Journal of Dance and Embodied Structure is committed to maintaining fairness, transparency, editorial independence, and academic integrity throughout the submission, peer review, editorial decision-making, and publication process. This policy explains how the journal defines, discloses, manages, and evaluates conflicts of interest involving authors, reviewers, editors, editorial board members, and the Editorial Office.

A conflict of interest may arise when financial, personal, professional, institutional, academic, artistic, political, or other relationships could influence, or reasonably appear to influence, the conduct, evaluation, interpretation, review, or publication of scholarly work.

1. General Principle

All participants in the publication process must disclose any actual, potential, or perceived conflict of interest that may affect their responsibilities or the integrity of the publication process.

Disclosure of a conflict of interest does not automatically prevent submission, review, editorial handling, or publication. However, undisclosed conflicts of interest may undermine trust in the journal and may result in editorial action.

2. Definition of Conflict of Interest

A conflict of interest exists when an individual’s judgment, objectivity, or decision-making may be influenced by a competing interest. Conflicts may be actual, potential, or perceived.

Conflicts of interest may include, but are not limited to:

• Financial relationships;
• Employment or consultancy relationships;
• Institutional affiliations;
• Personal relationships;
• Academic collaborations;
• Professional rivalries or disputes;
• Artistic collaborations or involvement in the work being analyzed;
• Funding relationships;
• Political, ideological, or advocacy commitments;
• Ownership of intellectual property, copyright, or performance rights;
• Any relationship that may affect impartial evaluation or interpretation.

3. Author Conflicts of Interest

Authors must disclose any conflict of interest that could influence, or be perceived to influence, the research, analysis, interpretation, writing, or publication of the manuscript.

Author conflicts may include:

• Financial support, grants, sponsorships, or paid commissions related to the research;
• Employment, consultancy, advisory, or contractual relationships;
• Personal or professional relationships with individuals, institutions, artists, companies, archives, or communities involved in the research;
• Involvement in the performance, choreographic work, artistic project, festival, archive, institution, or community being analyzed;
• Ownership of copyright, performance rights, images, recordings, or related intellectual property;
• Political, cultural, institutional, or advocacy roles related to the subject matter;
• Any condition that could affect the author’s interpretation, presentation, or conclusions.

4. Conflict of Interest Statement for Authors

Authors must include a Conflict of Interest Statement in the manuscript where applicable. If no conflict exists, authors should state this clearly.

Example where no conflict exists:

Conflict of Interest: The author(s) declare no conflict of interest.

Example where a conflict exists:

Conflict of Interest: The author(s) disclose that [briefly describe the relationship, role, funding, collaboration, institutional connection, artistic involvement, or other relevant interest]. The author(s) confirm that this has been disclosed to the journal.

Example involving artistic participation:

Conflict of Interest: The author was involved as [role] in the performance or artistic project discussed in this article. This relationship has been disclosed, and the manuscript presents a critical reflection on the work.

5. Funding and Sponsorship

Funding sources must be disclosed separately in the manuscript. Authors should state whether the funder, sponsor, institution, company, festival, artistic organization, or commissioning body had any role in the research design, data collection, interpretation, writing, or publication decision.

If the funder had no role in the research or publication process, authors may state:

The funder had no role in the design of the study, data collection, analysis, interpretation, writing of the manuscript, or decision to submit the article for publication.

6. Artistic, Performance, and Practice-Based Conflicts

Because the journal publishes research on dance, choreography, performance, embodied practice, and artistic research, conflicts of interest may arise from artistic participation, collaboration, curatorial involvement, institutional affiliation, performance ownership, or practice-based authorship.

Authors should disclose when they:

• Analyze their own choreographic or performance work;
• Analyze work by close collaborators, students, teachers, supervisors, or institutional colleagues;
• Have participated as dancer, choreographer, dramaturg, director, performer, curator, producer, reviewer, or organizer in the work being discussed;
• Have a financial, reputational, institutional, or professional interest in the performance, company, festival, archive, or artistic project;
• Hold copyright, documentation rights, or other rights related to materials analyzed in the manuscript.

