Conflict of Interest Policy
The purpose of this Conflict of Interest (COI) Policy is to ensure transparency and uphold the integrity and credibility of the Journal of Economic and Political Sciences. This policy provides guidelines for identifying, disclosing, and managing conflicts of interest throughout the research publication process.
Scope: This policy applies to all parties involved in the publication process, including authors, peer reviewers, editors, and members of the editorial board.
A COI occurs when personal, financial, or professional interests may compromise an individual's objectivity. This includes:
- Financial ties: Funding, employment, consultancy, stock ownership.
- Personal relationships: Friendships or rivalries.
- Academic competition: Intellectual bias.
- Institutional affiliations: Any link that may affect objectivity.
Authors must disclose any actual or potential conflicts in a separate statement before the reference list. If there are no conflicts, the following exact statement should be used:
* Reviewers and editors must recuse themselves from handling submissions where a conflict exists or could be perceived.
The editorial board is responsible for evaluating disclosed conflicts and taking action, which may include:
- Requesting additional information.
- Reassigning manuscripts to another editor or reviewer.
- Publicly disclosing conflicts within the published article.
- Rejecting submissions where the conflict cannot be appropriately managed.
Failure to disclose a conflict of interest is an ethical breach and may result in corrective actions, including:
- Manuscript rejection prior to publication.
- Retraction of the article if already published.
- Formal notification to the author’s affiliated institution.
This policy will be periodically reviewed and updated in line with best practices and ethical standards in scientific publishing.
