Competing Interest Policy/Conflict of Interest

To maintain transparency in publication practices and to remove any potential bias, Savvy Science Publisher stresses the authors to declare any competing financial and/or non-financial interests in relation to their work submitted to its journals. It is the corresponding author’s responsibility to submit a competing interests' statement on behalf of all co-authors.

Competing interests may include all financial and non-financial interests that could directly interfere, or be perceived to undermine the objectivity, integrity and value of a publication, through a possible influence on the judgements and actions of authors with regard to objective data presentation, analysis and interpretation.

• Financial competing interests may be in the following forms:

Funding: Research support in terms of monetary value (salaries, equipment, materials, and any other expenses) by organizations that may be benefitted or harmed financially through this publication. If such funding has been used, it should be clearly disclosed what specific role the funder had in the study (conceptualization of the research, design, data collection, data analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript).

Employment: Recent or anticipated employment of authors by any organization that may get financial gains or harms through this publication.

Personal financial interests: Authors’  shares in companies that may have financial gain or loss through the publication; any consultation fees or reimbursements from any such organizations; or the patents filed by the authors or their institutions whose significance may be affected by the publication. The status of patent application and the possible roles of manuscript on the patent application should be disclosed in such cases.

However, Savvy Science Publisher does not necessitate that the amount of funding support be disclosed in the manuscript.

• Non-financial competing interests:

Any unpaid personal or professional relationship with organizations and individuals involved in the research study should be explicitly stated. This may be in the form of memberships, advisory positions or consultations services.

Application to authors:

Authors must disclose (and specify) the presence or absence of any competing interest at the end of their article. However, as all submissions are subject to a double-blind peer review, the competing interest statement should be constructed in a way not to disclose authors’ identities to the reviewers. But, the details of such competing interest must be clearly mentioned in the cover letter.

This statement may take any of the below forms in the published article:

• “The authors declare the following competing interests: ……..”
• “The authors declare no competing interests.””
• "The authors declare that they have unavoidable confidentiality agreements that prevent them from disclosing their competing interests in this work."

Reviewers’ competing interests:

The Savvy Science journals ask its peer-reviewers to exclude themselves in cases where there is a significant conflict of interest, financial or otherwise. However, just as financial interests need not invalidate the conclusions of an article, nor do they automatically disqualify an individual from evaluating it.

Savvy Science Publisher  ask all peer-reviewers to inform the handling editors  if they have any related financial or non-financial that might be perceived as relevant. Editors will then consider the strength of this interest for choosing or not choosing them as the reviewers; and while weighing their comments in case of selection as a reviewer.

Editors’ competing interests:

All Savvy Science Publisher journals’ Editorial Board Members and Guest Editors are required to declare any competing interests-financial or otherwise. This may include having previously published with one or more of the authors, and sharing the same institution as one or more of the authors. Additionally, they are directed to exclude themselves from handling manuscripts in cases where a competing interest exists. If they are a co-author in any of the submitted manuscript, it should be disclosed by them as the responsibility of overseeing the peer review of their article will be conducted by other editors.

Savvy Science Publisher editorial staff is required to declare any interests to the handling editors (financial/non-financial) that may influence, or be perceived to influence their editorial practices. Not doing so constitutes a disciplinary offence.

The Savvy Science Publisher thrives on the independence of its journals. It is our firm policy that the reviewers’ and editorial decisions should not be compromised by commercial or financial interests, or by any specific arrangements with advertisers or sponsors. Where there is any possible risk of perception of compromise such arrangements will be clearly disclosed.