Competing Interests

We are committed to transparent and bias-free research. To ensure that all publications are as open as possible all authors, reviewers and editors are required to declare any interests that could appear to compromise, conflict or influence the validity of the publication. This process is designed to reinforce the readers' trust in the research data.

Competing interests (also referred to as conflicts of interest or CoIs) can take the form of both financial and non-financial relationships. The declaration of such relationships helps to ensure that academic rigour is maintained and that publications cannot be accused of undue bias or misinformation. A competing interest must be declared if there is any reason why the information or the interpretation of information being produced may be influenced by a personal or financial relationship with other organisations or individuals, or if these relationships could be reasonably perceived by other people as having influenced objective data or decision-making. 

Everyone involved in the submission, editorial processing, peer review and publication should declare any competing interests that they may have as early as possible.

Note that a declaration of a competing interest is not implicitly a negative judgement, but a positive effort to increase transparency and reduce bias (positive or negative) within the publication process.

Examples of competing interests

• Financial ties, such as: receipt of payment, in any form, from an organisation or individual related to the subject matter; ownership of stocks or shares in organisations directly related to the subject matter; receipt of grants or funding; related patents/applied for patents; commercial interests; receipt of gifts.
• Political, religious or ideological beliefs. This includes commitments to academic approaches or ideas.
• Personal and professional relationships, with family, friends, enemies, competitors, or colleagues.
• Institutional affiliations and membership of boards. This includes links to the journal itself - e.g. an author submitting to a journal on which they also work as an editor or serve on the editorial board.

Competing interests should generally be declared to cover at least the previous 5 years - e.g., if a reviewer supervised the author's PhD then (and if they feel comfortable reviewing the work) their professional relationship should have ended over 5 years ago. This is a minimum requirement, and individuals must declare if they have had a previous relationship with someone/an organisation relevant to the submission that could be deemed to influence decision making.

Guidelines for authors

Read the above examples of competing interests to determine whether these apply to you. Note that all editors and board members associated with the journal must declare their relationship with the journal as a competing interest when listed as an author.

Include a Competing Interests section at the end of your manuscript, immediately before the reference list. If there are multiple authors then the authors’ initials should be used to denote differing competing interests. For example:

"TW completed paid consultancy work from [company name] as part of the data acquisition for this study. BH has minority shares in [company name], which part funded the research grant for this project. SM is a member of the editorial board for [journal name], but had no involvement in any editorial processes related to the handling of this submission. All other authors have no competing interests."

If there are no competing interests, please add the below statement:

"The author has no competing interests to declare" for papers with a single author or "The authors have no competing interests to declare” when multiple authors are contributing.

Guidelines for reviewers

Read the above examples of competing interests to determine whether these apply to you, either in your relationship to the content of the article or to the author (if known). If you believe your competing interests mean it is not possible for you to review the paper, please decline the review or discuss this with the editor.

To declare your competing interests, enter them in the text box when instructed during the review process. For example: 

"I was previously employed by the laboratory that collected this data."

If you do not have competing interests, check the box to confirm.

During review, if you suspect that the author has an undisclosed competing interest, inform the editor.

Guidelines for editors

All members of the editorial team, and any individuals involved in editorial decisions, should be aware of the above examples of competing interests and consider how this applies to their work on the journal. They are responsible for:

• identifying how their own competing interests could affect their editorial work; 
• checking that authors have included a competing interest statement on submission; and
• being aware of any possible competing interests when assigning peer reviewers and evaluating reviews.

In all cases, editors are responsible for ensuring competing interests are identified, made transparent, and acted upon as required.

Editors should remove themselves from editorial processes in cases where they have relationships or activities that pose potential conflicts related to articles under consideration. 

If an editor is listed as an author on a submission, they should also be removed from the editorial process, and declare this in a competing interests statement on the paper. For example:

“TW is Deputy Editor in Chief for [journal name]. They were removed from all editorial processes relating to the handling of this submission.” 

Editorial responsibilities during the review and publication process:

On submission:

• Check that all submitted papers contain a competing interests statement (unless the article type is exempt) and request one from the author(s) if missing. 
  • If the competing interest statement is not in the manuscript itself, check the competing interests box in OJS. This can be found in the Publications tab for the submission, under Metadata & Thumbnail.
• If there is a disclosed competing interest, consider how this could affect the content of the manuscript (e.g. check for bias)

During review:

• Think about potential competing interests when inviting reviewers. If your journal has a review policy that requires the author to remain anonymous to the reviewer, then you may be aware of competing interests not known to the reviewer. For example, if a reviewer is from the same institution as the author then that is a competing interest.
• If the reviewer discloses a competing interest in their review, consider this during your evaluation of their review. Depending on the nature of the competing interest, you may need to check for bias, or you might need to find an alternative reviewer.
• If an author has an undisclosed competing interest that becomes apparent during review, follow the instructions in the COPE flowchart: Undisclosed conflict of interest in a submitted manuscript.

During publication:

• Ensure that all papers (except where an article type is exempt) contain an accurate competing interest statement

After publication:

• If an undisclosed competing interest becomes apparent after publication, follow the instructions in the COPE flowchart: Undisclosed conflict of interest in a published article. 

External resources

COPE Discussion Document: Handling competing interests

WAME Policy Statement: Conflict of Interest in Peer-Reviewed Medical Journals

ICMJE Recommendation: Disclosure of Financial and Non-Financial Relationships and Activities, and Conflicts of Interest

Last checked: 4th November 2024 

Last updated: 4th November 2024