Conflicts of interest

Conflicts of interest can occur when authors, reviewers or editors have interests that can influence the preparation or evaluation of manuscripts. Conflicts of interest can be of a personal, commercial, financial, political, religious, academic or institutional nature.
When submitting the manuscript, authors are responsible for recognizing and informing the editors of any potential or existing financial or other conflicts that may have influenced the work. If there is, even potentially, a conflict of interest, the author(s) must inform the editors in the appropriate field during the submission process. Ideally, authors should also identify in a footnote or in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript all financial support obtained for the work and other personal connections related to the work.
The reviewer is responsible for informing the editors, as soon as he or she identifies them during the review process, of any potential or existing conflicts of interest that could influence the analysis of the manuscript, and must, if applicable, declare himself or herself unqualified to review it.
Finally, the editorial team itself must inform the editor-in-chief of any type of potential or existing conflict of interest that could affect any stage of the editorial process, particularly in the case of the assistant editors responsible for evaluating articles. If the conflict of interest is related to the editor-in-chief, he or she should refuse the evaluation and pass the activity on to the deputy editors or one of the members of the Editorial Board.
If any Conflict of Interest is declared, or detected by editors or reviewers, at any stage of the editorial process, the manuscript will be put on hold until the issue is investigated and resolved. Eventually, the article may not be published, or may even be withdrawn after publication. Any conflict of interest will be dealt with on the basis of the procedures established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).