Conflicts of interest

In accordance with the COPE guidelines competing interests (also known as conflicts of interests) may arise during research, writing, and publication processes, and can be briefly defined as being any influential factor which interfere with the objective integrity of research publication. The journal requires all contributors (authors, reviewers, editors, journals and publishers) to disclose relevant competing interests and publish corrections if competing interests are revealed after publication. In case of any undisclosed conflicts of interest the journal follows the COPE flowchart for submitted or published articles.

The editors should recuse themselves (i.e. should ask a co-editor, associate editor or other member of the editorial board instead to review and consider) from considering manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative (e.g. same department, PhD supervisor or co-author), or other relationships or connections within the last three years with any of the authors, companies, or (possibly) institutions connected to the papers.

Any invited reviewer who has conflicts of interest resulting from a competitive, close collaborative, or other close relationships with any of the authors, companies or institutions connected to the manuscript and the work described therein should immediately notify the editors to declare their conflicts of interest and decline the invitation to review so that alternative reviewers can be contacted.

Authors are required to declare what support they received to carry out their research. Declaring funding sources acknowledges funders’ contributions, fulfils funding requirements, and promotes greater transparency in the research process. Authors must declare all sources of funding received for the research submitted to the journal. This information includes the name of granting agencies, grant numbers, and a description of each funder’s role. If the funder has played no role in the research, this must be stated as well. Authors are not required to provide the complete list of every single grant that supports them if the grant is not related to the research published. The funding statement is published as part of the article.