Conflict of Interest Policy

        This Journal is dedicated to following the highest ethical principles of scholarly publishing and promoting highest standards of integrity and ethical conduct in research and its evaluation. To uphold these principles, it is important to follow the policy for addressing potential conflicts of interest.

        A conflict of interest exists when professional judgment concerning the validity of research may be influenced by external factors like financial gain, material benefits or personal interests. It may arise for the editors, reviewers or authors of a manuscript submitted for publication to our Journal when external factors may influence the conduct and interpretation of research.

        It is important to know about the conflicts of interest of the editors, reviewers and authors in order to make the best decision for the handling of the article during editorial and peer review process. It is also important for the readers of the article to know about any conflict of interest.

Author's Conflict of Interest

        All authors are required to disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest including any financial, personal or other relationships that could inappropriately influence, or be perceived to influence, their work. Authors are required to declare any conflict of interest at the time of manuscript submission. They are again asked to declare any conflict of interest at the time of submitting the Author Agreement Form. This second declaration in the Author Agreement Form takes care of two things: 

i) if the authors inadvertently did not give the conflict of interest at the time of manuscript submission, they can give it in the agreement,

ii) if any conflict of interest develops from the time of manuscript submission to submitting the revised version and final decision, authors can declare this in the agreement and appropriate action can be taken.

The corresponding author is responsible for collecting the list of potential conflicts of interest from each author of the manuscript and includes the list of all potential conflicts in the manuscript before submission for publication.

For Research Papers

Authors of a research paper are required to submit the revised version of ICMJE form for disclosure of potential conflicts of interest.

All authors must download and complete the disclosure form. The form is available as a PDF at www.icmje.org/downloads/coi_disclosure.pdf. After the disclosure form is completed, it will generate a summary statement. This summary statement for all authors must be included in the manuscript at the time of submission. These summary statements will be included in the article at publication. After publication, the forms completed by the authors must be made available by the corresponding author on request.

For other papers

For papers, other than research papers, include the conflicts of interest statement in the manuscript at the time of submission as shown in the examples below and also declare it in the Author Agreement Form :

No conflicts of interests

i) "We certify that we have no affiliation with or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a direct financial or any other interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript."

ii) "We declare no conflicts of interest."

Declaration of conflicts of interest

"We declare the following conflicts of interests: Author ABC is a part-time paid consultant for XYZ Corporation. Author PQR is on the advisory board of RST Company and has received fees as an advisory board member."

 
Editor's Conflicts of Interest

        Editors of all journal published by IJRPPH Journal (Editor-in-Chief, Section Editors, Editors) have a duty to maintain the highest possible standards in manuscript evaluation and maintain the integrity of the Journal. Editors are obliged to disclose any and all potential conflicts of interest to IJRPPH Journal. This disclosure should be made at the time of enrolling as editor, as soon as a conflict of interest develops any time after enrolling as editor and separately for each manuscript sent for editorial review.

Peer reviewer's Conflicts of Interest

        All peer reviewers of a manuscript will be required to declare the conflict of interest in the manuscript review form, as the first step of manuscript evaluation process. If a material potential conflict of interest, financial or otherwise exists, the reviewers are requested to excuse themselves from the review process and submit the review form to the Editor-in-Chief, listing the conflict of interest. If the reviewer declares any potential conflict, it does not invalidate the review of the manuscript.

Some examples of conflicts of interest

• Financial interest in or arrangements with any company 
• Direct or indirect sources of funding 
• Direct or indirect sources of material benefits 
• Paper submitted by editor of the journal 
• Paper submitted by family member 
• Paper submitted by student 
• Paper submitted by colleague 
• Paper submitted from own institution 
• Reviewer knows with certainty the identity of the authors 
• Reviewer can guess fairly accurately the identity of the authors

Editorial and Peer Review in Special Cases

            If a manuscript is submitted for publication by the Editor-in-Chief (author of the manuscript), the Editor-in-Chief will assign the manuscript to an editor (Dr. ABC) who will, without informing the Editor-in-Chief will transfer the manuscript to another editor (Dr. XYZ). The second editor (Dr. XYZ) will make all decisions about the manuscript and communicate the decision to the Editor-in-Chief (author of the manuscript) through the first editor (Dr. ABC). The first editor will keep the identity of the second editor anonymous from the Editor-in-Chief.

             If a manuscript is submitted for publication by a member of the Editorial Board, the name of the handling editor will not be disclosed to either the editor (author of the manuscript) or the co-authors. Only the Editor-in-Chief and the Journal editorial staff will be privy to this information.

             If a manuscript is submitted for publication by a current or past reviewer for the journal, the name of the handling editor will not be disclosed to either the reviewer (author of the manuscript) or the co-authors. Only the Editor-in-Chief and the Journal editorial staff will be privy to this information.

            If a manuscript is submitted by an author who is at the same institution as one of the editors, the manuscript will be handled by another editor who is not at that institution.

             If a manuscript is submitted by an author who is a family member of the editor or personally or professionally related to the editor (e.g. friend, colleague or student) the manuscript will be handled by another editor.