A Conflict of Interest exists when your interpretation of data or presentation of information may be influenced by your personal or financial relationship with other people, the industry, foundations or other organisations. Authors must disclose any financial competing interests. They should also reveal any non-financial competing interests.
Download Conflict of Interest Form here
EACH author needs to complete and sign the COI form. Electronic signatures are accepted.
All competing interests that are declared will be listed at the end of the published papers. When an author notifies no competing interests, the listing will read as “The author(s) declare that they have no competing interests”.
When completing your declaration, please consider the following questions:
Financial competing interests
- Have you received reimbursements, fees, funding, or salary from an organisation in the past three years in relation to your study and manuscript prepared? If so, please specify.
- Do you hold any stocks or shares in an organisation that may have influenced in any way your study or manuscript prepared? If so, please specify.
- Do you hold or are you currently applying for any patents relating to the content of the manuscript? Have you received reimbursements, fees, funding, or salary from an organisation that holds or has applied for patents relating to the content of the manuscript? If so, please specify.
- Do you have any other financial competing interests? If so, please specify.
Non-financial competing interests
Are there any non-financial competing interests (e.g. political, personal, religious, ideological, academic, intellectual, commercial or any other) in relation to your manuscript? If so, please specify.
If you are uncertain as to whether you, or one your co-authors, has a competing interest please discuss it with the editorial office.