Competing Interest

The Journal requires the corresponding or first or submitting Author to file a Competing Interest (CI) statement with their submission. Please fill this form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest.

The journal will send a confirmation e-mail to the Corresponding or the First Author to make sure that all the information provided are authentic. The Corresponding or the First Author who has filled the form for disclosure of CI must reply to us for confirmation. 

At the time of manuscript acceptance, SOCRATES journal will ask authors to confirm and, if necessary, update their disclosure statements. Based on the above disclosures made by you through the form, the form will automatically generate a disclosure statement, which you will receive via e-mail. Please save your statement.

What is Competing Interest?

The following policy applies SOCRATES journal w.e.f. 05-02-2017 unless otherwise noted.

A competing interest is anything that interferes with or could reasonably be perceived as interfering with, the full and objective presentation, peer review, editorial decision-making, or publication of research or non-research articles submitted to SOCRATES. Competing interests can be financial or non-financial, professional, or personal. Competing interests can arise in relation to an organization or another person. Declaring all potential competing interests is a requirement at SOCRATES with effect from 05-02-2017 and is integral to the transparent reporting of research. Failure to declare competing interests can result in immediate rejection of a manuscript. If an undisclosed competing interest comes to light after publication, SOCRATES will take action in accordance with COPE guidelines and issue a public notification to the community, it also includes rejection of article from the published issue.

What to Declare?

All potentially competing interests (see below) must be declared if they occurred within 5 years of conducting, or preparing for publication, the research under consideration.

Interests outside the 5-year time frame must also be declared if they could reasonably be perceived as competing according to the definition above.

Financial competing interests

Financial competing interests include but are not limited to:

  • Ownership of stocks or shares
  • Paid employment or consultancy
  • Board membership
  • Patent applications (pending or actual), including individual applications or those belonging to the institution to which the authors are affiliated and from which the authors may benefit
  • Research grants (from any source, restricted or unrestricted)
  • Travel grants and honoraria for speaking or participation at meetings
  • Gifts

Non-financial competing interests

Non-financial competing interests include but are not limited to:

  • Acting as an expert witness
  • Membership in a government or other advisory board
  • Relationship (paid or unpaid) with organizations and funding bodies including nongovernmental organizations, research institutions, or charities
  • Membership of lobbying or advocacy organizations
  • Writing or consulting for an educational company
  • Personal relationships (i.e. friend, spouse, family member, current or previous mentor, adversary) with individuals involved in the submission or evaluation of a paper, such as authors, reviewers, editors, or members of the editorial board of SOCRATES.
  • Personal convictions (political, religious, ideological, or other) related to a paper's topic that might interfere with an unbiased publication process (at the stage of authorship, peer review, editorial decision-making, or publication)

Who Must Declare Competing Interests?

Authors

At the time of submission, authors must state what competing interests are relevant to the submitted research. These may include but are not limited to:

  • Names of all funding sources
  • Description of funder’s role in the study design; collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; writing of the paper; and/or decision to submit for publication
  • Whether they have served or currently serve on the editorial board of the journal to which they are submitting
  • Whether they have acted as an expert witness in relevant legal proceedings
  • Whether they have sat or currently sit on a committee for an organization that may benefit from publication of the paper

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: PLOS BIOLOGY

Please note: SOCRATES is not a member of COPE (applied), but is committed to following Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing.