Conflict of Interest

  CONFLICT OF INTEREST

SBAMER requires all parties involved in the publication process – authors, editors, and reviewers – to disclose any conflict of interest that could influence, or be perceived to influence, the objectivity of their work. A conflict of interest may be financial (e.g., funding, employment, consultancy, shares) or non-financial (e.g., personal relationships, academic competition, institutional affiliation, or political and religious beliefs).

Authors

• Authors must declare all sources of funding and any relationships that could be seen as influencing the research in a Conflict of Interest statement in the manuscript.
• If there is no conflict, authors should state: “The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.”
• The role of funders in the study design, data collection, analysis, and writing must be explained.

Editors

• Editors must not handle manuscripts in which they have a conflict of interest, such as manuscripts from close colleagues, collaborators, or family members.
• Manuscripts submitted by members of the editorial team are handled by another editor, and the author is excluded from all editorial decisions on that manuscript.

Reviewers

• Reviewers must decline to review a manuscript if they recognise the authors and have a competing relationship with them, or if they have any other conflict of interest.
• Reviewers must not use unpublished information from a manuscript for their own advantage.

Undisclosed conflicts of interest discovered after publication will be handled in accordance with the Withdrawal and Retraction Policy and COPE guidelines.