All authors of manuscripts must disclose any and all conflicts of interest they may have with publication of the manuscript or an institution or product that is mentioned in the manuscript and/or is important to the outcome of the study presented.

Reviewers

To ensure that the review process is free of conflicts:

1. Editors should select a guest editor when there is a conflict of interest with respect to an author. Editors should ensure that reviewers are free of conflict of interest with respect to an author.

2. Reviewers should contact the editorial office to declare any potential conflicts of interest in advance of refereeing an article (e.g. being a co-worker or collaborator with one of the authors or being in a position which precludes giving an objective opinion of the work).

3. Minor conflicts do not disqualify a reviewer from reporting on an article but will be taken into account when considering the referees’ recommendations.

Authors

All authors and co-authors are required to disclose any potential conflict of interest when submitting their article (e.g. employment, consulting fees, research contracts, stock ownership, patent licenses, honoraria, advisory affiliations, etc.). If the article is subsequently accepted for publication, this information should be included in the end section.

Editors

1. Editors should not make any editorial decisions or get involved in the editorial process if they have any COI (financial or otherwise) for a submitted manuscript. If editors have any such COI with respect to the authors or their work, the editors should remove themselves from the decision-making process.  

2. An editor may have COI if a manuscript is submitted from their own academic department or from their institution in such situations, they should have explicit policies for managing it.  

3. When editors submit their own work to their journal, a colleague in the editorial office should manage the manuscript and the editor/author should recuse himself or herself from discussion and decisions about it.

Additional Information

You may find the following useful resources to refer to for more information on Conflict of Interest policies, existing codes of practices and more general good practice in relation to journal publication ethics:

View the Guidelines published on good publication by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

If no conflict exists, please state that "The Author(s) declare that there no conflict of interest" For guidance on conflict of interest statements. View the guidelines published by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).