01

Who must disclose

Editors, Editorial Board members, editorial and technical staff, and others who take part in decisions must disclose any interest that could influence, or could reasonably be seen to influence, their editorial judgement. Such interests may be financial, professional, personal, intellectual, institutional, political, or of another kind.

02

Examples

—  The manuscript is by a colleague, a student, a supervisor, a close collaborator, a family member, or a person in a close personal relationship with the editor.

—  The editor works at the same institution as an author, or has collaborated with an author recently.

—  The editor has a direct competing interest in the topic, a financial stake, or a rival manuscript.

03

What happens

1.  Editors declare their interests every year and, in addition, for any manuscript on which a conflict arises.

2.  An editor with a relevant interest does not handle the manuscript, does not see the identities of the reviewers, and takes no part in the decision.

3.  The manuscript is reassigned to another editor, who is independent of the author and the topic, and the recusal is recorded.

4.  When an interest of the journal or the publisher is relevant to published content, it is disclosed where this is needed for transparency.

04

Undisclosed interests

If an undisclosed interest comes to light, the Editor-in-Chief assesses whether it affected the process. Depending on the result, a decision may be reconsidered, and a published article may be corrected, given an expression of concern, or retracted. See Correction, Retraction and Withdrawal.

05

Conflicts of authors and reviewers

Conflicts of authors and reviewers are covered in Conflict of Interest and Reviewer Competing Interests.

06

Related

Conflict of Interest  ·  Submissions from Editors  ·  Editorial Independence

07

Sources

This policy is based on the guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE):