Conflict of Interest Policy

A conflict of interest arises when the impartiality of professional judgment about a main interest, such as the integrity of research, may be compromised due to the presence of a secondary interest, such as financial gain or personal animosity. A conflict of interest may arise when an individual, their employer, or their sponsor maintains a financial, economic, legal, or professional association with other organizations or individuals involved in their research, potentially exerting an impact on the integrity and impartiality of their work. Conflicts of interest may manifest in either financial or non-financial forms. In order to ensure transparency, it is imperative to disclose any affiliations that may be seen by external parties as constituting a conflict of interest.

Editors should engage in communication with the author and utilize the obtained information to guide their editorial judgments. It is imperative that editors and reviewers maintain a strict adherence to impartiality by avoiding any direct personal or financial conflicts of interest with the papers they are assigned to evaluate. Authors of a manuscript should not be assigned to review the same manuscript. To mitigate any conflicts-of-interest, it is advisable to exclude researchers affiliated with the authors' universities from serving as peer reviewers.

It is imperative for authors to disclose any potential conflicts of interest in the cover letter accompanying their work.  If there is no conflict of interest among the writers, the appropriate phrase should be "All authors have no conflicts of interest."