Conflict Of Interest

Research Integrity

Conflict of Interest Policy

Multidisciplinary Journals (MJ)  |  e-ISSN 3047-8499

Multidisciplinary Journals (MJ) requires transparent disclosure and appropriate management of financial and non-financial relationships or activities that could influence, or reasonably be perceived to influence, research, peer review, editorial judgment, or publication. The existence of a relationship does not automatically indicate misconduct or invalidate a manuscript. Disclosure allows the journal and readers to assess its relevance and apply proportionate safeguards.

Actual Conflict A relationship or interest is presently capable of affecting a person's objectivity, judgment, conduct, or decision.
Potential Conflict Circumstances could reasonably develop into a conflict or create a risk of compromised judgment.
Perceived Conflict A reasonable reader or participant could question impartiality, even when no improper influence actually occurred.

1. Purpose and Scope

This policy applies to authors, contributors, peer reviewers, editors, editorial-board members, guest editors, journal staff, advisers, the publisher, owners, sponsors, and other persons involved in the submission, assessment, production, or publication of MJ content. It applies before submission, throughout editorial processing, at publication, and after publication when relevant information becomes known.

This page governs the identification, disclosure, assessment, management, documentation, and publication of competing interests. It does not replace the journal's rules on authorship, peer-review procedure, general publication ethics, fees, appeals, research misconduct, or post-publication correction. Those boundaries are clarified in Section 13.

2. Governing Principles

  • Transparency: relevant relationships and activities must be disclosed completely, accurately, and early enough to permit appropriate management.
  • Relevance: disclosure should include interests that could reasonably be connected to the submitted work, the editorial role, or the decision under consideration.
  • Proportionality: safeguards depend on the nature, proximity, magnitude, duration, and likely effect of the interest.
  • Independence: a person with a material conflict must not control the assessment or outcome of the affected manuscript or complaint.
  • Accountability: relevant disclosures, assessments, recusals, reassignments, and decisions are recorded in OJS or another authorized confidential record.
  • Continuous duty: disclosure is not a one-time formality; new or changed interests must be reported promptly.
  • No assumption of wrongdoing: disclosure by itself is not evidence of bias or misconduct, while deliberate concealment may constitute a publication-ethics concern.

3. Interests That Must Be Considered

The following categories are illustrative rather than exhaustive. A person should disclose an interest when uncertain and allow the journal to determine whether it requires action.

Category Examples
Financial Employment, consultancy, honoraria, speaker fees, advisory roles, grants, contracts, paid expert testimony, travel support, gifts, equipment, stock or options, ownership, royalties, patents, licences, or another direct or indirect financial benefit.
Professional or institutional Current or recent employment, shared affiliation, supervisory relationship, service on a board or committee, institutional partnership, contractual responsibility, or a role in an organisation affected by the work.
Academic or intellectual Close collaboration, recent co-authorship, mentorship, academic competition, a strongly identified theoretical position, involvement in closely competing research, or responsibility for work being criticised or validated.
Personal or relational Family, close friendship, personal dispute, rivalry, or another relationship that could affect or appear to affect impartiality.
Political, religious, or advocacy A leadership, campaigning, lobbying, or advocacy role directly connected to the subject or outcome. A belief or identity alone is not treated as a conflict unless it creates a relevant risk to impartial judgment.
Editorial or decision-making Authorship of the submission, involvement in the research, responsibility for a related complaint or earlier decision, or a role that would require a person to review their own work or conduct.
Disclosure is broader than direct funding A funding statement identifies support for the reported work and the funder's role. A competing-interest statement identifies relevant relationships and activities of the authors or other participants. Both statements may be required and should not be treated as interchangeable.

4. Responsibilities of Authors and Contributors

Each author is responsible for disclosing all relevant relationships and activities that could affect or appear to affect the work. The corresponding author coordinates the submission of declarations but does not replace each author's individual responsibility.

At submission, authors must:
  • provide a competing-interest declaration for every author, including a statement that no competing interests exist when applicable;
  • identify all direct funding and material support for the work and explain the funder's role in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, writing, submission, and publication decisions;
  • disclose relevant patents, licences, commercial interests, advisory roles, professional relationships, institutional relationships, personal relationships, or intellectual commitments;
  • state any restriction imposed by a sponsor and whether the authors had appropriate access to the data and freedom to analyse, interpret, and publish the work;
  • update the declaration promptly if circumstances change during review, revision, production, or after publication; and
  • provide clarification or supporting documentation confidentially when reasonably requested by the editor.

