Conflicts of Interest and Funding

A conflict of interest exists when a person’s professional judgement may be, or may appear to be, influenced by a financial, institutional, academic or personal relationship. The journal requires disclosure of all actual and perceived conflicts of interest.

Authors

  • At the end of each article, under the heading “Conflict of Interest”, authors state whether any conflict exists. If there is none, the statement reads: “The authors declare no conflict of interest related to this work.”
  • If an author is an editor of the journal or a member of its Editorial Board or Advisory Board, this is stated in the Conflict of Interest statement. Example: “The second author is a member of the Advisory Board of Ulakbilge Journal of Social Sciences and had no involvement at any stage of the review of this article.” Authors who have a business relationship with the journal’s publishing service provider also declare it.
  • Funding bodies, programmes, project titles and grant numbers are given under the heading “Funding and Acknowledgements”. If there was no funding, the statement reads: “This research received no funding from any institution or organisation.”

Reviewers

Reviewers decline the invitation if they work at the same institution as an author, are an author’s thesis supervisor or student, have co-authored with or had a close personal relationship with an author in the last three years, or have a commercial interest in the subject of the manuscript.

Editors and board members

Editors with a conflict of interest recuse themselves, and the manuscript is assigned to another editor. Manuscripts by editors and board members are subject to the independent review rule set out in the Publication Policy.

Publisher

Neither the publisher nor the service provider interferes with publication decisions; the journal has no advertising or sponsorship relationships.

If an undisclosed conflict of interest comes to light after publication, it is investigated according to the COPE flowcharts and a correction is published where necessary.