Conflicts of Interest
Conflicts of interest may be personal, academic, political, professional, commercial, financial, and so on. They may occur when authors, section editors or reviewers have interests that can influence and/or interfere in the elaboration or evaluation of the manuscripts. Consequently, they should be declared by the parties involved in the editorial process when they detect potential conflicts of interest.
To avoid this problem, when they agree to evaluate a submitted text, reviewers must declare the absence of any conflicts of interest concerning the manuscript, including no prior identification of the manuscript’s authorship.
Authors, for their part, are responsible for recognizing and declaring potential conflicts of interest that may interfere in the blind peer review process. They must also specify the financial support received, as well as other personal connections linked to the work’s production that may affect the proper execution of the editorial procedures.