Competing Interests

Competing Interests at JoWaCH

When submitting a manuscript to JoWaCH, authors are required to provide full disclosure of all competing interests, be they financial or non-financial, at the time of submission. Such competing interests have the potential to compromise the originality of the submitted work and influence the author's role in data presentation, analysis, and interpretation. The corresponding author bears the responsibility of submitting a comprehensive conflict of interest statement on behalf of all co-authors, ensuring transparency and ethical reporting in the manuscript.

Financial Competing Interests

Funding: Organizations providing research support for a specific publication may experience financial gains or losses. The role of funders in study design, data collection, analysis, and manuscript preparation must be transparently disclosed in the conflicts of interest statement within the submitted manuscript.

Employment: Any employed individuals connected to the particular publication that might be influenced by the publication must be explicitly mentioned.

Personal Financial Interests: Authors must disclose financial gains or losses related to company stocks or shares resulting from a specific publication, consultation fees, or other reimbursed fees from organizations that stand to gain or lose financially. Detailed information about patent applications, including the inventor's name, the patent applicant, application number and status, and the manuscript aspects covered by the patent application, must be provided regarding any patent application filed by the author that could be affected by the specific publication.

Non-Financial Competing Interests

Non-financial competing interests involve personal, religious, academic, political, and professional associations with organizations or individuals. Authors and referees are advised to disclose all such relationships that might impact the publication process during submission.

The corresponding author holds the primary responsibility to submit a declaration form on behalf of all authors, disclosing all conflicts of interest at the time of submission. Additionally, authors are strongly recommended to include a competing interest statement at the end of the manuscript, indicating whether there is a competing interest or not.

Application to Referees

Peer reviewers are requested to disclose all financial or non-financial competing interests before accepting a review opportunity. This disclosure assists Editors in selecting reviewers for specific manuscripts.

Application to Editors

Editors must adhere to the same policy. They are required to disclose all existing financial or other competing interests related to a manuscript that may impact their editorial duties. These competing interests from the editorial staff must be disclosed prior to evaluation.