Conflict of interest

Purpose

It is possible to activate an option to allow editors to declare a conflict of interest before the assessment.

Journal setting

To activate this option, go to: Journal management/Journal/Settings.

In “Conflict Of Interest (COI)”, check the box “Enable declaring COI” and save settings.

How it works

When the editor goes to the submission, he/she does not have immediate access to the full submission page. He/she has to specify beforehand if he/she has a conflict of interest.

There are three possibilities:

1. The green button, “I do not have a conflict of interest”, allows access to the full submission page.
2. The orange button, “I have a conflict of interest”, prevents access to the full submission page: the editor returns to the submission page. Important: if the editor wishes to specify the reason for the conflict of interest, he/she can fill in the “Optional comments” field before clicking on the button.
3. A third button, “Decide later”, allows the editor to return to the submission presentation page.