A conflict of interest exists when a personal, academic, institutional, professional, commercial, political, or financial relationship may influence—or may reasonably be perceived as influencing—the research, peer review, or editorial decision-making process.

Authors must disclose all actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest, as well as all sources of funding, grants, institutional support, sponsorship, and the role of the funder. If there are no conflicts of interest or external funding, this must be explicitly stated.

Reviewers must disclose any relationship that could compromise their independence and must decline the review when appropriate. Editors must not participate in decisions concerning manuscripts in which they have a conflict of interest; such manuscripts will be assigned to another editor who has no conflict.

Failure to disclose relevant information, or the submission of an incomplete disclosure, may result in a request for clarification, reassignment of the review, rejection of the manuscript, publication of a correction, or retraction, depending on the stage of the editorial process and the severity of the case.