One reviewer noted (Expert 5, question 1.2) the funding company of this work is a company that makes detergent without polyvinyl alcohol-pod structures (i.e., a competitor to companies that rely on polyvinyl alchohol). Does this affect your confidence in the integrity of the findings?

Answer Explanations

• I cannot answer

  Expert 5

  It depends. Implicit bias is a well-known factor influencing results of studies. The study seemed a reasonable attempt to consider the available evidence.

• No

  Expert 3

  I am not 100% sure what 'this work' is referring to. I assume it is the Rolsky and Kelkar study. I think it is far-fetched to make the assumption that a company would pay for publishing a study of this nature. As far as can be judged from the way the model, the model assumptions, and the parametrization is described, the authors seem to have acted with integrity.

• I cannot answer

  Expert 6

  In my opinion, it is a really bold move to question the integrity of a fellow scientist in the context of research funding and potential conflicts of interest. I am therefore reluctant to make such claims or accusations based on limited knowledge and without having had the chance to contact the authors to confront them directly. However, if I would have been asked to review this manuscript, being aware of the relationship between the funding company and their use of commercial alternatives for PVA, I would have advised to reject the manuscript without possibility of revisions - unless this potential conflict of interest was addressed in more detail and on the title page - and I would have withdrawn from further review if this advice was not followed. Perhaps I should put it this way: The authors appear to be in a dark grey area in terms of integrity/conflict of interest, and if I were to cite any of their work I would scrutinize the background more thoroughly than I normally would.

• I cannot answer

  Expert 8

  There may be a shadow of suspicion. It is true that the comment in the acknowledgements is contradictory, in that it recognizes their "critical input greatly assisted with the study", but then that the company had no role in the interpretation of the data.
  It is also true that the financing by this company is not hidden, although if its activities are known it may give rise to a conflict of interest.
  In any case, the conclusions are not correct, but I cannot be sure if it is a problem of conflict of interest of the company or simply the research by the investigators has methodological problems in which the company has not been involved.

• No

  Expert 1

  As long as the company funding the research has adopted the principle of upholding basic research integrity of reporting their scientific findings truthfully, I have no issue with research publications that are corporate-funded. One should not judge the integrity of the findings just because the companies are competitor.

• No

  Expert 2

  No. I don’t detect any evidence of bias; this should also have been addressed by the peer review process. A lot of research is funded by industry (including the Menzies et al. paper), but that doesn’t mean it is not good science.