Conflict of Interest Policy
Definition
A conflict of interest exists when a person's personal, financial, professional or private interests diverge from their responsibilities in research, review or publication, and could influence their judgement.
Author disclosure
At submission, authors must disclose:
- the sources of funding for the research;
- employment by, or consultancy for, commercial organisations;
- personal or professional relationships that could affect the work.
The manuscript must contain an explicit "Conflict of Interest" statement. If there is none, it should say so.
Reviewer disclosure
Reviewers must disclose conflicts before agreeing to review, including a close relationship with the authors or competing research interests, and must decline where a conflict exists. See Conflict of Interest and Financial Disclosures (Specific to Reviewers).
Editor disclosure
Editors must step aside from decisions on manuscripts where their objectivity could be questioned, including their own work and that of close collaborators. The manuscript is reassigned. See Conflict of Interest and Financial Disclosures (Specific to Editors).
Editorial independence
Decisions are based only on scientific merit, and are independent of publication charges, sponsorship and advertising.
Non-compliance
An undisclosed conflict may be a breach of the Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement and may lead to a correction or a retraction.
