Conflicts of Interest

Conflict situations and their solutions

Conflict of interest is a situation where a person's professional judgment may be influenced by various factors such as financial gain, material interest or other personal and professional interests. These are any factors that adversely affect objectivity and impartiality, or may be seen as interfering with the review process, editorial decision making, publication and presentation of the manuscript.

For us, as for a publisher “Open educational e-environment of modern University”, it is important to avoid all possible conflicts of interest. Each participant - author, editor, or reviewer - who suspects that he or she has a conflict of interest is required to declare this in order for the publisher to be aware of the possibility of this impact. Conflicts of interest can be identified at different stages of the publishing process.

 

Conflicts of interest for Authors:

All authors are required to declare any existing or potential conflict of interest, including financial, personal or any other relationship that may affect their scientific work. Authors should declare a conflict of interest before submitting a manuscript, although they may do it at any time during the manuscript review. For jointly prepared manuscripts the responsible author is obliged to declare a conflict of interest of other authors who have contributed to the manuscript.

 

Conflict of Interest for Editor:

Editors may also have a conflict of interest. Editors are expected to declare the highest standards of behaviour outlined in our recommendations, including the obligation to transparently declare any potential conflicts of interest they may have.

Avoiding conflicts of interest for the editor:

Manuscripts submitted by an editor or a scientist are assigned an appropriate person to process and evaluate the manuscript. The assigned editor ID is not disclosed to the sender to maintain the impartiality and anonymity of the review.

 

Conflict of interest for Reviewer:

All reviewers are required to declare possible conflicts of interest at the beginning of the evaluation process. If the reviewer notes that he or she may have any material, financial or any other conflict of interest with the reviewed manuscript, he or she must declare it, if necessary, to require exclusion from the further evaluation process. Potential conflicts of interest of the reviewer are announced in the summary report and submitted to the editor. It then assesses whether the declared conflicts of interest have a significant effect on the review itself.

 

Risks of conflict of interest can usually occur at two levels: organizational and personal. The conflict of interest can be divided into the following categories (but not limited to):

 

Personal Conflict of Interest:

  • Personal relations (friendship, marriage, mentor, student, family relations) with persons involved in the submission and review of manuscripts (authors, reviewers, editors or editorial board members).
  • Personal beliefs (political, religious, ideological or otherwise) related to the topic of the manuscript that may interfere with the objective publication process (at the stage of submission, review, editorial decision-making or publication).

 

Professional Conflict of Interest:

  • Colleagues who participated in or observed this study.
  • Membership in organizations that would lobby for the author's interests.
  • Professional or personal relations with institutions and financial bodies, including non-governmental organizations, research institutions and charitable organizations.

 

Financial Conflict of Interest:

  • Research grants (from any sponsoring source).
  • Patent applications, including those of institutes to which the author relates and from which he or she may profit.
  • Fees, gifts and rewards of any kind.
  • Financial contributions received and expected.
  • Gifts received and expected.
  • Other direct or indirect sources of financing or material gain.

 

Procedure:

  1. All persons involved in the manuscript who comment on or evaluate the material (authors, editors, reviewers, and readers) must declare a conflict of interest.
  2. If, because of personal relations with the author, the reviewer is unable to evaluate the manuscript objectively, he or she should refuse to complete the assignment.
  3. If, in the opinion of the editors, there are circumstances that may affect the impartial review, the editorial board does not involve such a reviewer.
  4. The editorial board reserves the right not to publish the manuscript if the declared conflict of interest compromises the objectivity and reliability of the evaluation of the study.
  5. If the editorial board detects a conflict of interest that was not declared at the time of submission, the manuscript may be rejected.
  6. If an undeclared conflict of interest is identified after publication, the article may be corrected or deleted if necessary.

 

Complaints and Appeals