Presence of ethics statements
Authorship: the main author of the article is required to write a statement confirming that the article is original and has not been published anywhere else before. At the same time, the authors agree that the article, after positive reviews, becomes the property of the journal (publisher) and is officially published on the journal’s website. This information is sent by the author together with the article to an e-mail address: editor-in-chief.wnofns@wp.pl
Plagiarism: the authors of the article must certify that the article is not copied or rewritten. In addition, the publisher checks the article for plagiarism before publication.
Conflict of Interest in Peer-Reviewed Journal: authors of an article must state that they do not declare any conflict of interest for the article they have submitted.
Post-publication revisions / retraction: once an article has been officially published on the journal’s website, the publisher does not anticipate making any revisions or corrections to the article at a later date, nor does the publisher anticipate removing (withdrawing) articles that have already been published.
WMA Declaration of Helsinki – Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Participants
https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki/
Research with Humans or Animals
Research involving humans or animals should be approved by relevant ethics committee(s) and should conform to international ethical and legal standards for research. We also expect authors to respect human participants’ right to privacy, and to gain any necessary consent to publish before submitting to us. For information on whether authors are required to submit or include evidence regarding the above, please consult individual journal submission guidelines or contact the relevant book or journal editor.
COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics)
https://publicationethics.org/
COPE-–-Committee-on-Publication-Ethics
Prepared by the WAME Editorial Policy and Publication Ethics Committees.
This Policy Statement replaces the WAME Editorial Policy “Journals’ Role in Managing Conflict of Interest Related to the Funding of Research” and the WAME Publication Ethics Policy “Conflicts of Interest.” ( https://wame.org/ )
Read the related editorial, “Conflict of Interest in Peer-Reviewed Medical Journals: The World Association of Medical Editors Position on a Challenging Problem“
Conflict of interest (COI) exists when there is a divergence between an individual’s private interests (competing interests) and his or her responsibilities to scientific and publishing activities such that a reasonable observer might wonder if the individual’s behavior or judgment was motivated by considerations of his or her competing interests. COI in medical publishing affects everyone with a stake in research integrity including journals, research/academic institutions, funding agencies, the popular media, and the public. Journals are interested in COI as it relates to a specific manuscript.
Everyone has COIs of some sort. Having a competing interest does not, in itself, imply wrongdoing. However, it constitutes a problem when competing interests could unduly influence (or be reasonably seen to do so) one’s responsibilities in the publication process. If COI is not managed effectively, it can cause authors, reviewers, and editors to make decisions that, consciously or unconsciously, tend to serve their competing interests at the expense of their responsibilities in the publication process, thereby distorting the scientific enterprise. This consequence of COI is especially dangerous when it is not immediately apparent to others. In addition, the appearance of COI, even where none actually exists, can also erode trust in a journal by damaging its reputation and credibility.
COI policies differ among journals and are evolving over time. Every peer-reviewed medical journal (herein “Journal”) should have its own COI policies for authors, reviewers, and editors. Journals should make these policies readily accessible to everyone involved in the publication process by publishing them with instructions for authors. The Editorial COI Policy that addresses editor COI should be published as well. This statement summarizes the main elements of COI policies with examples and options for disclosure and management.
Definition and Scope
Journal should publish their own definition of COI. In the context of medical publishing, COI exists when a participant in the publication process (author, peer reviewer, or editor) has a competing interest that could unduly influence (or be reasonably seen to do so) his or her responsibilities in the publication process. Among those responsibilities are academic honesty, unbiased conduct and reporting of research, and integrity of decisions or judgments. The publication process includes the submission of manuscripts, peer review, editorial decisions, and communication between authors, reviewers and editors.
Academic commitments. Participants in the publications process may have strong beliefs (“intellectual passion”) that commit them to a particular explanation, method, or idea. They may, as a result, be biased in conducting research that tests the commitment or in reviewing the work of others that is in favor or at odds with their beliefs. For example, if research challenging conventional wisdom is reviewed by someone who has made his or her reputation by establishing the existing paradigm, that person might judge the new research results harshly. Investigators in the same field might make extra-efforts to find fault with manuscripts from competing teams, to delay publication or relegate the work to a lesser journal. While such commitments are not generally part of author’s disclosures, editors should be aware of them and their potential influence on author(s), reviewer(s), and themselves.
