EULAR guidelines need to be more transparent when it comes to declaring conflicts of interest, a group of leading rheumatologists say.

The quality of the guidelines had generally improved over the last decade following the introduction of a framework for authors but more work was needed in several areas including the declaration of editorial independence, said the authors including former EULAR president Maxime Dougados.

“[ The guidelines] should include a statement of funding as well as its influence on the content of the recommendation, and a detailed description of competing interests of all co-authors and how these may have influenced the development of the recommendations,” they wrote in Rheumatology.

More work was also needed on applicability of the guidelines and stakeholder involvement, although there was a trend towards improvement in the latter domain over the past 5 years, the report said.

The knowledge that EULAR had gained by introducing a framework for the development of guidelines could be widely applied to “other organisations tasked with similar work,” it concluded.

 Don’t forget to follow us on twitter @the_limbic