Conflict of Interest

The journal is committed to maintaining transparency, objectivity, and integrity throughout the scholarly publishing process. All authors, reviewers, and editors are expected to disclose any financial, professional, personal, or institutional relationships that could influence, or reasonably be perceived to influence, their research, peer review, or editorial decisions.

Definition of Conflict of Interest

A conflict of interest occurs when personal, financial, professional, academic, or institutional interests may compromise or appear to compromise an individual's impartiality in the research and publication process. Such conflicts do not automatically indicate misconduct, but they must be disclosed and managed appropriately.

Responsibilities of Authors

Authors submitting manuscripts to the journal must disclose any potential conflicts of interest that could affect the design, conduct, analysis, interpretation, or reporting of their research.

• Disclose relevant financial support, funding, consultancy, employment, or commercial relationships.
• Declare personal, professional, or institutional relationships that could affect the objectivity of the research.
• Identify the role of funders or sponsors in the research, where applicable.
• Include a conflict of interest statement in the manuscript, even when no conflicts exist.
• Notify the editorial team if a relevant conflict arises or is identified after submission.

Responsibilities of Reviewers

Reviewers are expected to provide independent, objective, and unbiased assessments of submitted manuscripts. Anyone invited to review for the journal should:

• Declare any relationship or interest that could affect the impartiality of the review.
• Decline the review invitation if a significant conflict of interest cannot be appropriately managed.
• Inform the editor of any potential conflict identified during the review process.
• Maintain the confidentiality of the manuscript and its review materials.

Responsibilities of Editors

Editors of the journal must make editorial decisions based on scholarly merit, relevance, originality, and the quality of the manuscript, without inappropriate influence from personal or professional interests.

• Disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest involving a submitted manuscript.
• Refrain from handling manuscripts when impartiality may reasonably be questioned.
• Arrange for an independent editor to manage the review and decision-making process when necessary.
• Ensure that conflicts are managed transparently and that editorial decisions remain independent.

Management of Conflicts of Interest

The editorial team of the journal will assess disclosed conflicts and determine appropriate measures to protect the integrity of the publication process. These measures may include reassignment of reviewers or editors, additional independent review, requests for further disclosure, or other actions appropriate to the circumstances.

Declaration When No Conflict Exists

If authors have no competing interests to declare, they may use the following statement in their manuscript: 

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

The journal expects all parties involved in scholarly publishing to act transparently and responsibly to preserve trust in the peer-review process and the published research record.