Disclosure and conflict of interest
All participants in the peer review and publication process must consider and disclose any relationships that may be seen as potential sources of conflict of interest. This includes financial relationships (such as employment, consulting, equity ownership, royalties, patents, or compensated peer review), personal relationships and rivalries, academic competition, and intellectual beliefs.
Authors
All authors are required to disclose financial and personal relationships that have influenced or could have influenced their work when submitting a manuscript to the journal, specifying:
- the presence or absence of conflicts of interest among the authors;
- the work’s sources of funding, including sponsors, if any;
- an explanation of the role of sources of funding in developing the research plan, collecting, analysing, and interpreting data, drafting the report, deciding to submit the report for publication, or alternatively, a statement that the source of funding did not participate in such activities.
Reviewers
Reviewers should not participate in the evaluation of manuscripts if they have conflicts of interest due to competitive, collaborative or other relationships with any of the authors or companies and other organizations connected to the submitted work.
Editors and editorial staff
Editors and editorial staff must withdraw from editorial decisions if they have a conflict of interest related to the articles under review. Unpublished data obtained from manuscripts submitted for review cannot be used in personal research without the author’s written consent. Information or ideas arising from the review process that could offer potential advantages must remain confidential and not be used for personal gain.
