Conflict of Interest Policy

A conflict of interest exists when a financial, personal, institutional, or professional relationship could reasonably be seen as influencing the judgement of an author, reviewer, or editor.

• Authors declare all relevant conflicts and all sources of funding at submission. Declarations are published with the article. Where there is none, the article states so.
• Reviewers decline when they have a conflict, for example when they are a recent co-author or colleague of an author or work at the same institution, and tell the editor about any doubt.
• Editors do not handle manuscripts when they have a conflict, and do not take part in decisions about them.
• Editors' own manuscripts are handled by another editor with no conflict. The editor concerned has no access to the review of their manuscript, and the published article carries a statement that the author is an editor of the journal.