Conflict of Interest Policy

A conflict of interest (competing interest) exists when a person's judgement about the research or its publication could be influenced by a secondary interest — financial, personal, professional, or ideological. Having a conflict is not itself wrong; failing to disclose it is.

Authors

All authors must disclose, in the manuscript's Declarations section and on the title page, any interest from the past three years that could be perceived to influence the work, including:

  • Employment, consultancy, board membership, or stock ownership in a company with an interest in the subject matter;
  • Research grants, honoraria, speaker fees, travel support, or gifts;
  • Patents or patent applications;
  • Personal, political, religious, or academic relationships or rivalries relevant to the work;
  • Any role of a funder in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, writing, or the decision to publish.

If there is nothing to declare, state: "The authors declare that they have no competing interests." Disclosures are published with the article.

Reviewers

Reviewers must decline to review if they:

  • Work at the same institution as any author;
  • Have collaborated with, supervised, or been supervised by any author in the past five years;
  • Have a financial interest in the outcome;
  • Are in direct competition with the work;
  • Have a personal relationship or conflict with any author;
  • Believe they can identify the authors and that this would bias their review.

Reviewers disclose any potential conflict to the editor when accepting an invitation.

Editors and editorial board members

Editors must not handle manuscripts where they have any of the conflicts listed above for reviewers, or where they have a financial or personal relationship with the authors or the work. Manuscripts by editors are handled under the arrangements described in the Peer Review Policy.

The Editor-in-Chief and Associate Editors publish a declaration of their own interests on the Editorial Board page, updated annually.

Publisher

Somato Publications does not accept payment, advertising, or sponsorship that is conditional on editorial outcomes. Advertising is subject to the Advertising Policy and is never adjacent to related editorial content.

Undisclosed conflicts

Undisclosed conflicts discovered after publication are handled under the Corrections and Retractions Policy and may result in a correction or, where the conflict is material, retraction.

Last updated: 29 September 2026