Conflict of Interest Policy

Conflicts of interest (COI), also referred to as competing interests, may affect or may reasonably be perceived as affecting the objectivity, integrity, or credibility of research, peer review, editorial decision-making, or publication. The Celebes Nursing Journal (CNJ) requires transparent disclosure and appropriate management of relevant financial and non-financial relationships and activities.

The existence of a relationship or interest does not necessarily indicate wrongdoing or automatically prevent publication or participation in the editorial process. Disclosure enables editors and readers to assess the relationship transparently and allows CNJ to determine whether management is required. Failure to disclose a relevant conflict may result in proportionate editorial or post-publication action.

This policy is informed by the ICMJE Recommendations on Disclosure of Relationships, Activities, and Conflicts of Interest and the COPE Core Practices.

1. Definitions and Scope
A conflict of interest exists when a financial, professional, academic, institutional, personal, intellectual, or other secondary interest could reasonably influence, or appear to influence, an individual’s responsibilities in research or publication.

Conflicts may be:

• Actual: a relationship or interest is currently influencing, or creates a direct conflict with, an individual’s responsibilities;
• Potential: a relationship or circumstance could develop into a conflict; or
• Perceived: a reasonable reader or observer could consider that a relationship or interest may affect impartiality, even when the individual believes that it does not.

This policy applies to:

• Authors and contributors;
• Peer reviewers;
• The Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editors, Editorial Board members, guest editors, and editorial staff;
• Copyediting and production personnel where relevant;
• The publisher and journal owner; and
• Other individuals participating in manuscript evaluation, decision-making, or publication.

2. Types of Conflicts of Interest
Relevant interests and relationships may include, but are not limited to:

Financial or Commercial Interests

• Research funding, sponsorship, grants, or other financial support;
• Employment, consultancy, advisory roles, expert testimony, honoraria, or speaking fees;
• Paid travel, accommodation, meeting support, or other financial benefits;
• Stock ownership, equity interests, or other investments;
• Patents, patent applications, royalties, licenses, or other intellectual property rights; or
• Commercial, legal, or regulatory interests related to the manuscript’s subject or findings.

Non-Financial Interests

• Personal, family, supervisory, mentoring, or other close relationships;
• Academic or professional competition, rivalry, or significant disputes;
• Current or recent research collaboration or co-authorship;
• Institutional relationships or responsibilities that may affect neutrality;
• Membership or leadership in advocacy, political, professional, or interest groups directly relevant to the manuscript;
• Strong intellectual, ideological, religious, or professional commitments that may prevent impartial evaluation; or
• Participation in the research, preparation, prior evaluation, or editorial handling of the manuscript.

The examples above are illustrative and not exhaustive. Individuals should disclose any relationship or circumstance that could reasonably be considered relevant by an editor, reviewer, author, or reader.

3. Authors’ Conflicts of Interest
All authors must include a Conflict of Interest statement in every submitted manuscript. The statement must disclose all relevant relationships and activities or explicitly state that no conflicts exist.

When no relevant conflict exists, authors may use the following statement:

“The authors declare no conflicts of interest.”

When a relevant relationship or activity exists, the statement should identify:

• The author or authors concerned;
• The nature of the relationship or interest;
• The organization, company, institution, or other party involved;
• Its relationship to the submitted work, where applicable; and
• Any measures taken to maintain research independence or manage the conflict.

Authors must:

• Provide complete and accurate disclosures at submission;
• Ensure that disclosures cover financial and non-financial relationships relevant to the work;
• Update their disclosures if a new relationship or conflict arises during peer review, revision, production, or after publication;
• Distinguish the Conflict of Interest statement from the Funding statement;
• Describe the role of the funder or sponsor in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, and the decision to submit, where applicable;
• Disclose any funder or sponsor restrictions affecting access to data, analysis, reporting, or publication; and
• Respond fully and accurately to reasonable editorial requests for clarification or supporting documentation.

Each author remains individually responsible for the accuracy and completeness of their disclosure. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that the required statements and completed disclosure forms have been obtained from all authors and included in the submission.

