Conflict of Interest Policy.pdf

A conflict of interest exists whenever an author has a financial or personal relationship with a third party whose interests could be positively or negatively influenced by the article’s contents. All participants in the peerreview and publication process—not only authors but also reviewers, editors, and editorial board members of journals—must consider their conflicts of interest when fulfilling their roles in the process of article review and publication and must disclose all relationships that could be viewed as potential conflicts of interest.

I. Definition

• Financial relationships
  • Funding from companies whose products are directly or indirectly involved in the articles
  • Payment for writing or reviewing the manuscript
• Personal relationships
  • Close relationship with someone whose economic or nonmaterial interests are affected by the article such as partnership
  or family relations
• Other relationships
  • Patent whether planned, pending or issued
  • Contracts of employment, Consultancies, shareholdings
  • Speaker’s fees, Reimbursements of travel expenses
  • Study sponsorships or other type of third party funding
  • Link to politicians or other interest group

II. Examples

• If you check the “NO”, it means that you did the work without receiving any financial support from any third party–that is, the work was supported by funds from the same institution that pays your salary and their institution did not receive third party funds to pay you.
• If all funding sources for the work are listed in the acknowledgement section of the paper, they need not to be disclosed.
• If the NRF sponsored a piece of work you have been involved in but drugs were provided by a pharmaceutical company, you only need to list the pharmaceutical company.
• If all affiliations of the authors within the last 3 years are not listed on the title page of the paper, additional affiliations should be disclosed.
• (disclosure for potential conflict of interest) Author A has received research grants from Company X. Author has received a speak honorarium from Company X and owns stock in Company Y, Author C is a member of committee Z.

III. Authors

All articles for KSCT journal are formally requested to declare on any conflict of interest within the last 3 years, even if the author believes that there is no influence. Naturally, a conflict of interest does not in itself detract from the scientific statements made in the article. Even if there is no conflict of interest, this must be stated explicitly. If there is any question, it is usually better to disclose a relationship than not to do so.

IV. Editors and Journal Staff

Editors should avoid making decisions on manuscripts that submitted from their department or by research collaborates or competitors or those addressing an issue in which they stand to gain financially. Editorial staff must not use information gained through working with manuscripts for private gain. Editors should publish regular disclosure statements about potential conflicts of interests related to the commitments of journal staff. Guest editors should follow these same procedures.

V. Reviewers

Reviewers should be asked at the time they are asked to critique a manuscript if they have conflicts of interest that could complicate their review. Reviewers must disclose to editors any conflicts of interest that could bias their opinions of the manuscript, and should recuse themselves from reviewing specific manuscripts if the potential for bias exists. Reviewers must not use knowledge of the work they’re reviewing before its publication to further their own interests.