Conflict of Interest and Competing Interests

Conflict of interest is a situation in which financial or other personal interests are likely to make professional judgment and objectivity bias and untrustworthy.

Authors should disclose all financial/relevant interests that may have influenced the development of the manuscript. In cases of Academic Conflict of Interest where an individual (reviewer, editor or editorial board member) has a bias or personal interest that can obstruct the peer-review, the individual should declare their conflicts of interest and refuse participation in the review process.

When members of the Editorial Board or Team make a submission, it is directed to reviewers outside the journal for double-blind reviewing in order to avoid any conflict of interest.

Any relevant competing interests of authors must be available to editors during the review process and must be declared by authors in the published work. Conflict of interest exists when an author (or the author's institution) has financial or personal relationships with other persons or organisations that inappropriately influence (bias) their opinions or actions. [Modified from: Davidoff F, et al. Sponsorship, Authorship, and Accountability. (Editorial), JAMA 2001;286(10).]

Authors must declare:
All sources of research funding, including direct and indirect financial support, supply of equipment or materials, or other forms of conflict of interest, which may have prevented them from executing and publishing unbiased research.
The role of the research funder(s) or sponsor (if any) in the research design, execution, analysis, interpretation and reporting.
Any other relevant financial and non-financial interests and relationships that might be considered likely to affect the interpretation of their findings or which editors, reviewers or readers might reasonably wish to know. This includes any relationship to the book/journal (for example, if editors wish to publish their own research in their own work).