Competing interests
All listed authors must declare any competing interests relevant to, or which can be perceived to be relevant to the article. A competing interest can occur where the authors (or their employer, sponsor or family/friends) has a financial, commercial, legal, or professional relationship with other organizations, or with the people working with them which could influence the research or interpretation of the results.
Competing interests can be financial or non-financial in nature. To ensure transparency, any associations which can be perceived by others as a competing interest must also be declared.
Examples of financial competing interests include (but are not limited to):
- Employment or voluntary involvement
- Grants from an entity paid to the author or organisation
- Personal fees received by the author/s as honoraria, royalties, consulting fees, lecture fees, testimonies, etc
- Patents held or pending by the authors, their institutions or funding organizations, or licenced to an entity whether earning royalties or not
- Benefits related to the development of products as an outcome of the work
Examples of non-financial competing interests include (but are not limited to):
- Receipt of drugs, equipment or access to data by an entity that might benefit or be at an advantage financially or reputationally from the published findings.
- Holding a position on the boards of industry bodies or private companies that might benefit or be at an advantage financially or reputationally from the published findings.
- Writing assistance or administrative support from a person or organisation that might benefit or be at an advantage from the published findings.
- Personal, political, religious, ideological, academic and intellectual competing interests which are perceived to be relevant to the published content.
- Involvement in legal action related to the work.
The authors of a manuscript submitted to The Journal will be required to complete a competing interest declaration which will be listed in the Disclosure section of the article. If an author is in doubt over whether they need to disclose a competing interest, they should consult with their institution or the journal Editor, who can guide them on the right course of action.
If there are no competing interests to declare, the following statement will be added to the article “The authors declare that they have no competing interests.”
Sponsorship of clinical trials
Authors employed by pharmaceutical companies or other organizations which sponsor clinical trials must declare this as a competing interest.
Authors should adhere to the Good Publication Practice guidelines for pharmaceutical companies (GPP3), which provides guidance to ensure responsible and ethical standards are maintained.
Funding
The Journal requires that authors declare all the sources of funding including financial support in their manuscript. The authors should describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in any of the stages from study design to submission of the manuscript for publication. They should also state if the sponsor(s) had no such involvement.
Please ensure that this information is accurate and in accordance with your funder’s requirement.
