Conflict of Interests Policy
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
IDEA Publishers Group is committed to ensuring the disclosure of competing interests in published manuscripts. The author(s) may have a potential conflict of interests that could affect or be seen to affect their manuscript submitted to IDEA-PG journals. Therefore, the author(s) must declare a conflict-of-interest statement during the manuscript submission, enabling a written statement to be recorded within the paginated published article.
A potential conflicting interest arises from relationships, allegiances, or hostilities to particular groups, organisations, or interests that excessively influence one's judgments or actions. The issue is particularly sensitive when such interests are private or may result in personal gain.
Examples of conflicts of interest include but are not limited to receiving fees for consulting, receiving research funding, being employed by a related company, holding stocks or shares in a company that may be affected by the manuscript, or having received funds or reimbursement for attending a related symposium, talk, or lecture.
If there are other interests that the reasonable reader might believe have influenced the research submitted to IDEA-PG journals, the author(s) must declare them at least before the manuscript is accepted.
Manuscripts submitted to IDEA-PG journals are evaluated fairly and accepted when competing interests, if any, are declared in accordance with the journal's policy. This ensures a transparent and equitable evaluation process for all authors.
The editorial teams of IDEA-PG journals do not expect details of the financial arrangements to be disclosed when a competing interest is declared.
The author(s) must carefully review and adhere to the manuscript submission guidelines of IDEA-PG journals to ensure compliance with the journal's specific requirements. The author(s) must certify in the author agreement form that they have followed these guidelines.
- All forms of financial support are duly acknowledged in the contribution.
- Any commercial or financial involvement that might present a conflict of interest related to the contribution is recorded during submission.
- Any potential conflict of interest is forwarded to the Editor for discussion. The discussion helps determine whether to include information about the conflict in the manuscript, ensuring that the author(s) are involved in the decision-making process.
- The author(s) did not sign any agreement with any sponsor of the research submitted to IDEA-PG journals that prevents the author(s) from publishing both positive and negative results or that forbids the author(s) from publishing the research without prior approval of the sponsor.
- The author(s) have checked the manuscript submission guidelines for a declaration of conflicting interests requirement and have complied with the specified requirements.
The author(s) must include such a declaration at the end of the manuscript, after any acknowledgements and before the funding acknowledgement, Notes (if relevant), and References under the heading 'Declaration of Conflicting Interests'. If no conflict exists, please state: 'The Author(s) declare that there is no conflict of interest.'
The same obligations apply to editors or guest editors writing an editorial that will be published in the IDEA-PG journals, as well as to peer reviewers, where applicable.
[Last updated: 21-Mar-2025]