Practice-based research is welcome, but authors must be transparent about their relationship to the artistic work and research materials.

7. Reviewer Conflicts of Interest

Reviewers must decline a review invitation or inform the editor if they have any conflict of interest that may affect their ability to provide an objective and fair review.

Reviewer conflicts may include:

• Current or recent collaboration with the author;
• Current or recent institutional affiliation with the author;
• Supervisory, student, mentoring, or examination relationship with the author;
• Personal friendship, family relationship, or close professional relationship with the author;
• Direct academic competition, dispute, or hostility;
• Financial or institutional interest in the manuscript’s outcome;
• Involvement in the performance, artistic project, archive, community, dataset, or case being analyzed;
• Any situation that may compromise impartial judgment.

If a reviewer becomes aware of a conflict after accepting a review invitation, the reviewer should notify the editor immediately.

8. Reviewer Confidentiality and Integrity

Reviewers must treat submitted manuscripts and review materials as confidential. Reviewers must not use unpublished manuscript content for personal, academic, artistic, financial, or professional advantage.

Reviewers should not share the manuscript with others, discuss it publicly, or upload manuscript materials to external platforms or artificial intelligence tools without explicit permission from the journal.

9. Editor Conflicts of Interest

Editors must not handle manuscripts where they have a conflict of interest that could affect, or appear to affect, editorial independence.

Editor conflicts may include:

• Current or recent collaboration with the author;
• Current or recent institutional affiliation with the author;
• Personal, family, supervisory, or close professional relationship with the author;
• Financial interest in the research, publication, institution, company, archive, performance, or artistic project;
• Direct academic competition, dispute, or conflict;
• Involvement in the subject, project, performance, or organization discussed in the manuscript;
• Any situation that may reasonably raise concerns about impartiality.

When an editor has a conflict of interest, the manuscript should be assigned to another editor or handled by the Editorial Office through an appropriate alternative process.

10. Editorial Board Conflicts of Interest

Editorial board members must follow the same standards of conflict disclosure and editorial independence as editors and reviewers.

If an editorial board member submits a manuscript to the journal, the submission will be handled through the standard editorial and peer review process. The submitting board member will not participate in the editorial handling, reviewer selection, decision-making, or internal discussion related to the manuscript.

11. Publisher and Editorial Independence

Editorial decisions are based on academic merit, originality, relevance, methodological quality, ethical compliance, and contribution to the field.

The publisher does not interfere with independent editorial decisions. Financial considerations, Article Processing Charges, waiver status, institutional affiliation, personal relationships, sponsorship, or external pressure must not determine acceptance, rejection, or review outcomes.

12. Conflicts Involving Article Processing Charges

Payment or non-payment of an Article Processing Charge does not influence editorial decisions. Waiver requests, discounts, financial hardship, or institutional payment arrangements are handled separately from editorial evaluation.

Editors and reviewers involved in academic evaluation are not permitted to make decisions based on an author’s ability to pay publication charges.

13. Institutional Conflicts

Institutional conflicts may occur when authors, reviewers, editors, or editorial board members are affiliated with the same institution, research center, project, company, artistic organization, archive, festival, or funding body.

Institutional affiliation does not automatically create a disqualifying conflict, but it should be disclosed where it may reasonably affect impartiality.

14. Personal and Professional Relationships

Personal and professional relationships may create actual or perceived conflicts of interest. These may include family relationships, close friendships, mentoring relationships, supervisory relationships, romantic relationships, employment relationships, long-term collaborations, or serious professional disputes.

Individuals involved in the publication process should disclose such relationships when they may affect impartial judgment.

15. Academic Competition and Rivalry

Academic disagreement or difference in theoretical position does not automatically constitute a conflict of interest. However, direct competition, ongoing disputes, personal hostility, or circumstances likely to prevent fair judgment should be disclosed.

