A conflict of interest, also called a competing interest, exists when a secondary interest could influence, or could reasonably be perceived as influencing, professional judgment concerning a primary scholarly responsibility. Conflicts may be actual, potential, or reasonably perceived and may be financial or nonfinancial.

• identify and disclose relevant interests as early as possible;
• update disclosures when circumstances change;
• avoid participating when impartiality may reasonably be questioned;
• provide complete and accurate information;
• cooperate with editorial requests for clarification;
• protect independent peer review and editorial decision-making; and
• avoid using relationships or positions to obtain preferential treatment.

Disclosure does not automatically disqualify an author, reviewer, editor, or manuscript. Its purpose is to permit informed assessment and appropriate safeguards. When uncertain whether an interest is relevant, the individual should disclose it. This policy applies to authors, editors, Board members, Guest Editors, reviewers, the publisher, journal staff, service providers, funders, sponsors, and others involved in evaluation or publication.

Financial interests may include employment, consultancy, advisory or board roles, honoraria, speaker fees, expert testimony, grants, sponsored research, travel or hospitality, supplied equipment or services, stock ownership, royalties, patents, licensing, gifts, contracts, or support paid directly to an individual or to an institution on the individual’s behalf.

Nonfinancial interests may include close personal or family relationships, friendship or hostility, recent collaboration, supervision or mentoring, shared organizational units, academic competition, institutional loyalty, advocacy, litigation, policy or ideological commitments directly relevant to the work, editorial relationships, prior confidential access, or another circumstance that could affect or appear to affect impartial judgment.

A viewpoint, disciplinary position, shared country, membership in a large association, conference contact, or ordinary scholarly disagreement does not automatically constitute a disqualifying conflict. Additional facts and the reasonable appearance of bias determine whether disclosure or recusal is required.

All authors must disclose interests that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the research question, design, data access, collection, analysis, interpretation, choice of outcomes, writing, reporting, submission, or conclusions. Disclosure is required even when authors believe that a relationship did not affect the work.

Each author is responsible for the accuracy and completeness of the author’s disclosure. The corresponding author collects disclosures, ensures that the manuscript contains complete Conflicts of Interest and Funding statements, confirms approval by all authors, coordinates responses, and reports changes during review, production, or after publication.

Disclosures must be provided at initial submission, updated with revisions when circumstances change, clarified on editorial request, confirmed before acceptance, and corrected promptly if omitted or reported inaccurately. Authors should normally consider relationships during at least the preceding 36 months, while also disclosing older interests that remain relevant, including continuing patents, intellectual property, unresolved disputes, and ongoing professional or financial relationships.

Funding and conflicts of interest are related but distinct. The Funding statement identifies financial or material support for the research. The Conflicts of Interest statement identifies relationships that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the work or its presentation. Both statements must be supplied where applicable.

Authors must describe any funder or sponsor role in study conception, design, protocol development, recruitment, data collection and access, data management, analysis, interpretation, outcome selection, manuscript preparation or approval, publication control, journal selection, and the decision to submit. If the funder had no role, this should be stated explicitly.

Authors must retain appropriate independence in accessing complete data, conducting analysis, interpreting findings, preparing the manuscript, and deciding whether and where to publish. Agreements that prevent independent access, analysis, or publication must be disclosed and may make a manuscript unsuitable for publication.

Authors must disclose current editorial, reviewing, publishing, advisory, governance, or other professional relationships with JSOMER. Holding such a role does not prohibit submission, but the manuscript must be handled independently and the author must have no involvement in screening, editor or reviewer selection, peer-review correspondence, revision assessment, decision-making, or publication scheduling.

When an Editor-in-Chief, editor, Editorial Board member, Guest Editor, reviewer, publisher, or other journal-affiliated person is an author, full responsibility must be transferred to an independent editor with no relevant conflict. Where applicable, the published article should include an editorial independence statement.

Reviewers must assess potential conflicts before accepting an invitation and disclose circumstances that could affect or appear to affect impartiality, including shared organizational units, recent collaboration or co-authorship, supervision or mentoring, close relationships, direct competition, financial interests, involvement in the research, prior confidential access, disputes, or inability to evaluate independently.

A reviewer should decline when a conflict prevents independent assessment. A potential conflict does not always require disqualification, but it must be disclosed so the handling editor can decide. A reviewer who discovers a conflict after accepting must stop and notify the editor promptly and must not contact the authors directly.

Reviewers must not use unpublished information for research, grants, commercial benefit, professional advantage, competition, public criticism, legal proceedings, or another purpose unrelated to the review. Reviewers must not delay a manuscript for personal advantage or recommend citations to benefit themselves, colleagues, institutions, journals, or networks without direct scholarly justification.

Editors must disclose and manage conflicts before accessing or handling a manuscript. An editor must recuse when the editor is an author, contributed to the work, has a close relationship or recent collaboration with an author, has a supervisory relationship, works in the same unit where independence may be questioned, has a financial or competitive interest, is involved in a related dispute, or cannot judge impartially for another reason.

The manuscript must be reassigned before the conflicted editor participates in reviewer selection, internal discussion, evaluation, or decision-making. When the Editor-in-Chief is conflicted, an independent editor must receive full authority, and the decision must not require approval from the conflicted Editor-in-Chief.

Editorial Board membership does not authorize access to all submissions. Board members may access manuscripts only when formally assigned and must disclose conflicts at appointment, when circumstances change, before assignments, and when submitting to the journal. Guest Editors are subject to the same standards and must not handle their own manuscripts or those of close collaborators, current students, supervisors, or others presenting a relevant conflict.

