Conflict of Interest

Conflict of Interest. A conflict of interest exists when an entity producing a research claim has a financial, professional, or personal relationship with another entity that benefits from the claim's outcome. Vendor-funded validation studies are the canonical conflict-of-interest case in the consumer-app category.

What is a conflict of interest?

A conflict of interest (COI) exists when an entity producing a research claim has a financial, professional, or personal relationship with another entity that benefits from the claim’s outcome. In the consumer-calorie-tracking-app category, the canonical COI is vendor-funded validation studies — the developer commissions, funds, or co-authors a study evaluating the developer’s own product.

COI is not equivalent to fraud or misrepresentation. The Lundh et al. Cochrane methodology review documents systematic mechanisms by which industry-funded studies diverge from independent studies (test-set selection, operator effects, selective reporting, endpoint flexibility). None of these require fraud; they are structural features of any research environment in which the funder has a stake in the outcome.

How this publication handles COI

The publication’s editorial team has declared their own COI on each author profile. No member of the editorial team has financial relationships with calorie-tracking-app vendors. No member holds equity in app makers or developers. No member has advisory positions with companies whose products are reviewed. Income derives from this publication and from independent academic consulting unrelated to consumer software.

For external research cited in the publication, COI is evaluated as part of the evidence-grade assessment. Vendor-funded studies are still cited where they are the only available evidence, but their grade is capped at low under the v3.2 framework.

Reporting COI

External researchers, vendors, and readers are welcome to bring COI concerns to the publication’s attention at editor@whatsthebestcalorietracking.app. The publication’s editorial team has refused two pitches in the past six months on COI grounds; the refusals are documented in the changelog without revealing the specific entities.