利益衝突是一種處境（a set of conditions），此時當事人或機構對於主要利益的專業判斷，容易受到次要利益的不當影響（Thompson, 1993）。主要利益是指當事人在專業關係上首先應考量的利益，例如以科學研究而言，主要利益應該是促進科學知識的進展；教育研究的主要利益則是提升教學品質。次要利益則指該專業人員或機構自身可得到的利益，包含財務及非財務的利益，例如：學術成就、名聲、地位、經濟收入等。一般來說，次要利益並非不合法，但若成為影響主要利益進而取代專業考量，將會造成問題。因此對利益衝突的處理，實有必要提供明確的規範，透過制度化的管理，確保受試者的安全與福祉、科學研究的廉正性，並維繫社會的信任。

1. A situation in which a person has a financial, personal, political or other interest which is likely to bias his or her judgment or decision-making concerning the performance of his or her ethical or legal obligations or duties.
2. Potential to compromise judgement or objectivity caused by financial or personal obligations or other considerations.
3. A conflict of interest specifically refers to a situation wherein, due to a financially profitable relation with an outside entity, for example, fair and appropriate judgment, which is necessary for public research, is compromised or appears to be possibly compromised to a third person.
4. Conflict of Interest is a cross-cutting issue that affects many policy areas such as peer review, financial conflict of interest, and responsible conduct of research. It generally means that a competing personal interest could affect, or could appear to affect, an individual's judgment or could cause the individual's impartiality to be questioned. Conflicts of Interest (actual or potential) may arise in the objective review process or in other activities or phases of the financial assistance process.

• 中文釋義出處：蔡甫昌（2021）。研究中的利益衝突〔線上課程〕。臺灣學術倫理教育資源中心。 http://ethics.moe.deu.tw/
• 釋義中引用的文獻：Thompson, D. F. (1993). Understanding financial conflicts of interest. The New England Journal of Medicine, 329, 573–576. https://doi.org/10.17226/1864

1. Resnik, D. B. (2015). Glossary of commonly used terms in research ethics. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. https://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/resources/bioethics/glossary/index.cfm
2. European Network for Academic Integrity. (2018). Glossary for academic integrity. https://www.academicintegrity.eu/wp/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Glossary_revised_final.pdf
3. Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Editing Committee. (2015). For the Sound Development of Science–The Attitude of a Conscientious Scientist. Maruzen Publishing Co., Ltd. https://www.jsps.go.jp/j-kousei/data/rinri_e.pdf
4. National Institutes of Health. (2021). NIH Grants policy statement. National Institutes of Health. https://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/nihgps/HTML5/section_1/1.2_definition_of_terms.htm

• 原則上「單字中英文釋義」欄位的內容皆採用原文引用（即未經改寫），僅少部分內容有經微幅文字編輯。若欲對釋義內容有更深入的瞭解，敬請參考「資料來源」欄位所提供之原始出處的完整內容。
• 資料來源無編號：代表釋義內容出自同一筆來源。
• 資料來源有項目符號：代表釋義內容是引用多筆來源合寫而成。
• 資料來源有編號：代表該來源是相同編號之釋義內容的原始出處。