Conflicts of interest

A conflict of interest (competing interest) exists when financial, personal, academic, political or institutional relationships could influence, or could reasonably be seen to influence, a person's judgement about a piece of work. Having a conflict is not wrong in itself; failing to declare it is. Journal of Educational Science and Development asks everyone involved in publication to declare such interests so that readers and editors can judge them.

What to declare

• Financial: employment, consultancies, honoraria, grants, patents, stock ownership, paid expert testimony or fees from organisations that could gain or lose from the work.
• Personal: close relationships or rivalries with people whose work is under review.
• Academic and institutional: working at the same institution, recent collaboration, or holding a strongly opposing position.
• Non-financial: political, religious or ideological beliefs, or membership of advocacy groups, that relate directly to the work.

Authors

• State all funding sources, the funders' role in the study and every competing interest in a Declaration of Interests section.
• When there is nothing to declare, write: "The authors declare no conflict of interest."
• Declarations are published with the article.

Reviewers

• Decline an invitation, or tell the editor, when they work at the authors' institution, have collaborated with an author in the last three years, have a personal relationship with an author, or have a financial or competitive interest in the outcome.
• Do not review a manuscript they have already reviewed for another journal without telling the editor.

Editors and editorial board members

• Do not handle manuscripts from their own institution, close collaborators, students or relatives.
• Manuscripts they submit to the journal are handled by another editor, without access to the review, and judged by the same standards as any other.
• Members of the board declare their interests to the editor-in-chief each year.

When a conflict is discovered later

Undeclared conflicts found after publication are handled with the corrections policy and COPE guidance. Depending on their effect, the outcome may be a correction to the declaration, an expression of concern or a retraction.