TEJAS Journal of Technologies and Humanitarian Science

Definition of a Conflict of Interest

A conflict of interest, also referred to as a competing interest, may exist when a person’s professional judgment concerning research, peer review, or editorial decision-making could be influenced by a secondary financial, professional, institutional, academic, intellectual, or personal interest.

Conflicts may be:

• Actual: where an interest directly affects the matter under consideration
• Potential: where an interest could reasonably affect future judgment
• Perceived: where an informed reader may reasonably believe that an interest could influence judgment

Financial Competing Interests

Financial competing interests may include:

• Research grants or sponsored funding
• Employment or paid appointments
• Consultancy or advisory work
• Honoraria or speaking fees
• Stock ownership, shareholding, or stock options
• Patents, patent applications, licences, or royalties
• Commercial ownership or business interests
• Paid expert testimony
• Financial relationships with an organisation that may benefit or be affected by the research
• Other payments, services, or financial benefits related to the submitted work

Non-Financial Competing Interests

Non-financial competing interests may include:

• Personal or family relationships
• Close professional relationships
• Recent or ongoing research collaboration
• Supervisory, mentoring, or academic dependency relationships
• Institutional relationships directly connected with the manuscript
• Academic competition or professional rivalry
• Intellectual, political, religious, or ideological commitments directly relevant to the work
• Leadership or advisory roles in organisations connected with the research topic
• Involvement in legal proceedings related to the subject of the manuscript
• Any other circumstance that could reasonably affect impartial judgment

Responsibilities of Authors

All authors must disclose relevant financial and non-financial competing interests at the time of manuscript submission.

Each author is responsible for ensuring that their disclosure is complete, accurate, and current.

Authors must:

• Identify all relevant competing interests
• Declare funding and financial support separately
• Identify the role of a funder or sponsor, where applicable
• Update the disclosure if circumstances change during review or publication
• Respond to requests for clarification or supporting information
• Ensure that the disclosure statement included in the manuscript is accurate

The corresponding author must confirm that all listed authors have reviewed and approved the conflict-of-interest declaration.

Author Declaration

Every submitted manuscript must contain a Conflict of Interest statement.

Where no relevant competing interest exists, authors should use a statement such as:

Where a competing interest exists, authors should provide a specific statement identifying:

• The author or authors concerned
• The nature of the relationship or interest
• The organisation, company, institution, or individual involved
• The relationship of the interest to the submitted work

An example is:

Funding Disclosure

Funding information must be reported separately from the Conflict of Interest statement.

The funding statement should identify:

• The name of the funding organisation
• Grant or award number, where applicable
• The author or authors who received the support
• The role of the funder in the research, where applicable

Where the funder had no role in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, or the decision to submit the work, this may be stated clearly.

Where no external funding was received, authors may use:

Responsibilities of Reviewers

Before accepting a review invitation, reviewers must consider whether any relationship or circumstance could affect, or reasonably appear to affect, their impartiality.

Reviewers should disclose a potential conflict and decline the review when they:

• Have a financial interest connected with the manuscript
• Have a close personal or professional relationship with an author
• Have recently collaborated or published with an author
• Are currently employed by the same department or closely connected institution
• Have been directly involved in the work under review
• Have a strong academic rivalry or direct competitive interest
• Cannot provide an independent and objective assessment

Where a reviewer is uncertain whether a circumstance constitutes a conflict, the reviewer should disclose it to the Editorial Office before proceeding.

Reviewers must not use unpublished manuscript information for personal, academic, professional, or commercial advantage.

Responsibilities of Editors and Editorial Staff

Editors, Editorial Board members, and editorial staff must disclose any competing interest relevant to a manuscript assigned to them.

An editor must not manage, evaluate, or make a decision on a manuscript where the editor:

• Is an author or contributor
• Has a close personal or professional relationship with an author
• Has a relevant financial or commercial interest
• Has recently collaborated with an author
• Has a direct academic or professional rivalry
• Is otherwise unable to provide an impartial editorial assessment

In such cases, responsibility for the manuscript must be transferred to another suitably qualified editor who has no relevant competing interest.

Submissions from Editors and Editorial Board Members

A manuscript submitted by an editor, Editorial Board member, reviewer, journal staff member, or a person closely associated with the journal must be handled independently.

The submitting individual must not:

• Select reviewers
• Access confidential reviewer identities or reports beyond the journal’s normal procedure
• Participate in editorial discussion concerning the manuscript
• Influence the editorial decision
• Make the final publication decision

The manuscript should be assigned to an independent editor who has no relevant competing interest.

Editorial Management of Disclosed Interests

The Editorial Office will assess disclosed interests according to their nature, relevance, and potential effect on the editorial process.

Depending on the circumstances, the journal may:

• Request additional information
• Require revision of the disclosure statement
• Assign an alternative reviewer
• Transfer editorial responsibility to another editor
• Publish the disclosure with the article
• Seek independent advice
• Suspend manuscript processing while the matter is assessed
• Decline or discontinue consideration where an independent and reliable process cannot be maintained

Publication of Disclosure Statements

The final Conflict of Interest statement should be published with the article.

The published statement must accurately reflect the declarations approved by the authors during the editorial process.

Where the journal becomes aware of a material change before publication, the authors may be required to submit an updated declaration.

Failure to Disclose

Failure to disclose a relevant competing interest may affect confidence in the manuscript, peer review, editorial process, or published article.

Where a possible undisclosed interest is identified before publication, the journal may:

• Request an explanation
• Request a corrected disclosure
• Suspend editorial processing
• Replace a reviewer or editor
• Reassess an editorial decision
• Reject or withdraw the manuscript from consideration where appropriate

Where an undisclosed interest is identified after publication, the journal may assess:

• The nature and seriousness of the interest
• Whether the interest affected the research or reporting
• Whether the editorial or peer-review process was compromised
• Whether readers require additional information
• Whether the reliability of the published findings is affected

Following assessment, the journal may publish a corrected disclosure, clarification, correction, expression of concern, or another appropriate editorial notice in accordance with its applicable policies.

Confidentiality

Information concerning competing interests will be handled only for editorial assessment, peer-review management, publication transparency, and protection of the scholarly record.

Relevant disclosures may be shared with editors, reviewers, authors, or other persons involved in assessing the matter where necessary.

Information required for reader transparency may be published with the final article or an associated editorial notice.

Institutional and Sponsor Relationships

Institutional affiliation, funding, sponsorship, or collaboration does not automatically establish a conflict of interest.

However, such relationships must be disclosed when they could reasonably affect, or appear to affect:

• Research design
• Data collection
• Data analysis or interpretation
• Manuscript preparation
• Access to research data
• The decision to submit the manuscript
• Peer-review or editorial judgment

Authors should disclose any restriction imposed by a funder, sponsor, employer, or institution that affects access to data, analysis, interpretation, publication, or reporting of the research.

Author Responsibility for Accuracy

Authors remain responsible for the completeness and accuracy of their declarations.

The journal’s publication of a disclosure statement does not represent verification, approval, or endorsement of the disclosed relationship.

Authors must inform the Editorial Office promptly if their disclosure information changes before publication.

Policy Review

TJTHS may review and revise this Conflict of Interest Policy when changes are required in journal procedures, scholarly publishing practices, or applicable legal and ethical responsibilities.

Any revised policy will be made available through the official journal website.

Editorial Office