Conflict of Interest

A conflict of interest exists when a personal, financial or professional interest could affect, or seem to affect, someone’s judgement about a manuscript.

• Authors declare funding and any competing interests on submission; the declaration is published with the article.
• Reviewers decline to review when they have a conflict, for example a close collaboration with the authors.
• Editors take no part in decisions on manuscripts by themselves, their students or close colleagues; another editor handles them.