Authors’ guideline in Journals usually ask authors to specify whether there is any conflict of interest in the article. In doing so, the authors should declare if there is no conflicts of interest.
On the other hand, in the case of conflicts of interest, authors are expected to disclose their conflicts of interest.
Conflicts of interest are considered as a part of research ethics. In fact, it is important for authors to reach consensus on the order of their names and the type of journal in which they are publishing their article in it. The reason for this is that several authors are usually involved in the research process or the article is sponsored by a particular organization or institution.
Journals have different policies toward the conflicts of interest. Some journals send the form or statement of copyright to the authors as soon as they submit their manuscripts, and without this form they do not process the review procedure for the submitted articles. This form should be signed by the corresponding author or all the other authors. It is also expected that if the article is conducted under the support of any specific organization, it is better to mention that in the acknowledgments section.
Additionally, the corresponding author must declare in this form that the article has not been previously published in any other journals or it will not be send to any other journals later.
This form makes it possible for the journal to respond to possible controversies between the authors and allows the journal to advance its policies according to its defined plan. Therefore, the authors of the articles are expected to indicate agreement before submitting the article.
The conflicts of interest in research ethics has another interpretation. It required the necessary information about the involvements of any biased report in the work, prioritization of any personal or financial interests over the main purpose of the research, and avoidance to report any challenging and unclear of findings, for example, avoid mentioning the harmful environmental effects on new crop species!
Related article