A conflict of interest occurs when personal, professional, financial, or other relationships may improperly influence, or be perceived to influence, the objectivity and integrity of research, peer review, or editorial decisions.
All authors, editors, and reviewers are required to disclose any actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest relevant to a submitted manuscript. Such conflicts may include financial relationships, institutional affiliations, personal relationships, professional collaborations, or competing interests that could affect impartial judgment.
Authors must declare relevant conflicts of interest during manuscript submission. If no conflicts exist, authors should explicitly state that there are no conflicts of interest to declare. Editors and reviewers must disclose any competing interests and withdraw from the editorial or review process when their impartiality may be compromised.
The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for assessing disclosed conflicts and taking appropriate measures to ensure a fair, transparent, and unbiased editorial process. Failure to disclose a relevant conflict of interest may result in editorial action, including manuscript rejection or, where appropriate, correction or retraction of a published article.
The journal is committed to handling all disclosures confidentially and in accordance with publication ethics best practices.