Each author must complete the ICMJE Disclosure Form and submit the completed form as a separate submission document at the time of initial manuscript submission. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that completed forms are provided for all authors.

The ICMJE Disclosure Form does not replace the Conflict of Interest statement required in the manuscript. Information provided in the forms will be used by the editors to assess relevant relationships and prepare or verify the disclosure statement to be published with the article. Authors may be asked to provide clarification or additional information when necessary.

If a relevant relationship or activity changes during peer review, revision, production, or after publication, the affected author must promptly submit an updated disclosure and notify the editorial office.

4. Reviewers’ Conflicts of Interest
Reviewer conflicts are assessed for each individual manuscript assignment. Reviewers must disclose any relationship, activity, or circumstance that could affect, or appear to affect, their independent evaluation.

Relevant circumstances may include:

• The same current institutional affiliation as an author;
• Current or recent collaboration or co-authorship with an author;
• Supervisory, mentoring, employment, examination, or dependent professional relationships;
• Financial, commercial, academic, personal, professional, institutional, or intellectual interests related to the manuscript;
• Participation in the research or preparation of the manuscript;
• Direct academic or professional competition;
• A significant dispute or personal relationship with an author; or
• Another circumstance that could reasonably affect impartiality.

No single fixed time period determines the significance of every previous collaboration or relationship. Its nature, recency, relevance, and potential effect on impartiality must be considered.

Reviewers must:

• Disclose relevant relationships before accepting an assignment;
• Decline the review when impartial evaluation cannot reasonably be assured;
• Seek guidance from the editor when uncertain whether a conflict is relevant;
• Stop the review and notify the editor if a conflict becomes apparent after accepting the assignment;
• Maintain manuscript confidentiality; and
• Not use confidential manuscript information for personal, academic, professional, commercial, or financial advantage.

Detailed requirements are provided in CNJ’s Reviewer Conflict of Interest policy.

5. Editors, Editorial Board Members, and Journal Staff
Editors, Editorial Board members, guest editors, and journal staff must disclose relevant relationships or activities and must recuse themselves when impartial handling or decision-making cannot reasonably be assured.

An editor must not handle or decide a manuscript when the editor:

• Is an author or contributor to the manuscript;
• Has a relevant personal, professional, academic, institutional, intellectual, or financial relationship with an author or the work;
• Has participated in the research or preparation of the manuscript;
• Has a direct interest in the manuscript’s outcome; or
• Has another conflict that could reasonably affect, or appear to affect, editorial independence.

When an editor, Editorial Board member, journal staff member, or another individual involved in CNJ’s editorial decision-making submits a manuscript:

• The manuscript must be assigned to another qualified and independent editor;
• The author-editor must have no access to reviewer selection, reviewer identities, reviewer reports, or editorial deliberations beyond the information ordinarily available to authors;
• The manuscript must undergo the same applicable editorial and peer-review requirements as other submissions; and
• No preferential treatment may be provided.

Editorial Board membership does not automatically disqualify an individual from serving as a reviewer, provided that the individual possesses appropriate expertise, has no relevant conflict, and complies with the same confidentiality and independence requirements as other reviewers.

6. Publisher and Journal Owner
The publisher and journal owner must respect CNJ’s editorial independence and must not influence reviewer selection or manuscript decisions for financial, commercial, institutional, personal, or other inappropriate reasons.

The publisher and journal owner must disclose relevant interests that could reasonably affect journal governance or public confidence and must support appropriate management of conflicts involving editorial personnel, publication arrangements, sponsorships, partnerships, or other journal activities.

Advertising, sponsorship, institutional relationships, partnerships, or financial considerations must not determine whether an individual manuscript is accepted, revised, or rejected.

7. Evaluation and Management of Disclosed Conflicts
Disclosure of a conflict does not automatically result in manuscript rejection, reviewer exclusion, or editorial disqualification. The Editor-in-Chief or designated independent editor will assess:

• The nature and significance of the relationship or interest;
• Its relevance to the manuscript or editorial role;
• Its recency and duration;
• The degree to which it could affect, or appear to affect, impartiality;
• Whether transparent disclosure is sufficient;
• Whether additional independent review or oversight is required; and
• Whether the conflict can be appropriately managed.

