Conflict of Interest Policy

Conflict of Interest Policy

1. Overview

The International Journal of Global Innovations and Solutions (IJGIS) is committed to maintaining the highest standards of integrity, transparency, and objectivity in scholarly publishing. A conflict of interest (COI)—also referred to as a competing interest—occurs when financial, personal, academic, or professional relationships could bias, or appear to bias, the research, evaluation, or editorial decision-making process.

This policy applies to all authors, peer reviewers, editors, and editorial staff involved in the publication process.

2. Guidelines for Authors

  • Mandatory Disclosure: All authors must disclose any potential financial or non-financial conflicts of interest during manuscript submission.

  • Financial Interests: Authors must declare research funding, grants, honoraria, employment, consulting roles, stock ownership, patent applications, or commercial interests related to the manuscript.

  • Non-Financial Interests: Authors must declare personal relationships, institutional affiliations, or political/ideological convictions that could influence the work.

  • Statement Requirement: Every published article must include a formal "Conflicts of Interest" statement before the reference section. If no conflicts exist, authors must explicitly state:

    "The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper."

3. Guidelines for Peer Reviewers

  • Recusal Requirement: Reviewers must decline an invitation to review a manuscript if they have a known financial, professional, or personal conflict of interest with any of the authors or participating institutions.

  • Conflict Scenarios: Conflicts include recent collaboration (within the past 3 years), direct co-authorship, institutional affiliation, mentor/mentee relationships, or commercial interest in the outcome of the research.

  • Confidentiality: Reviewers must treat all manuscript details as confidential and are strictly prohibited from using unpublished ideas or content for personal or financial gain.

4. Guidelines for Editors and Editorial Board Members

  • Recusal Protocol: Editors (including the Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editors, and Guest Editors) must recuse themselves from handling, evaluating, or assigning reviewers to manuscripts where a potential or actual conflict of interest exists.

  • Handling Conflict Submissions: When an Editor is an author or co-author of a submitted manuscript, the handling of the paper is transferred to an independent editor or guest editor. The submitting Editor has no involvement in the peer review or editorial decision-making process for their own submission.

5. Guidelines for Journal Staff

  • All administrative staff involved in the peer-review management process must disclose any commercial or personal relationships that could influence the objective handling of submissions.

6. Management of Undeclared Conflicts

If an undisclosed conflict of interest is identified before or after publication, IJGIS will follow the recommendations and flowcharts established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Actions may include issuing a correction notice, an expression of concern, or, in severe cases, article retraction.