Brieflands | Conflicts of Interest (CoI)

>>> Download the Brieflands CoI disclosure form<<<

The file above is a local copy held by Brieflands for convenience. It is not maintained by ICMJE and carries no version number — for the current form, go to ICMJE Disclosure Forms.

Principles:

Conflicts of interest (CoI) comprise those that may not be fully apparent and may influence the author's judgment, reviewers, and editors. They have been described as those that, when revealed later, would make a reasonable reader feel misled or deceived. They may be personal, commercial, political, academic, or financial.
"Conflict of Interest" is required for all types of submissions.
Authors are expected to provide detailed information about any relevant financial interests or financial conflicts covering the 36 months preceding submission and anything foreseeable. Complete the ICMJE Disclosure Form and report the disclosures in the manuscript; the 36-month window is the period Brieflands requires.
Authors with no relevant financial interests are asked to provide a statement indicating they have no financial interests related to the material in the manuscript.

What matters must authors declare in their CoI?

Conflict of Interests must be stated clearly (during submission) to prevent overlooked or misplaced information on potential interests. A declared conflict of interest will not automatically result in the rejection of a paper, but the editors reserve the right to publish any declared conflict of interest alongside the acceptance.

Two types of competing interests are defined as financial and non-financial interests:

1) Financial competing interests:

The author (s) must clearly state any of the following:

Funding: Research support (including salaries, equipment, supplies, and other expenses) by organizations that may gain or lose financially through this publication.
* A specific role for the funder in the conceptualization, design, data collection, analysis, decision to publish, or manuscript preparation, should be disclosed.
Employment: Recent (while engaged in the research project), present, or anticipated employment by any organization that may gain or lose financially through this publication.
Personal financial interests: that may gain or lose financially through publication:

Stocks or shares in companies
Consultation fees or other forms of remuneration (including reimbursements for attending symposia)
Patents or patent applications (awarded or pending) filed by the authors or their institutions whose value may be affected by publication.
* For patents and patent applications, disclosure of the following information is requested: patent applicant (whether author or institution), name of the inventor(s), application number, the status of an application, and specific aspect of manuscript covered in the patent application.

2) Non-financial competing interests:

Non-financial competing interests can take different forms, including personal or professional relations with organizations and individuals. Authors, reviewers and editors must declare unpaid roles or relationships that might affect the publication process. A non-financial interest is not optional to disclose.

Examples of non-financial competing interests include (but are not limited to):

Unpaid membership in a government or non-governmental organization
Unpaid membership in an advocacy or lobbying organization
Unpaid advisory position in a commercial organization
Writing or consulting for an educational company
Acting as an expert witness

Example:

Dr. A BBB reported receiving research grants and honoraria and consulting fees for speaking from X Company, and Y. Dr. CCC reported receiving honoraria from Z Company and P.

CoI in Authors from Commercial organizations

Authors from a pharmaceutical company that sponsors any clinical trial must declare their interest during submission in the "CoI." They should also adhere to the Good Publication Practice guidelines for pharmaceutical companies (GPP3), which are designed to ensure that publications are produced in a responsible and ethical manner.
The guidelines also apply to any companies or individuals that work on industry-sponsored publications, such as freelance writers, contract research organizations, and communications companies.
Brieflands will not publish advertorial content.

Who must declare — authors, reviewers and editors

Disclosure is mandatory for all three groups, in every case, and a declaration of “none” is itself a declaration that must be made.

Who	When	What happens to it
Authors	At submission, for every author	Published with the article
Reviewers	On accepting an invitation, before reading the manuscript	Held by the editor; decline the invitation where the interest is substantive
Editors and Editors-in-Chief	On every manuscript they are assigned	Recuse where an interest exists; the file is reassigned

Submissions from a journal’s own editors

An editor, Associate Editor or Editor-in-Chief may submit to their own journal, on these conditions, which are not waivable:

The manuscript is assigned to a different editor, who takes every decision on it.
The author-editor has no access of any kind to the file, the reviewer identities or the correspondence, at any stage.
Where the Editor-in-Chief is an author, the publisher appoints the handling editor.
The published article states who handled it, so a reader can see the arrangement.

A finding of misconduct against an Editor-in-Chief is handled under Editorial Responsibilities and the ethics committee procedure.

Approach to undisclosed CoI before Publishing

During the review process: We do not "accept or publish" any kind of undisclosed CoIs.

Approach to undisclosed CoI after Publishing

An undisclosed conflict of interest discovered after publication is handled through Brieflands’ standard research-integrity procedure. The remedy is proportionate to the effect the undisclosed interest has on the article; the article is not retracted automatically.

The concern is recorded in the ticketing system and screened by the Head of the Ethics Department. See Ethics committees and escalation.
The authors are asked to explain the omission and have seven working days to respond, as guaranteed under Complaints and Appeals.
The Primary Ethics Committee then decides the remedy:
- Correction to the competing-interest statement, published by the Editor-in-Chief. This is the normal outcome where disclosure alone puts the record right.
- An Expression of Concern, where the question is serious and the case is not yet resolved.
- Retraction, reserved for cases where the undisclosed interest materially undermines the findings or the reliability of the article.
On objection, or where the case is complex, it is referred to the Secondary Ethics Committee and to the COPE council. No further action is taken on the article until the process concludes.