Conflict of Interest
Authors
All potential conflicts of interest (competing interests) that could have a direct or indirect influence on the work must be disclosed by the authors. Even if an author does not have a conflict, disclosing affiliations and interests allows for a more comprehensive and open approach, which leads to a more accurate and objective evaluation of the work. Conflicts of interest, whether genuine or imagined, are a perspective to which the readers are entitled.
The publication of a conflict statement in the article itself, as well as the submission of the release form, is required for all types of papers. It is not necessarily the case that a monetary relationship with examination support or funding for counseling work is inappropriate. Even if the authors do not have any conflict of interest, they still need to provide a confirmation statement in their manuscripts, i.e., “The author(s) confirm(s) that there is no conflict of interest related to the manuscript.”
The following are some examples of potential conflicts of interest that are directly or indirectly related to the research:
Financial competing interests include (but are not limited to):
- Type of support/grant number
- Institutional Conflicts of Interest
- Funds received by the author
- Funds received by the institution
- Travel allowances for the research
- Funds received for article preparation and reviewing
- Funds for conducting review activities
- Support provided for article writing assistance
- Paid lectures
- Pending fund or grant
Financial conflicts of interest can be personal as well as institutional. A personal conflict of interest occurs when a contributor involved in the publication process either receives an amount of money or expects to receive some financial help (including any other financial benefits such as patents or stocks, gifts, or services) that may impact the work related to a specific publication. More importantly, in academic research, such financial relationships can lead to institutional conflicts of interest (COIs) because the economic interests of the institution or institutional representatives may unsuitably affect the decision-making process.
An institutional conflict of interest arises in a situation when the financial interests of an institution or any institutional official (e.g., investments held by the Academy in a company) have the potential to unduly influence the research conducted by its employees or students, or pose an unacceptable risk to human subjects. Such conflicts usually arise in a state of affairs where a research project directly offers assistance or a benefit to an external entity via evaluation, validation, trial, or test of an invention, product, service, or technology, and the institution holds a financial interest with the external entity. Such financial interests incorporate but are not limited to the receipt of licensing payments or royalties from the external entity or ownership interest with the external entity. When human subjects are involved in any research project, and the institution supports such a financial interest, the conflict of interest is speculated to be unreasonable.
Non-financial competing interests include (but are not limited to):
In addition, interests other than monetary and any funding (non-financial interests) should be declared if they are relevant to readers. Personal relationships or conflicting interests directly or indirectly related to research, as well as professional interests or personal opinions that may impact your research, are examples of these.
Intellectual property, in basic terms, refers to any intangible property that is the result of creativity, such as patents, copyrights, etc. Similarly, this section seeks to know about copyright and patent (licensed patent, pending or issued) and any payment received for intellectual property, such as:
- Patent
- Licensed Patent
- Issued Patent
- Pending Patent
- Royalties
- Licensee
- Remarks
Disclosure statement
All conflict of interest release forms are collected by the corresponding author. It is sufficient for the corresponding author to sign the disclosure form on behalf of all authors in author collaborations when legal agreements for representation allow it.
Author(s) may declare(s) names of reviewers who they think might have a potential conflict of interest; therefore, the Editorial Office could avoid inviting such reviewers for an unbiased opinion.
Undisclosed conflict of interest
Undisclosed conflict of interest cases before or after the publication of an article are dealt with as per the guidelines of COPE.
Peer Reviewers
Papireto tries to conduct a transparent peer-review process with the help of reviewers who do not have any conflict of interest with the authors. In this connection, reviewers who belong to the same institute as authors are not invited to review manuscripts. However, it is not possible for the Editorial Office to be aware of all competing interests; therefore, it is expected from authors to submit:
- List of reviewers who they think have a conflict of interest to ensure a transparent and unbiased review process.
The Editorial Office expects reviewers:
- Not to accept manuscript review requests if they have any potential conflict of interest and inform the Editorial Office accordingly.
- To decline review requests if they have recently published or submitted an article with any of the authors listed in the manuscript.
- To inform Editor-in-Chief if they have any personal relationship with the authors or work in the same institutes as of authors, which could affect the review transparency.
- To abstain from reviewing and informing the Editor-in-Chief about any scientific misconduct or fraud, plagiarism, conflict of interest, or any other unethical behavior related to the manuscript.
During the submission of review comments, reviewers are asked to reconfirm that they do not have any conflict of interest related to the article. If, however, there are still any remaining interests, then reviewers must mention those in the ‘Confidential’ section of the review form.
Reviewers are not encouraged to contact authors directly regarding any of their conflicts of interest. Peer reviewers should follow journals’ policies in situations they consider to represent a conflict.
If reviewers intentionally do not disclose any conflict of interest, they will be blacklisted for any future peer-reviewing activity of the journal.
The Editor-in-Chief always ensures that an author, if added after peer review activity of a manuscript, is not part of the reviewers’ list who have conducted a peer review of the same manuscript.
Editor-in-Chief
Unpublished materials contained in a submitted manuscript must not be used in the research of an editor or member of the editorial board without the express written consent of the author. In the event that the editor-in-chief has a conflict of interest with the author arising from kinship (up to the second degree) or economic relationships, the article must be forwarded to the deputy editor, who will forward it to the reviewers for refereeing, without in any way communicating the names of the chosen ones. The outcome of the review will be communicated to the editor-en-chief, who will communicate it to the author.
