Conflict of Interest Policy

A conflict of interest exists when financial, professional, or personal relationships could inappropriately influence, or be perceived to influence, a person's judgment.

• Authors must disclose all funding sources and any financial or non-financial interests relevant to the submitted work in a declaration in the manuscript. If there are none, the statement "The authors declare no conflict of interest" should be included.
• Reviewers must decline to review manuscripts where they have a conflict of interest, such as recent collaboration, shared affiliation, or competitive interests with the authors.
• Editors must recuse themselves from handling manuscripts in which they have a conflict of interest; such manuscripts are assigned to another editor.