Reviewers and editors should evaluate manuscripts based on scholarly quality and should not use peer review to promote personal, theoretical, institutional, or disciplinary agendas.

16. Intellectual Property and Rights Interests

Conflicts may arise when individuals have ownership, copyright, licensing, performance, archival, documentation, or commercial interests in materials discussed in a manuscript.

This may include interests in:

• Choreographic works;
• Performance recordings;
• Photographs and visual documentation;
• Archives and collections;
• Motion capture datasets;
• Software, digital tools, or AI systems;
• Educational programs, workshops, companies, or festivals;
• Books, exhibitions, productions, or artistic projects under review.

Such interests should be disclosed where they may influence interpretation, evaluation, or publication.

17. Disclosure During Submission

Authors should disclose conflicts of interest during manuscript submission and include a statement in the manuscript. If a conflict becomes known after submission, authors should inform the Editorial Office promptly.

The Editorial Office may request additional clarification where a disclosure is incomplete, unclear, or potentially relevant to editorial assessment.

18. Disclosure During Peer Review

Reviewers must disclose conflicts before accepting a review assignment. If a reviewer is unsure whether a situation constitutes a conflict, the reviewer should contact the editor for guidance.

The editor may decide to replace the reviewer, allow the review to proceed with disclosure, or take another appropriate action depending on the nature of the conflict.

19. Management of Conflicts of Interest

When a conflict of interest is disclosed, the journal may take one or more of the following actions:

• Assign the manuscript to a different editor;
• Select alternative reviewers;
• Exclude conflicted individuals from editorial discussions or decisions;
• Request a clearer conflict of interest statement from the author;
• Publish a disclosure statement with the article;
• Request additional documentation or explanation;
• Take further editorial action where necessary.

The appropriate response depends on the type, severity, and relevance of the conflict.

20. Failure to Disclose Conflicts

Failure to disclose relevant conflicts of interest may result in editorial action. The action taken will depend on whether the issue is identified before or after publication and whether the conflict affects the reliability, interpretation, or integrity of the work.

Possible actions may include:

• Requesting a corrected disclosure statement;
• Pausing peer review or production;
• Rejecting the manuscript;
• Publishing a correction or disclosure notice;
• Issuing an expression of concern;
• Retracting the article in serious cases;
• Notifying relevant institutions where appropriate.

21. Complaints Related to Conflicts of Interest

Authors, reviewers, readers, editors, artists, institutions, or other parties may raise concerns about undisclosed or improperly managed conflicts of interest.

Concerns should be submitted to the Editorial Office with a clear explanation and relevant supporting information. The journal will assess such concerns in accordance with its Publication Ethics and Complaints and Appeals policies.

22. Post-Publication Conflicts of Interest

If a conflict of interest is identified after publication, the Editorial Office will review the matter and determine whether a correction, disclosure notice, expression of concern, retraction, or other action is necessary.

Authors are expected to cooperate with the Editorial Office in resolving post-publication conflict of interest concerns.

23. Relationship with Other Journal Policies

This Conflict of Interest Policy should be read together with the journal’s related policies, including:

• Publication Ethics;
• Peer Review Process;
• Author Guidelines;
• AI and Research Integrity Policy;
• Copyright and Licensing;
• Data Availability Policy;
• Corrections and Retractions;
• Complaints and Appeals.

24. Policy Updates

The journal may update this Conflict of Interest Policy when necessary to reflect changes in publication ethics standards, editorial practice, legal requirements, institutional expectations, or journal operations.

Any updates will be published on this page.

25. Contact

Authors, reviewers, editors, readers, or other parties with questions or concerns about conflicts of interest may contact the Editorial Office through the journal’s official contact page.

26. Editorial Note

Transparency in conflicts of interest protects authors, reviewers, editors, readers, and the scholarly record. Journal of Dance and Embodied Structure does not treat all conflicts as misconduct, but it requires relevant conflicts to be disclosed, evaluated, and managed appropriately.