Reviewer Competing Interests

Reviewer Competing Interests  ·  Jurnal Civics
Declare, and step aside when needed.
When reviewers must decline, what they declare, and what happens if an interest is hidden.
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Policy
Reviewers for Jurnal Civics: Media Kajian Kewarganegaraan must be able to assess a manuscript objectively. A competing interest exists when a relationship or interest could affect, or could be seen to affect, a reviewer’s judgement. Reviewers declare such interests and decline where needed, following the COPE Core Practice on conflicts of interest and the COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers.
When to declare On receiving the invitation, before reading the full manuscript, and at any time an interest becomes apparent.
How In the response to the invitation, or in the confidential comments to the editor.
Who decides The handling editor decides whether the reviewer can continue.
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Reviewers decline if they
—  Work, or have recently worked, at the same institution or department as any author.
—  Have collaborated or co-authored with any author in recent years, or are planning to.
—  Are, or were, a supervisor, student, or close colleague of any author.
—  Have a family or close personal relationship, or a known rivalry, with any author.
—  Have a financial interest in the outcome, or receive funding linked to the work.
—  Are working on very similar research that could compete with the manuscript.
—  Have reviewed the same manuscript for another journal and have strong prior views, unless they tell the editor and the editor agrees.
—  Recognise the authors and feel unable to be impartial.
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Interests to declare to the editor
—  Political, religious, or ideological positions that are strongly bound up with the topic, where they could affect judgement.
—  Membership of organisations or advocacy groups related to the topic.
—  Any other interest that a reasonable person might see as affecting the review.
—  Declaring an interest does not always prevent a review; the editor decides.
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During and after review
—  Reviewers do not try to identify the authors, and do not contact them.
—  Reviewers do not use information from the manuscript for their own work or advantage, and do not share it.
—  Reviewers do not ask authors to cite the reviewer’s own work without a genuine scholarly reason. See Peer Review Manipulation.
—  If an interest becomes apparent during review, the reviewer tells the editor at once.
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If an interest is not declared
—  The review may be discarded and the manuscript sent to another reviewer.
—  If the decision was affected, the manuscript may be reassessed.
—  The reviewer may be removed from the reviewer database. Serious cases are handled under the Research Misconduct policy.
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Related policies