The International Journal of Economic Sciences (IJES) requires authors, editors, Editorial Board members, Guest Editors, and reviewers to disclose any actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest that could influence, or could reasonably be perceived to influence, the research, peer-review process, editorial assessment, or publication decision.
A conflict of interest may be financial or non-financial and does not necessarily prevent submission, review, editorial involvement, or publication. The purpose of disclosure is to ensure transparency and to allow the journal to identify and appropriately manage circumstances that could affect, or reasonably appear to affect, independent scholarly judgment.
Authors should avoid entering into agreements with study sponsors, funding organizations, commercial entities, or other parties that unreasonably restrict their access to relevant research data or interfere with their ability to independently analyze and interpret results, prepare manuscripts, or make decisions concerning publication in accordance with applicable ethical, legal, contractual, and journal requirements.
All authors must disclose any financial or non-financial relationships, activities, or interests that could influence, or could reasonably be perceived to influence, their research, interpretation of the results, or presentation of the work.
Financial conflicts of interest may include, but are not limited to:
Non-financial conflicts of interest may include relevant personal, professional, academic, institutional, collaborative, supervisory, competitive, or other relationships or affiliations that could affect, or reasonably be perceived to affect, an author's objectivity or professional judgment.
The existence of a potential conflict of interest does not necessarily prevent publication. Disclosure allows editors, reviewers, and readers to evaluate relevant relationships transparently and enables the journal to take appropriate measures where necessary.
Research funding does not, by itself, necessarily constitute a conflict of interest. However, authors must disclose relevant relationships with funders or sponsors, particularly where such parties had a role in the study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation of results, preparation of the manuscript, or decision to submit the work for publication.
Authors must disclose potential conflicts of interest through the journal's online submission system during manuscript submission. A separate section entitled Conflicts of Interest must also be included in the manuscript before the reference list.
The corresponding author is responsible for collecting the relevant disclosures from all co-authors and ensuring that the statement submitted to the journal accurately reflects those disclosures. Each author remains individually responsible for the accuracy and completeness of their own declaration.
Authors must promptly update their disclosure if a relevant conflict of interest becomes apparent or changes during the submission, peer-review, editorial, production, or publication process.
Example of an Author Disclosure
Conflicts of Interest: Author A has received research funding from Company A. Author B has received speaker honoraria from Company X and owns shares in Company Y. Author C has served as a consultant and paid expert witness for Company Z. Author D is an inventor on a patent relevant to the subject of this manuscript.
If no relevant conflicts of interest exist, authors should state:
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Editors, including the Editor-in-Chief, handling editors, Editorial Board members acting in an editorial capacity, and Guest Editors, must disclose any actual, potential, or perceived conflict of interest relating to manuscripts they are asked to handle.
An editor must not participate in the evaluation or decision-making process for a manuscript where their independence or impartiality could reasonably be questioned. Relevant conflicts may include recent collaboration with the authors, employment at the same institution, close personal or professional relationships, direct academic competition, relevant financial interests, or other circumstances that could affect impartial editorial judgment.
Where an editor has a relevant conflict of interest, responsibility for the manuscript must be transferred to an appropriately qualified independent editor with no relevant conflict. The conflicted editor must not participate in reviewer selection, access confidential review information beyond what is administratively necessary, or influence the editorial decision.
Editors, Editorial Board members, and Guest Editors who submit manuscripts to IJES must have no involvement in the editorial handling, reviewer selection, peer-review process, access to confidential reviewer information, or editorial decision concerning their own submissions. Such manuscripts must be subject to the same editorial and peer-review standards as other submissions.
The broader principles governing editorial independence and impartial decision-making are described in the journal's Publication Ethics Statement.
Reviewers must disclose any actual, potential, or perceived conflict of interest before accepting a review assignment.
Such conflicts may arise from personal, professional, academic, institutional, collaborative, supervisory, competitive, financial, or other relationships with the authors, their institutions, organizations associated with the research, or the subject matter of the manuscript.
Reviewers should decline an invitation to review if they believe that a conflict of interest could compromise, or could reasonably be perceived to compromise, their independence or impartiality.
If a potential conflict becomes apparent after a review has begun, the reviewer must promptly inform the responsible Editor, who will determine whether the reviewer should continue or withdraw from the review process.
Reviewers must not use confidential manuscript information, data, methods, results, ideas, or other unpublished material for personal, academic, professional, commercial, financial, or competitive advantage.
If a potentially significant undisclosed conflict of interest is identified during submission, peer review, or editorial assessment, IJES may request clarification or additional information and take appropriate measures to protect the independence and integrity of the editorial process. Such measures may include reassignment of the manuscript, replacement of a reviewer, additional independent assessment, or other proportionate editorial action.
Where an undisclosed conflict raises a substantive concern regarding research or publication misconduct, the matter will be assessed in accordance with the journal's Unethical Behavior policy.
If a significant undisclosed conflict of interest is identified after publication, IJES will assess its relevance and potential effect on the transparency, interpretation, reliability, or integrity of the published record.
Where formal amendment of a published article is necessary, any Correction, Expression of Concern, Retraction, or other appropriate measure will be handled in accordance with the journal's Retraction and Correction Policies.
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