When a journal is published, a conflict of interest emerges when someone’s judgment is impacted by personal relationships (friends, coworkers, or family), business relationships (working for a competitor company), or financial factors (finance).

Any Conflict of Interest (COI) that possibly affected the authors’ research (for example, financing) or decision to submit to the journal must be mentioned by the authors both in the publication and to the Editor-in-Chief.

If a reviewer has a conflict of interest (COI) that may impact how they evaluate an article, they must report it. The COI must be reported to the Editor-in-Chief as soon as it is discovered, although this may not prevent them from reading the entire article.

Editors with a potential conflict of interest (COI) are not permitted to take part in any publishing decisions. If a colleague of the Editor-in-Chief submits an article to the journal, another editor will oversee the peer review and all editorial decisions.