Suggested declaration wording

When no competing interest exists:
“The authors declare that they have no financial or non-financial competing interests relevant to this work.”
When an interest exists:
“Author A has received research support from [organisation]. Author B serves as an unpaid adviser to [organisation]. The remaining authors declare no competing interests.”
Funder-role statement:
“The funder had no role in study design; data collection, analysis, or interpretation; manuscript preparation; or the decision to submit for publication.” If the funder had a role, that role must be described accurately.

5. Responsibilities of Peer Reviewers

  • A reviewer must consider potential interests before accepting an invitation and disclose any relevant relationship or uncertainty to the handling editor.
  • A reviewer must decline or withdraw when a relationship could reasonably compromise impartiality or create a serious appearance of bias.
  • Possible conflicts include close recent collaboration, same-institution relationships where independence cannot be assured, direct competition, supervisory or personal relationships, financial interests, and prior involvement with the manuscript.
  • A reviewer must not use unpublished information, ideas, data, or methods obtained through review for personal, academic, institutional, or commercial advantage.
  • A reviewer's academic disagreement with an author is not automatically a disqualifying conflict, but a close rivalry, personal dispute, or inability to provide an objective assessment must be disclosed.

Reviewer selection, double-anonymized review, confidentiality, report standards, and replacement procedures remain governed by the Peer Review Policy.

6. Responsibilities of Editors, Board Members, and Journal Staff

  • Editors, board members, guest editors, and staff must disclose relevant financial and non-financial relationships when appointed, update them periodically, and report manuscript-specific conflicts immediately.
  • A conflicted person must not select reviewers, access confidential reports beyond operational necessity, recommend a decision, make a decision, or handle an appeal or complaint concerning the matter.
  • Recusal and reassignment are documented confidentially. The manuscript is assigned to an editor with appropriate expertise who is independent of the authors and the conflicted editor.
  • Editors and staff must not use information obtained from unpublished manuscripts or internal correspondence for private or institutional gain.
  • An editor must not allow fees, sponsorship, advertising, institutional pressure, citation interests, personal relationships, or expected publicity to influence editorial treatment.

Submissions from editors or board members

MJ may consider a manuscript submitted by an editor, editorial-board member, guest editor, staff member, publisher representative, or a close institutional colleague only when independent handling can be assured. The author-editor must have no access to reviewer identities, confidential reports, internal deliberations, or decision controls unavailable to other authors. The published article should disclose the person's journal role and state that they had no involvement in peer review or the editorial decision. The same scholarly and ethical standards apply as to other submissions.

7. Publisher, Owner, Sponsors, and Commercial Activities

The publisher, journal owner, institutional leadership, sponsors, service providers, advertisers, and persons responsible for financial administration must not interfere with reviewer selection, confidential review, or decisions on individual manuscripts. Editorial decisions are based on scholarly merit, methodological soundness, ethical compliance, and relevance to the journal.

  • Article fees, waiver eligibility, institutional affiliation, donations, advertising, or sponsorship must not influence acceptance or rejection.
  • A sponsor's role in the research and publication must be disclosed accurately; sponsors must not suppress results or prevent authors from reporting findings independently.
  • Sponsored collections and special issues must follow the same conflict, independence, peer-review, and disclosure safeguards as regular content.
  • Commercial communications and advertisements must remain separate from editorial content and decision-making.

Financial charges, waivers, refunds, and payment procedures are governed separately by the APC Policy.

8. Assessment and Management Process

1
DisclosureThe relevant person reports the relationship or activity promptly and provides sufficient context for assessment.
2
Independent AssessmentThe Editor-in-Chief or an unconflicted editor assesses relevance, proximity, magnitude, duration, reasonable perception, and possible effect. A conflicted Editor-in-Chief is replaced by an independent senior editor or designated publisher representative.
3
Safeguard SelectionThe journal chooses a proportionate response, which may include disclosure only, clarification, recusal, reassignment, reviewer replacement, restricted access, independent advice, or another documented safeguard.
4
DocumentationThe disclosure, assessment, recusal, assignment, safeguard, and reasoned outcome are recorded in OJS or another authorized confidential record.
5
Publication and UpdateRelevant author and funding disclosures are published with the article. If a material interest becomes known later, the journal determines whether the disclosure or scholarly record must be updated.

