Conflict of Interest
Policies / Conflict of Interest
Conflict of Interest Policy
What authors, reviewers and editors must disclose as competing interests, and how undisclosed conflicts are addressed.
A conflict of interest arises when a secondary interest — financial, professional or personal — has the potential to influence judgement about a primary interest, such as the validity of research or the fairness of a review. Disclosing an interest does not imply impropriety; the risk to trust lies in non-disclosure. This policy applies to authors, reviewers and editors.
Interests that must be disclosed
Both financial and non-financial interests fall within scope, commonly including:
| ▸ | employment, consultancy, paid advisory or expert roles, and honoraria; |
| ▸ | research grants, industry funding, share ownership, and patents or royalties, including interests in a product, platform or technology under study; |
| ▸ | membership of boards or organisations with a stake in the subject matter; and |
| ▸ | close personal relationships, academic rivalry or firmly held convictions relevant to the topic. |
In engineering and computing research, authors should give particular attention to sponsorship by, or a commercial interest in, a company whose product, platform or technology is evaluated in the work.
Authors, reviewers and editors
Every manuscript must carry a conflict-of-interest statement disclosing the relevant interests of all authors, or affirming that none exists, together with all funding sources; an undisclosed interest found after publication may lead to a correction or retraction. A reviewer must decline, or inform the editor, where a competing interest could compromise an impartial assessment. An editor must not handle any manuscript in which they hold a competing interest, including work by themselves or close collaborators; such manuscripts are reassigned, and Editorial Board members’ submissions receive no preferential treatment.
