Conflict of Interest
Definition
A conflict of interest exists when professional judgement concerning a primary interest — the validity of research, the welfare of patients, or the integrity of the published record — may be influenced by a secondary interest, whether financial or otherwise. The existence of a conflict is not in itself unethical; failure to disclose one is.
Author Disclosures
All authors must complete a disclosure statement at submission covering the 36 months preceding submission, including:
Financial relationships: employment, consultancies, honoraria, paid expert testimony, speakers' bureaux, grants and research funding, stock or share ownership, patents and patent applications, royalties, and travel or accommodation paid by a third party.
Non-financial relationships: unpaid advisory roles, membership of advocacy organisations, personal or family relationships, and academic or intellectual commitments that a reasonable reader might consider relevant.
Authors with no such interests must state: "The authors declare no competing interests." A disclosure statement is published with every article.
Sources of funding must be declared separately, including grant numbers, together with a statement of the funder's role, if any, in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, or the decision to submit.
Reviewer Disclosures
Invited reviewers must decline the invitation where they have a competing interest, including:
- recent collaboration or co-authorship with any author (within 03 years );
- shared institutional affiliation;
- direct competition on the same research question;
- any financial interest that could be affected by the manuscript's publication.
Editor Disclosures
Editors must recuse themselves from handling any manuscript in which they have a competing interest. Manuscripts authored by any member of the editorial team are assigned to an independent editor, and the author-editor is given no access to the peer review file. A statement to this effect is printed in the published article.
Members of the editorial team publish a summary declaration of their own competing interests, updated annually, on the Editorial Team page.
Undisclosed Conflicts
Where an undisclosed conflict comes to light after publication, the journal will publish a correction, and may issue an expression of concern or retraction where the omission materially affects interpretation of the work.
