Disclosure requirement. Authors must disclose financial, professional or personal interests that could influence, or reasonably appear to influence, the research or its interpretation.

A conflict of interest (COI) exists when professional judgment concerning a primary interest (research validity) may be influenced by secondary interests (financial gain, personal ties, or institutional loyalties). This policy applies to all submitted manuscripts.

1. Scope of Disclosure

Authors must disclose any relevant interests from the past 36 months, including:

• Financial Support: Research grants, honoraria, speaker bureaus, or consulting fees from organizations that may benefit from the research.
• Employment & Affiliations: Current or anticipated employment by any organization with a stake in the findings.
• Personal/Professional Ties: Close relationships with editors or reviewers involved in the evaluation of the manuscript.
• Intellectual/Ideological: Strong personal beliefs or competition that might influence the interpretation of data.

2. Author Responsibilities

At submission, the corresponding author must provide a statement on behalf of all co-authors. If the manuscript is accepted, the COI statement will be published as part of the article.

Required Statement Template:

"The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article."

Disclose relevant interests even when they do not change the conclusions of the research. A declaration gives editors and readers the context needed to assess the relationship; an interest does not by itself establish misconduct.

3. Editorial Independence

To ensure an impartial review, editors and reviewers who have a COI with a manuscript (e.g., working at the same institution or recent co-authorship) must recuse themselves from the evaluation process.

Reviewers must also confirm they have no COI before accessing the full manuscript for peer review.

4. Management of Non-Disclosure

Failure to disclose a COI can lead to the immediate rejection of the manuscript. If a COI is discovered after publication, the journal will follow COPE guidelines, which may result in a formal correction or, in severe cases, article retraction.

Global Compliance

Clear disclosures allow editors to assess and manage competing interests throughout submission, review and publication.