Conflict of Interest Policy

Last updated: April 13, 2026

A conflict of interest exists when professional judgement regarding a primary interest (such as the validity of research) may be influenced by a secondary interest (such as financial gain or personal relationships). This policy follows ICMJE guidelines on conflicts of interest and COPE guidelines.

1. Authors

All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships that could be perceived as influencing their work. This includes:

Employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership, paid expert testimony
Patent applications and grants received or pending
Personal or professional relationships with organisations mentioned in the manuscript

Disclosures must be submitted using the ICMJE Uniform Disclosure Form and will be published with the article.

2. Reviewers

Reviewers must decline to review manuscripts where they have a conflict of interest, including manuscripts from former students or supervisors, close colleagues, collaborators within the past three years, or competitors. Reviewers must immediately notify the editor if a conflict emerges during the review process.

3. Editors

Editors must recuse themselves from decisions on manuscripts where they have a conflict of interest. Recusal is mandatory when the editor is an author, co-author, or close collaborator of the manuscript, or has a personal or financial relationship with the author(s) that could bias their decision. All editorial conflicts of interest are handled in accordance with the COPE Editor Conflict of Interest flowchart.

4. Funding Disclosure

All funding sources for the research must be acknowledged in the manuscript. Authors should specify the role of the funding body in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, and the decision to publish (if any).