Conflict of Interest Policy

A conflict of interest is defined as any financial, professional, institutional, or personal relationship that could potentially compromise scientific objectivity or editorial neutrality.
 
1. Guidelines for Authors
  • Mandatory Disclosure: Authors must disclose any financial (e.g., research grants, honoraria, stock ownership) or non-financial (e.g., personal relationships, academic rivalries) competing interests that might influence the study's design, execution, or reporting.
  • Mandatory Declaration Statement: All published manuscripts must explicitly include a Conflict of Interest Statement under the Mandatory Declarations section preceding the References.
    • Standard Statement (If No Conflict Exists): "The authors declare no financial, professional, or personal conflicts of interest that could inappropriately influence the research, field implementation, evaluation data interpretation, or objectivity of this manuscript."
2. Guidelines for Peer Reviewers
  • Reviewers must decline or recuse themselves from reviewing a manuscript if a competing interest exists with any of the authors, funding sources, or involved institutions .
  • Reviewers are strictly prohibited from using undisclosed ideas, data, or insights from manuscripts under review for personal or third-party advantage .
3. Guidelines for Editors
  • Editors must recuse themselves from handling manuscripts where a conflict of interest exists (e.g., manuscripts authored by themselves or direct colleagues within the same department) .
  • Editorial decisions must be based solely on academic merit, scientific rigor, and scope alignment, completely independent of commercial or personal influence .