Conflict of Interest Policy

A conflict of interest exists where financial, professional, or personal circumstances could reasonably be seen to influence judgement about a manuscript. Having a conflict is not misconduct; failing to disclose it is. The journal requires disclosure from authors, reviewers, and editors alike.

What must be disclosed

Financial interests: employment or consultancy, including recent and prospective; research funding, equipment, or materials received; honoraria, speaking fees, or travel support; ownership of shares, patents, or royalties; paid expert testimony; any payment from an organisation that could gain or lose from the findings.

Non-financial interests: an unpaid position with an organisation studied or an advocacy group related to the topic; a close personal relationship with another party to the work; an academic rivalry that could affect judgement; membership of a body that could be affected by the results; strongly held commitments that bear directly on the subject.

Institutional interests: where the study evaluates the authors' own institution, employer, or a programme they run.

Authors

Every manuscript must include a Disclosure Statement. Where there is nothing to disclose, use: "No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s)." Funding is declared separately in the Funding statement, naming the funder in full, the grant number, and the funder's role, if any, in the design, conduct, analysis, writing, or decision to publish. In the anonymised file these statements are replaced with "Details omitted for double-blind reviewing" and restored in the final version.

The period covered is the 36 months preceding submission. When in doubt, disclose: a declaration costs nothing, while an undisclosed interest discovered after publication may require a corrigendum.

Reviewers

Reviewers must decline an invitation where they have worked with an author within the last three years; are at the same institution or department; have a personal, financial, or competitive relationship with an author; have been involved in the study; or have any other interest that could affect their judgement. Where a reviewer is uncertain, they should describe the circumstances to the handling editor and let the editor decide.

Editors

Editors declare their interests annually and recuse themselves from any manuscript in which they have one. Where an editor is an author, the manuscript is assigned to another editor, the authoring editor has no access to the review record in OJS, and the final decision is taken by an editor with no involvement. The same applies to manuscripts from an editor's close collaborators, students, or department. The journal records the proportion of articles authored by its own editors and editorial board and keeps it low.

Non-disclosure

An undisclosed conflict found during review may lead to rejection. Found after publication, it is handled under the Correction and Retraction policy: typically a corrigendum adding the missing statement, or a retraction where the undisclosed interest undermines confidence in the findings.