Preventing conflicts of interest

When authors submit articles for publication, they are responsible for declaring financial (with public or private organizations) or non-financial (personal, academic, ideological, intellectual, political, or religious) relationships that could affect the results of their work and cause a conflict of interest in their manuscript.

The author(s) must certify the absence of a conflict of interest at the end of the manuscript with a statement: “The author declares no conflicts of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; in the decision to publish the results” (see: Article’s post-text materials, 8. In  Author Guidelines).

Reviewers are also required to inform the editor of any conflicts that may arise.

A conflict of interest may arise in the following relationships between the participants in the editorial process: the author and the executive editor and/or reviewer work at the same department or in the same research group; the author is a student or postgraduate student, and the reviewer is a teacher or supervisor; the author is a student (postgraduate student), and the reviewer and/or editor is the supervisor of the research paper.

Reviewers and editors should not review manuscripts in which they have a conflict of interest resulting from a competitive, joint, or other relationships with authors, companies, or institutions related to the manuscript.

Declarations of conflicts of interest made by authors, reviewers, or editors are reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief. If there are substantiated allegations of a conflict of interest with the Editor-in-Chief, they are considered at a meeting of the editorial board.