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, allowing a written statement to be recorded within the paginated PDF format of the published manuscript.
A potential conflict of interest arises from relationships, allegiances, or hostilities towards specific groups, organisations, or interests that excessively influence one's judgments or actions. The matter is incredibly delicate when such interests are private or may lead to personal advantage.
Examples of conflicting interests include, but are not limited to, receiving consultation fees, receiving research funding, being employed by a related institution, owning stocks or shares in an institution that may be impacted by the results and findings of the manuscript, or having received funds or reimbursement for attending a related symposium, talk, or lecture.
If there are additional interests that a reasonable reader might believe have influenced the research submitted to IDEA-PG journals, the author(s) must declare them at the time of submission, during revisions or at least before the manuscript is accepted.
Manuscripts submitted to IDEA-PG journals are evaluated fairly and are 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 or require authors to disclose the details of the financial arrangements when a competing interest is declared in the manuscript.
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 statement of contribution.
- Any commercial or financial involvement that could 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 restricts the author(s) from publishing both positive and negative results or from publishing the research without prior approval from the sponsor.
- The author(s) have reviewed the manuscript submission guidelines concerning the declaration of conflicting interests and have adhered to the specified requirements to record it.
The author(s) must include a declaration at the end of the manuscript, following any acknowledgements and preceding the funding acknowledgement, notes (if applicable), 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 who write an editorial that will be published in the IDEA-PG journals, as well as to peer reviewers, where applicable.
[Last updated: 23-Mar-2025]
