The Journal requires all parties involved in publication (authors, editors, and reviewers) to declare any conflict of interest, following COPE guidelines.
What a conflict of interest is. A conflict of interest exists when financial or personal relationships could inappropriately influence, or appear to influence, a person's judgment about a manuscript. Examples include:
- Financial: funding, employment, consultancy, honoraria, or ownership of shares related to the work.
- Personal: family relationships, close friendships, or personal rivalries with the authors.
- Academic or institutional: same institution, recent collaboration or co-authorship, or a supervisor–student relationship.
- Competing interests: direct competition with the authors' research or commercial interests in its outcome.
Authors. Authors must disclose all sources of funding and any potential conflict of interest at submission. Every published article includes a Conflict of Interest statement before the References. If there is none, the statement reads: "The authors declare no conflict of interest."
Reviewers. Reviewers must decline to review, or inform the editor, when they have a conflict of interest with the manuscript or its authors. Reviewers may not use information obtained through review for personal advantage.
Editors. Editors must not handle manuscripts in which they have a conflict of interest. Such manuscripts are assigned to another editor who has no conflict, and the conflicted editor takes no part in the review or the decision.
Submissions from editorial team members. Manuscripts submitted by the Editor-in-Chief, editors, or editorial board members of the Journal are handled by an independent editor and undergo the same double-blind peer review as all other submissions. The submitting member has no access to the review process or the decision.
Undisclosed conflicts. A conflict of interest discovered after submission or publication is handled according to COPE guidance. Depending on its seriousness, it may lead to rejection of the manuscript or to a correction or retraction of the published article.