Guidelines for declaring conflicts of interest

What represents a conflict of interest?

A conflict of interest is anything that interferes or could reasonably be perceived to interfere with the complete and objective presentation, peer review, editorial decision making, or publication of research or non-research related articles submitted to REGEPE Entrepreneurship and Small Business Journal.

Conflicting interests can be financial or non-financial, professional, or personal. Conflicting interests can arise in relation to an institution, organization, or another person.

Declaring all potential conflicts of interest is a requirement of REGEPE and is an integral part of the transparent research report.

Failure to declare a conflict of interest may result in immediate rejection of a manuscript. If an undisclosed conflict of interest comes to light after publication, REGEPE will act in accordance with COPE guidelines and issue a public notification to the community.

 

What to declare

Everyone involved in the peer review process, including authors, editors and reviewers, and readers, must declare all potentially conflicting interests that occurred within 5 years of conducting the research under consideration or preparing the article for publication.

Interests outside the 5-year period should also be declared if they can be reasonably considered competing according to the definition above.

 

Financial Conflicts of Interest

Conflicting financial interests include, but are not limited to:

  • Stock or share ownership.
  • Paid employment or consulting
  • Board Member
  • Patent applications (pending or actual), including individual applications or those belonging to the institution to which the authors are affiliated and from which the authors can benefit.
  • Research grants (from any source, restricted or unrestricted)
  • Travel grants and honoraria for speaking or attending meetings.
  • Gifts

 

Non-financial Conflicts of Interest

Competing non-financial interests include, but are not limited to:

  • Acting as an expert witness
  • Membership in a government or other advisory board
  • Relationship (paid or unpaid) with organizations and funding bodies, including non-governmental organizations, research institutions, or charities.
  • Membership in lobbying or advocacy organizations
  • Writing or consulting for an educational company
  • Personal relationships (e.g., friend, spouse, family member, current or former mentor, adversary) with individuals involved in the submission or evaluation of a paper, such as authors, reviewers, editors, or editorial board members of a IBJESB Journal.
  • Personal convictions (political, religious, ideological or other) related to the topic of an article that may interfere with an unbiased publication process (at the stage of authorship, peer review, editorial decision-making or publication).
  • Previous publication of a version of the work submitted in scientific events such as congresses, symposiums, meetings, among others. Although, it is an acceptable practice, which makes it possible to discuss and receive feedback on the work, if the congress publishes the complete article, when checking the Similarity, the report will point to this fact. In this sense, REGEPE recommends that authors, at the time of submission, inform the full reference (APA 7th Format) of this previous work.

 

Who should declare conflicting interests?

Authors

At the time of submission, authors should list all competing interests relevant to the submitted research. Examples may include, but are not limited to:

  • Names of all funding sources
  • Description of the funder's role in study design; data collection, analysis, and interpretation; writing the paper; and/or decision to submit for publication.
  • If they have served or currently serve on the editorial board of the journal to which they are submitting
  • If they have acted as expert witnesses in relevant legal proceedings
  • If they have participated in or are currently on a committee of an organization that may benefit from the publication of the article.

 

 

Editors and Reviewers

Editors (professional or academic, paid or unpaid) and reviewers should declare their own conflicting interests and, if necessary, disqualify themselves from involvement in the evaluation of a manuscript.

Common reasons for editors and reviewers to refuse the peer review process may include, but are not limited to:

  • They work in the same institution or organization as the author, currently or recently.
  • They collaborate with an author, currently or recently.
  • They have published with an author during the last 5 years.
  • They have held fellowships with an author, currently or recently.
  • They have a financial relationship with the company that financed the research.
  • They have a personal relationship with an author that does not allow them to evaluate the manuscript objectively.

 

Readers

Anyone commenting on articles published on IBJESB Journal must declare all competing interests (financial or non-financial) at the time of posting the comment.

Editorial actions and decisions

  • REGEPE editors should take all conflicting interests into consideration during the review process and ensure that any relevant interests are declared in the published article.
  • REGEPE editors will not publish commissioned articles or any other non-research articles if they are aware of a competing interest that, in their judgment, could introduce bias or a reasonable perception of bias.
  • REGEPE editors do not consult reviewers who have conflicting interests that, in the editors' opinion, might interfere with impartial review.