Personal relationships. Personal relationships with family, friends, enemies, competitors, or colleagues can pose COIs. For example, a reviewer may have difficulty providing an unbiased review of articles by investigators who have been working colleagues. Similarly, he or she may find it difficult to be unbiased when reviewing the work of competitors. Bonds to family members may be strong enough that their competing interests should be treated as if they are also present for those directly involved with a manuscript.
Political or religious beliefs. Strong commitment to a particular political view (e.g., political position, agenda, or party) or having a strong religious conviction may pose a COI for a given publication if those political or religious issues are affirmed or challenged in the publication.
Institutional affiliations. A COI exists when a participant in the publication process is directly affiliated with an institution that on the face of it may have a position or an interest in a publication. An obvious concern is being affiliated with or employed by a company that manufactures the drug or device (or a competing one) described in the publication. However, apparently neutral institutions such as universities, hospitals, and research institutes (alone or in partnership with industry) may also have an interest (or the appearance of one) in the results of research. For example, investigators may have a COI when conducting research from a laboratory funded by private donors who could have (or appear to have) an interest in the results of the study, on a device for which the participant’s institution holds the patent, when the institution is the legal sponsor of the drug or device trial, or if the institution is in litigation in an area related to the study. Professional or civic organizations may also have competing interests because of their special interests or advocacy positions.
Declaring and Managing COIs
COIs are ubiquitous and cannot be eliminated altogether. However, they can be managed constructively so that they make the least possible intrusion on journal content and credibility.
Journals’ policies for disclosure and management of COI must take the following into consideration: What COI must be declared, how, to whom and when? Journals need to be as specific as possible about their definition of COI for authors and reviewers, including the kinds of competing interests they wish to have declared by those individuals, with the understanding that any operational definition will be imperfect. They should provide clear instructions about how to make declarations. It should also be clear that a journal may ask additional questions or seek clarification about declarations. For example, the journal may ask for details about future monetary gains or ask an author who works in a laboratory funded by a particular organization for written details about how their independence and research integrity was maintained.
All declarations about COI should be requested in writing as a condition of reviewing a manuscript and asked in such a way that authors will have a high likelihood of reporting their COIs related to the manuscript.
No generally accepted standard, nor evidence-based consensus, exists for precisely defining the degree of financial COI or the timeframe that creates a substantial risk of bias or damage to the journal’s reputation. Judgments may be affected by many factors including, in the case of financial COI, the amount of money, goods, or services exchanged, how recently they were received and whether they are expected in the future, as well as the services provided in return. To guide authors in this decision, journals should publish their own standards for financial COI, including its standards on expiry on COI (e.g., only declare COI within last five years), as precisely as possible.
Managing COI depends on disclosure because it is not possible to routinely monitor or investigate whether competing interests are present. Disclosure is about the facts that might bear on COI; assertions of integrity are not, in themselves, helpful.
The consequences for failing to declare COI. The journal should state the steps editors will take if competing interests surface from other sources after a manuscript is submitted or published. For example, the journal may investigate allegations of COI and action may be taken if found to be true. Such investigations should be completed as quickly as reasonably possible. If a manuscript has been published and COI surfaces later, the journal may publish the results of the investigation as a correction to the article and ask the author to explain, in a published letter, why the COI was not revealed earlier.
Which COIs will result in a manuscript not being considered further? Journal must be transparent about COI situations that, if present, will result in a manuscript not being considered further. Some journals have made it explicit that they will exclude authors from writing narrative (not systematic) reviews of topics in which they have a competing financial interest, on the grounds that it is more difficult for readers to detect bias in reviews than reports of original research, where methods are made more explicit. Some journals may apply internal editorial rules about which COI situations are not acceptable but these may not be explicit to those involved in the publication process; a journal COI policy needs to articulate the journal’s position.
How COI will be dealt with by the journal? Journal should publish all relevant COI disclosures with the publication. Other additional management strategies include for example:
- Not considering a manuscript further
- Exclusion of those with COI from the process (e.g., reviewer or editor)
- Abstaining from decisions where COI might arise (e.g., editors)
- Investigation by impartial observers
Some research institutions provide information about their employees’ COI on their Web sites. Journals should routinely ask authors to disclose such e-links as part of their COI disclosure.
Editor-in-Chief
Prof. Tomasz Borowski (Ph.D.)