9. Possible Safeguards and Outcomes

Publish or update a disclosure statement
Request clarification or documentation
Recuse and reassign an editor
Decline or replace a reviewer
Restrict access to confidential records
Obtain independent ethical or technical advice
Reassess an affected editorial decision
Issue an appropriate post-publication notice

The journal does not reject a manuscript merely because a competing interest exists. Rejection or another serious action may be appropriate when the interest prevents credible independent assessment, materially compromises the work, involves prohibited sponsor control, or is deliberately concealed in a manner that undermines trust or the integrity of the record.

10. Undisclosed or Late-Disclosed Interests

When a possible undisclosed interest is identified, the journal conducts a fair, evidence-based assessment and gives the relevant person a reasonable opportunity to respond. The response depends on the materiality of the interest, the reason for non-disclosure, whether editorial independence or the reliability of the work was affected, and whether the omission was promptly corrected.

  • Before publication: the journal may request a corrected declaration, pause processing, replace a reviewer or editor, conduct independent reassessment, or decline the manuscript where integrity cannot be restored.
  • After publication: the journal may publish a correction to the competing-interest or funding statement, reassess the article, issue an expression of concern, retract the article, or take another proportionate action under the post-publication policy.
  • Deliberate concealment: purposeful failure to disclose a material interest may be handled as suspected publication misconduct and may be referred to an institution, employer, funder, or other competent body.

11. Confidentiality and Record Keeping

Disclosures submitted for editorial assessment are treated as confidential editorial records and are shared only with persons who need the information to assess, manage, advise on, or resolve the matter. The journal publishes only information reasonably necessary for transparency and may redact personal, legally protected, or irrelevant details.

MJ retains an appropriate record of declarations, assessments, recusals, safeguards, correspondence, and outcomes in accordance with its privacy, record-management, and legal obligations. Confidentiality does not prevent the journal from contacting an institution, funder, ethics body, regulator, or other competent authority when a serious integrity concern requires external investigation.

12. Disagreement, Appeal, or Complaint

A person may explain why a disclosed relationship does not require recusal or may challenge a conflict-management decision by providing specific evidence. A procedural appeal or complaint concerning inconsistent treatment, unmanaged conflict, retaliation, confidentiality breach, or the conduct of an editor, reviewer, staff member, or publisher is handled under the Appeals and Complaints Policy. Reconsideration does not guarantee acceptance or restoration of a role.

13. Relationship with Other Journal Policies

Policy Page Separate Subject Governed by That Page
Conflict of Interest Policy Definitions, disclosure, assessment, recusal, safeguards, documentation, published statements, and handling of undisclosed interests.
Publication Ethics Policy Overarching ethical duties and procedures for suspected publication or research misconduct.
Authorship and Contributorship Policy Authorship criteria, contributor roles, author order, corresponding-author duties, acknowledgements, and authorship changes or disputes.
Peer Review Policy Review model, reviewer qualifications and selection, masking, confidentiality, review stages, reports, timelines, revision, and editorial decisions.
Editorial and Peer Review Policy Editorial authority, independence, assignment, reviewer selection standards, and decision-making governance.
APC Policy Charges, waiver eligibility, refunds, payment timing, verification, and financial administration.
Appeals and Complaints Policy Procedural appeals, complaints, independent escalation, response, and possible remedies.
Post-Publication Correction and Retraction Policy Corrections, expressions of concern, retractions, removals, notices, and preservation of the scholarly record.
Interpretation rule This Conflict of Interest Policy is the authoritative page for disclosure and management of competing interests. Where another page briefly refers to conflicts, it should link here rather than maintain a separate or inconsistent definition, disclosure period, recusal test, or management procedure.

14. How to Submit or Update a Disclosure

Authors should enter the declaration in the manuscript and the relevant OJS submission field and use the manuscript discussion function to report a later change. Reviewers and editors should disclose a manuscript-specific interest through the confidential OJS editorial channel before continuing their role. General questions or post-publication disclosures may be submitted through the journal's official contact page. Include the manuscript title, OJS submission identification number or DOI, the persons involved, the relationship or activity, relevant dates, and any supporting explanation.

Report or Update a Competing Interest Multidisciplinary Journals — Universitas Dehasen Bengkulu Journal Contact Page