What must be disclosed

A competing interest is a relationship or circumstance that could reasonably be perceived to influence the work or its assessment. Disclosure does not automatically invalidate a study. Authors, reviewers and editors must report relevant financial and non-financial interests so that the journal can manage them transparently.

• Employment, consulting, honoraria, advisory roles or paid expert testimony connected to the subject.
• Research funding, supplied drugs or equipment, travel support or other sponsor assistance.
• Equity interests, patents, patent applications, royalties or commercial rights related to the study.
• Personal, professional, institutional or intellectual relationships that may affect impartiality.

Author declarations and sponsor roles

Provide a statement covering all authors. If no relevant interests exist, state this explicitly. Identify funding sources and describe the sponsor’s role in design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, writing and the decision to submit. State any restrictions on data access or publication, especially for industry-supported therapeutic studies. The corresponding author must coordinate complete disclosures but must not assume another author has no interests.

Reviewers and editors

Reviewers should decline an assignment when a competing interest prevents impartial assessment and seek advice from the editor when uncertain. Editors must recuse themselves from submissions involving their own work, close collaborators or other material conflicts. An independent editor must handle such manuscripts. Guest editors follow the same requirements.

Updating a disclosure

Notify the editor if circumstances change during review or production, or if a relevant omission is discovered after publication. The journal may request clarification, change the handling arrangement or publish a corrected declaration. A serious undisclosed conflict affecting reliability or editorial independence may require further action under Publication Ethics and Corrections & Retractions.