Conflict of Interest and Financial Disclosures (Specific to Editors)

Disclosures required

Before handling a manuscript, an editor must disclose to the Editor-in-Chief, or to another senior member of the editorial board:

• Financial interests, such as funding, consultancy, shareholding or advisory roles with an organisation affected by the work
• Personal or professional relationships with the authors, including collaborators, family members, and students or supervisors
• A shared institutional affiliation that could affect objectivity
• Competing research interests on the same question

Handling a manuscript where there is a conflict

• An editor with a conflict takes no part in choosing reviewers, assessing the reports or making the decision.
• The manuscript is passed to an editor without a conflict, or to a guest editor.
• If the Editor-in-Chief has the conflict, a senior board member handles the whole process.

Editors' own submissions

Members of the editorial team take no part in the review of their own manuscripts, which are judged by the same criteria as any other.

Continuing disclosure

• Editors update their disclosures when circumstances change, for example new funding, consultancy or collaborations.
• Editorial board members review and confirm their disclosure statements every year.

This policy follows COPE guidance. See also the Conflict of Interest Policy.