Declaration of Competing Interest

Reviewers. Reviewers must disclose any potential competing interests that could influence, or be perceived to influence, their review. These may include personal, financial, professional, or academic relationships with the authors or the content of the manuscript. A reviewer who has a competing interest must decline the review.

Authors. Authors must disclose all financial and non-financial relationships that could be perceived as influencing the work, including funding sources, employment, consultancies, patents, and personal or professional relationships relevant to the manuscript. A statement (“Declaration of Competing Interest”) must be included at the end of each manuscript, even when there is nothing to declare (“The authors declare that they have no known competing interests”).

Editors. Editors and editorial board members must declare any competing interests related to a submission and must not handle manuscripts in which they have a conflict of interest, including manuscripts authored by themselves, by colleagues at the same institution or by recent collaborators. Such manuscripts are assigned to another editor.

Transparency is essential to ensure the integrity and fairness of the peer-review and publication process. Undisclosed competing interests that are discovered after publication may lead to a correction or retraction in line with COPE guidelines.