Authors must disclose in their manuscript any financial or other material conflict of interest that could affect the results presented or their interpretation. If there is no conflict of interest to declare, the following standard statement must be added: “No conflict of interest was disclosed.”
The conflict of interest nature can be non-financial or financial. Examples of conflicts of interest include (but are not limited to):
- persons who receive funding, wages, or other forms of payments from the organization; own stocks or shares of a company that may benefit financially (or lose) from the publication of the results;
- natural persons or organizations or employers who finance them and own (or apply for) the relevant patents;
- official affiliation and membership in interest groups related to the publication content;
- political, religious, or ideological competing interests.
Authors from pharmaceutical companies or other commercial organizations sponsoring clinical, field trials, or other research should declare this as a competing interest. Each author’s attitude to such an organization should be explained in the “Conflict of Interest” section. The Journal publications must not contain content promoting any commercial products without indicating that such publication is an advertisement.