Declaring a conflict of interest
Veterinary Evidence makes every effort to obtain declarations of interest from authors at the submission stage; reviewers at the invitation stage; Associate Editors at the assignment stage; and all Editorial Board members upon invitation to joining the board.
Veterinary Evidence strives to uphold the principles of best practice in scholarly publishing. We therefore aim to be transparent when it comes to any conflicts of interest that may arise during the publication process or post publication.
To make the best decision on how to proceed with a submission or peer-review process, Veterinary Evidence asks authors, reviewers and Editors to declare any competing interests, so that Veterinary Evidence can make informed decisions regarding submissions and reviews.
What is a conflict of interest?
The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) states that:
The potential for conflicts of interest can exist whether or not an individual believes that the relationship affects his or her scientific judgment. Financial relationships (such as employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony) are the most easily identifiable conflicts of interest and the most likely to undermine the credibility of the journal, the authors, and of science itself. However, conflicts can occur for other reasons, such as personal relationships, academic competition, and intellectual passion.
Authors, reviewers and Editors should therefore ask themselves if there is anything that may bias their judgement when performing the task required of them and to state this within their declaration of interest.
All disclosures of potential conflicts of interest are reviewed by the Editor in order to determine whether there is any potential for bias.
Declaring conflicts of interest
Authors:
Potential conflicts of interest must be declared. These include relevant financial, personal, political or intellectual interests that may bias the work, as well as disclosing:
Authors are required to fill in the conflict of interest section within the article submission template (there is a link in this section of the submission template to this policy), as well as within the submission system for every author. The corresponding author must ensure that all authors have been asked to disclose any conflicts of interest.
Authors can provide names, affiliations and contact details of potential reviewers. Suggested reviewers will be used at the Editor’s discretion, and if the reviewers contact details can be verified from an independent source.
All disclosures of potential conflicts of interest made by authors are reviewed by the Editor in order to determine whether there is any potential for bias.
It is always better to disclose any potential conflict so that the editors can determine whether it necessitates disclosure on the article.
Reviewers:
Upon invitation, reviewers are asked to declare any conflicts of interest or to decline the request to review should they not have the relevant expertise. Reviewers will be sent the article to review along with the author’s declaration of interest. There is a link in the reviewer invitation to this policy.
If reviewers are colleagues, relatives or recent collaborators, defined as people who have co-authored a paper or were a principal investigator on a grant with any of the authors within the past 48 months, then they must declare it and decline the request to review the paper.
All disclosures of potential conflicts of interest made by reviewers are reviewed by the Editor in order to determine whether there is any potential for bias.
For more information see our Guidelines for reviewers.
It is always better to disclose any potential conflict so that the editors can determine whether it necessitates disclosure on the article, or whether an alternate reviewer should be invited.
Associate Editors:
Upon assignment to a paper, Associate Editors are asked to declare any conflicts of interest.
Associate Editors should ask themselves if there is anything that may bias their judgement when performing the task required.
If Associate Editors are employed at the same institution as any of the authors or have been a recent collaborator (defined as people who have co-authored a paper or were a principal investigator on a grant with any of the authors within the past 48 months) or are related to the author, then they should declare it.
If Associate Editors are unsure about a potential competing interest that may prevent them from being the Associate Editor, then they should raise this with the editorial office.
All disclosures of potential conflicts of interest are reviewed by the Editor-in-chief in order to determine whether there is any potential for bias.
It is always better to disclose any potential conflict so that the editors can determine whether it necessitates disclosure on the article, or whether an alternate Associate Editor should be assigned.
Editor-in-chief and Editorial Board members:
The Editor-in-chief and all members of the Editorial Board are asked to disclose any conflicts of interest that may have a possible impact on quality assurance and ethics.
Where the Editor-in-chief is the author:
If the Editor-in-chief submits a paper to Veterinary Evidence then it is treated according to the journal’s normal peer-review standards along with the below amendments:
The below statement should be present in the Conflict of Interest section of the submission:
The author is also the Editor-in-chief of Veterinary Evidence.
Should the paper be accepted, the following statement will be added to the Conflict of Interest section for publication:
The author is also the Editor-in-chief of Veterinary Evidence.
This paper underwent a rigorous peer-review process as per our normal journal standards of inviting a minimum of two external reviewers. The identity of the Associate Editor handling the paper has not been disclosed to the author. The final decision to accept this paper rested with the Associate Editor acting as Editor-in-chief.
Where an Editorial Board member is the author
If an Editorial Board member submits a paper to Veterinary Evidence then it is treated according to the journal’s normal peer-review standards along with the below amendment:
The below statement for submitting editors should be present in the Conflict of Interest section:
The author(s) is a member of the Editorial Board of Veterinary Evidence.
Should the paper be accepted the below statement will be added to the Conflict of Interest section for publication:
The author(s) is a member of the Editorial Board of Veterinary Evidence.
This paper underwent a rigorous peer-review process as per our normal reviewing guidelines of inviting a minimum of two external reviewers. The identity of the Associate Editor handling the paper has not been disclosed to the author. The final decision to accept this paper rested with the Editor-in-chief.
Example:
https://www.veterinaryevidence.org/index.php/ve/article/view/153
All disclosures of potential conflicts of interest made by the author are reviewed by the Editor in order to determine whether there is any potential for bias.
Conflict of interest coming to light after publication
If a conflict of interest comes to light after publication then Veterinary Evidence will publish an appropriate correction.
See our Corrections and retractions policy for more information.