2. Conflict of Interest

2.1. For Authors

All authors are requested to disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest, including any financial, personal, or other relationships with people or organizations within three years of beginning the submitted work that could inappropriately influence, or be perceived to influence, their work.

Generally, there are four kinds of declarations of competing interest. Templates are shown below. 

a. If there is no competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

b. If the author is from the editorial board of the journal

The author xxx (author’s name) is a member of xxx (the journal’s name) and was not involved in the editorial review or the decision to publish this article.

c. If the author is an employee of a company and/or has received funding from the company

In either case, it is not acceptable to declare "no conflict of interest." A correct declaration should be made instead. Templates are shown below:

• For employees of the company:
  “The author xxx declares the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Authors are currently employed by XXX (the company’s name).”
• For authors who received funding from the company:
  “The authors declare the following financial interests which may be considered as potential competing interests: the research project is funded by XXX (the company’s name).”
• Combine the two statements if both apply. State all authors’ employment status and funding sources if they are from different companies.

d. Other financial or non-financial interests that need to be disclosed

For example: ownership of stocks or shares, consulting fees, honoraria, patents, or other remunerations; personal, professional, or ideological positions that might influence the work, etc. (Please refer to the journal’s editorial policies for more information.)

2.2. For Editors

Management of Conflicts of Interest and Editorial Board Submissions

Editors must recuse themselves from handling any manuscript where a conflict of interest exists, including but not limited to:

• Manuscripts authored by themselves, their family members, or close colleagues.
• Manuscripts involving products, services, or interests in which they have a financial or personal stake.

Such manuscripts will be reassigned to an independent editor with no conflicts, who will oversee the confidential review process and make the final editorial decision.

For manuscripts submitted by the Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editors, Guest Editors, or other editorial board members, editorial responsibility will be delegated to a conflict-free editor to ensure impartiality. In the case of Special Issues, if conflicts arise between Guest Editors and authors, handling will be transferred to editors free of such conflicts.

2.3. For Reviewers

Reviewers should decline to review any manuscript in which they have a potential conflict of interest. Potential conflicts of interest include, but are not limited to: being currently employed at the same institution as any of the authors, or having served as a mentor, mentee, close collaborator, or joint grant holder with any of the authors within the past three years. Reviewers should accept an invitation only if no such conflicts exist between themselves and any of the authors.