Competing interests

Authors must notify the Editorial Board of any potential conflict of interest that may be affected by publishing the study results in the manuscript. These may be results of competitive, financial, personal or other relationships with other individuals or organizations.

The Editorial Board also respects and supports the authors' desire not to involve some reviewers in the manuscript evaluation if these requests are reasonable and substantiated. If a reviewer's preconception is suspected, we follow the COPE guidelines and discontinue working with reviewers who have submitted a poor or untimely review.

Members of the Editorial Board may submit their manuscripts for publication in the journal, but may not participate in the decision-making process on publication of their manuscript in order to minimize possible bias.