The publisher supports infrastructure and continuity but must not influence scholarly evaluation or individual publication decisions for personal, institutional, reputational, financial, commercial, political, indexing, or citation-related reasons. Ownership, technical access, and financial support must not be used to access confidential editorial information or influence outcomes.

When the publisher is an author or otherwise conflicted, the publisher must be excluded from all editorial handling and scheduling decisions. Journal staff, copyeditors, translators, consultants, technical providers, and other service providers must disclose relevant relationships, protect confidentiality, remain within their assigned role, and avoid using information or altering content for personal, institutional, or commercial advantage.

Institutional conflicts may arise when an institution has a financial, legal, commercial, reputational, regulatory, intellectual-property, sponsorship, or other material interest in the research or publication outcome. Institutional affiliation alone is not a conflict; the material relationship with the work determines whether disclosure or management is needed.

Advocacy, policy, religious, political, ideological, or public positions do not automatically disqualify a person. Disclosure or recusal may be required when a leadership role, campaign, litigation, representation of an affected organization, public commitment to a specific outcome, or another relevant role could reasonably prevent impartial judgment.

Scholarly disagreement is not itself a conflict. An intellectual conflict may arise when a person has a direct proprietary, professional, commercial, or highly specific competitive stake in acceptance or rejection and cannot distinguish scholarly evaluation from personal interest.

A person may hold several roles, but incompatible roles concerning the same manuscript must be separated. If reliable separation is not possible, the manuscript or assignment must be transferred to another qualified person.

Depending on relevance, closeness, financial or professional significance, timing, possible effect, available safeguards, and the need for reader transparency, JSOMER may:

• publish the disclosure without further restriction;
• request clarification or a formal disclosure form;
• require a more detailed statement;
• appoint an independent editor or reviewers;
• exclude an individual from specified activities or require recusal;
• seek additional methodological or ethical review;
• decline a reviewer invitation;
• reject or withdraw a manuscript when independence cannot be protected;
• publish an editorial independence statement;
• publish a correction; or
• take another proportionate action.

A disclosed conflict does not automatically invalidate the research. Disclosure is one part of conflict management and does not replace rigorous peer review, methodological assessment, ethical review, editorial independence, transparent funding information, or accurate reporting.

If a relevant undisclosed conflict is identified before publication, JSOMER may suspend processing, request explanations and updated disclosures, notify all authors, review the role of the interest, obtain independent advice or additional review, reassess or reverse a decision, reject or withdraw the manuscript, or contact an institution when deliberate concealment or misconduct is suspected.

If identified after publication, the journal will assess whether the omission was inadvertent or deliberate, whether the interest affected the research or editorial process, whether the findings remain reliable, whether readers require additional information, and whether institutional review is necessary.

• update the Conflicts of Interest statement;
• publish a correction or editorial notice;
• issue an Expression of Concern;
• request institutional investigation;
• reopen or reassess peer review;
• retract when nondisclosure is connected to unreliable findings, manipulated review, or serious misconduct; or
• take another proportionate action.

An undisclosed conflict does not automatically require retraction. The editorial response depends on the evidence, seriousness, timing, and effect of the nondisclosure.

When a reviewer fails to disclose a relevant conflict, JSOMER may disregard the review, appoint another reviewer, reassess the decision, reopen peer review, discontinue future invitations, notify an institution in serious cases, or take another necessary action.

When an editor fails to disclose or manage a conflict, JSOMER may reassign the manuscript, repeat review, review or reverse the decision, appoint an independent senior editor, remove the editor from the relevant role, examine other affected manuscripts, publish a correction or notice, or seek institutional review.

A conflict involving the Editor-in-Chief must be assessed by an independent senior scholar or appropriately constituted independent panel. The publisher must not determine the scholarly merits of the case acting alone.

Deliberate concealment, false disclosure, or material misrepresentation of an interest may constitute publication misconduct. Possible consequences include suspension, rejection, withdrawal, reversal of acceptance, correction, Expression of Concern, retraction, removal from editorial or reviewing roles, restriction of future submissions or invitations, notification of relevant organizations, or another proportionate action.

Restrictions must be based on documented concerns, applied proportionately, and should not be presented publicly as disciplinary sanctions unless disclosure is necessary and justified.

Conflict-of-interest information is handled confidentially during editorial assessment except where disclosure is needed to manage the conflict, obtain advice, investigate a concern, comply with law, maintain an accurate scholarly record, or publish an appropriate statement. Published disclosure statements become part of the public article record, while forms and correspondence may be retained as confidential editorial records.

Individuals will normally have an opportunity to explain or correct a disclosure. Decisions must be made by persons without relevant conflicts and should be documented, proportionate, and based on the available evidence. Failure to disclose does not establish misconduct automatically, while honest uncertainty does not excuse refusal to cooperate with reasonable clarification.

JSOMER reviews this policy periodically to ensure consistency with actual editorial practice, authorship and contributorship requirements, peer-review and reviewer procedures, editorial governance, special-issue management, correction and retraction procedures, recognized conflict-of-interest standards, and requirements of relevant scholarly services.

Material changes will be disclosed through the journal website. Questions concerning disclosures, reviewer eligibility, editorial recusal, sponsor involvement, or suspected undisclosed conflicts may be sent to the Editorial Office.