him get offended if someone does ignore those style of comments and rather the conversation continues to be productive. I'm sure the same holds true for others too.

Thus my advice to folks is simple:

"Play the ball and not the man."

You can't score points by "playing the man." This holds true for whatever code of football you follow.

(Hmm, maybe I'm wrong about the anonymous bit because even though we know what he looks like and what he gets called, most of us don't know who he is and thus he is therefore anonymous.)

[hjulenissen]

They are certainly biased, everyone has a bias. If you like something, there will be a bias if you dislike another one.

On the other hand, I feel that the authors on LuLa have a solid integrity. I don't think that their views are affected by advertisement.

I dont know or claim anything about the bias, integrity or paycheck of authors over here.

I do think that it is possible to have "integrity", while still being "biased by the hands that feed you". In other words, if you are to write an article about your company, your boss etc, even if you have the best integrity and intent, there is a significant possibility that your words will be shaped by this connection. That is ok, it is (probably) part of being human. That is also the reason that scientists, judges and others should use tools that tries to control this part of human behaviour.

I think it is good practice for journalists and writers of feel-good artistic activities that make recommendations and offer conclusions to offer information of possible such biases. Having a friend in a camera-making company certianly is not wrong, and perhaps unavoidable, but informing the reader is a good thing. I can hope for a larger degree of bias-aware methology in such professions, but realistically I can not demand it.

-h

[Gary Brown]

I dont know or claim anything about the bias, integrity or paycheck of authors over here.
…
I think it is good practice for journalists and writers of feel-good artistic activities that make recommendations and offer conclusions to offer information of possible such biases.

On the main Luminous Landscape site, in the links in the left-hand column is one titled “Full Disclosure” on exactly those topics.

See http://luminous-landscape.com/about/disclosure.shtml

[theguywitha645d]

I am not biased, I am right. 

Look, there is going to be no way to vet the contributions. Disclosures are not going to solve anything. The best cure for the problem is an educated reader (or a thread  ).