Conflict of Interest

All faculty members (and some students and staff) must complete a Conflict of Interest form annually. Faculty who declare a potential conflict must complete a second part of the form, where the details of the conflict may be explained. If a conflict has been disclosed, the Chair of the Department then completes a Management Reporting Form, either affirming that disclosure of the conflict is sufficient, or describing the measures that have been (or will be) taken to manage the conflict, and finally signing off on whether the conflict has or has not been successfully resolved.

Conflict of Interest situations often pose difficult questions, and it is important that faculty and supervisors not depend on a summary of the issues involved. The full University policy on Conflict of Interest is available online at: www.bc.pitt.edu/policies/policy/11/11-01-03.html.

The University’s Conflict of Interest Office has created a library of case studies which can be very helpful in dealing with specific instances of potential conflict. The case studies are available at: www.coi.pitt.edu/CaseStudies.htm.

In addition to the comprehensive guidance provided by the University’s policies and case studies, the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences has addressed in more detail a particular conflict which is often the subject of questions from department chairs. The following statement was passed by (then) FAS Council on February 7, 1996:

Policy Regarding Royalties for Teaching Materials Authored by a Faculty Member and Assigned in that Faculty Member's Course.

A real or potential conflict of interest situation exits when teaching materials which are authored or co-authored by a faculty member are assigned to be used in a course that is taught by that faculty member if that faculty member derives a financial benefit from the sale of these teaching materials. (The term teaching materials is meant to include textbooks, laboratory manuals, audio and video tapes, digital media, software and all other similar materials.) In order to eliminate even the appearance of any such conflict of interest, the following policy is to be followed by all faculty members in the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences:

Whenever teaching materials authored or co-authored by a faculty member are assigned in a course taught by that faculty member, the faculty member has to take steps so as to not derive financial benefit from the sale of these teaching materials to these students. Such avoidance can be accomplished either by making provisions with the publisher to reduce the cost of these materials to the students in that faculty member's class by the amount of the royalty the faculty member would otherwise receive, by the faculty member refunding the royalty amount directly to the students, or by the faculty member making arrangements with the Bookstore to donate the royalties derived from the sale of these materials to a scholarship fund benefiting University of Pittsburgh students. The faculty member should indicate on the University of Pittsburgh Conflict of Interest Form that he/she is not deriving any personal financial gain from the sale of these teaching materials to the students in his/her class.

This policy was unanimously adopted at the February 7, 1996 meeting of FAS Council, and edited by Dean N. John Cooper on June 15, 2007.