Conflict of Interest Policy

The journal's editorial board adheres to COPE standards and takes strict measures to resolve conflicts of interest (COI) that may arise in the process of scientific communication.

 
A conflict of interest arises when personal or professional factors influence the objectivity of the manuscript evaluation. These include:
  • Academic and professional connections:
    • Joint publications  with the author (co-authorship) within the last  2 years .
    • Working at the same institution  (joint affiliation) at the time of submission or within the last year.
    • Scientific supervision or direct reporting.
  • Financial interests:  Receiving grants, honoraria, owning shares or patents related to the research topic.
  • Personal connections:  Family relationships or long-standing personal collaboration.

Declaration procedure

  • Authors:  At the submission stage, they fill out a declaration of COI. If there is no conflict, it is noted:  “The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest ”.
  • Reviewers and editors:  Are required to notify the editorial office of any of the factors listed above (in particular, joint publications in the last 2 years or joint employment) before starting work on the manuscript.

 Settlement algorithm

  1. Disqualification:  An editor or reviewer declares self-disqualification if a CI is identified.
  2. Independent management:  The Editor-in-Chief appoints  an independent editor-in-chief  (an editorial board member from another institution or an external expert).
  3. Documentation:  The editorial office records the grounds for the recusal (e.g., "joint publication in 2025") and the decision to appoint an independent person in an internal register.

Review of manuscripts by editorial board members and editor-in-chief

To avoid favoritism, articles submitted by editorial members are considered according to a separate procedure:
  • Complete isolation:  The author-member of the editorial board does not have access to the review system for his manuscript and does not influence the choice of reviewers.
  • External review: An independent editor-in-chief  is appointed  who has no  joint publications in the last 2 years  and  does not work at the same institution  as the author.
  • Expertise:  Only external independent reviewers are involved.
Each published article must contain a  "Conflict  of Interest" section before the list of references, which discloses the nature of the relationships or officially confirms their absence.