ACADEMIA Letters Improved disclosures of non-fnancial competing interests would promote independent review Adrian Treves Chelsea Batavia Transparency in research and independent review are thought to improve the reproducibil- ity of science. We discuss how independent review might be commonly misconstrued as limited to independence of authors from reviewers. We broaden the defnition to include independence from competing interests in the methods used and competing interests in the outcomes of that research. That broader view in turn necessitates broader scrutiny of com- peting interests, as recommended by the National Academies of Science for disclosures of unconscious and conscious cognitive biases, which can compete with review based purely on the merits of the science. We describe a method for disclosures of competing interests that starts with authors listing the interests implicated by methods and results in their manuscripts, continues to peer reviewers adding to that list, and ends with public disclosure of de-identifed information about potential competing interests by all parties. Our method maintains checks and balances between parties, without requiring unreasonable inputs of time. The goals of a policy for disclosing competing interests should be transparency and also reduced risk of public disclosures that might be misused to stigmatize or dismiss scholars and their credi- ble research. Our proposal promotes transparency in scientifc communications and greater independence from the outcomes of science among reviewers. Academia Letters, March 2021 Corresponding Author: Adrian Treves, atreves@wisc.edu Citation: Treves, A., Batavia, C. (2021). Improved disclosures of non-fnancial competing interests would promote independent review. Academia Letters, Article 514. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL514. 1 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0