Management measures may include:

• Requesting clarification or an expanded disclosure;
• Publishing an appropriate Conflict of Interest statement;
• Clarifying the role of the funder or sponsor;
• Requesting confirmation of author access to data or independence in analysis and publication;
• Assigning a different editor or reviewer;
• Obtaining additional independent methodological, statistical, ethical, or subject-matter assessment;
• Restricting a conflicted individual from relevant editorial deliberations or decisions;
• Suspending editorial consideration while a significant concern is assessed; or
• Taking other proportionate measures required to protect editorial independence and the scholarly record.

CNJ will maintain appropriate records of material disclosures, assessments, recusals, and management actions within its authorized editorial records, subject to applicable confidentiality and record-retention requirements.

8. Undisclosed Conflicts and Post-Publication Action
When a potentially relevant undisclosed conflict is identified, CNJ will assess the matter fairly and proportionately. An allegation or omission does not by itself establish deliberate misconduct.

CNJ may:

• Request clarification from the individual concerned;
• Review relevant disclosure, funding, authorship, peer-review, or editorial records;
• Obtain independent advice where necessary;
• Assess whether the conflict affected the research, peer review, editorial decision, or reliability of the published article;
• Provide the individual concerned an appropriate opportunity to respond; and
• Take corrective action based on the available evidence.

Possible actions may include:

• Updating or correcting a Conflict of Interest or Funding statement;
• Publishing a correction or clarification;
• Repeating or obtaining additional independent peer review;
• Reassigning or removing a conflicted reviewer or editor from the relevant process;
• Issuing an Expression of Concern while a significant matter remains unresolved;
• Rejecting a manuscript when an undisclosed conflict is associated with a serious integrity concern or materially compromises the editorial process;
• Retracting an article when an undisclosed conflict materially undermines the reliability or integrity of the publication and the criteria for retraction are met; or
• Contacting an institution, funder, regulator, or other appropriate body when reasonably necessary to assess a serious concern.

Retraction is not an automatic consequence of an incomplete or undisclosed COI statement. Post-publication action will be determined according to the effect of the conflict on the reliability, integrity, or validity of the publication and handled in accordance with CNJ’s Retraction & Correction Policy.

9. Transparency and Confidentiality
CNJ publishes each article with an author Conflict of Interest statement, including a statement that no conflicts were declared when applicable.

Reviewer and editor disclosures are ordinarily handled confidentially within the editorial process. They may be disclosed more broadly only when reasonably necessary to manage a conflict, investigate a significant ethical concern, comply with applicable requirements, or protect the integrity of the scholarly record.

Personal information contained in disclosure forms or supporting documentation will not be published unless its disclosure is relevant and appropriate to understanding the declared conflict or is otherwise required.

10. Non-Compliance
Failure to disclose a relevant conflict may result from misunderstanding, inadvertent omission, negligence, or deliberate concealment. CNJ will consider the individual circumstances, significance, intent where reasonably ascertainable, effect on the editorial process or publication, and response of the individual concerned.

Depending on the circumstances, CNJ may request an amended disclosure, publish a correction, replace a reviewer or editor, obtain additional independent evaluation, discontinue future reviewer or editorial assignments, reject the manuscript, refer a serious matter to an appropriate institution, or take another proportionate action under the Publication Ethics & Malpractice Statement (PEMS).

Individuals affected by an editorial decision concerning the management of a conflict may raise a procedural complaint or appeal in accordance with CNJ’s Complaints & Appeals Policy.

11. Policy Review
This Conflict of Interest Policy is reviewed periodically to maintain consistency with CNJ’s editorial practices and relevant developments in publication ethics. Material changes to disclosure or conflict-management requirements will be reflected consistently in the journal’s applicable policies, forms, submission instructions, and public information.