Conflict of Interest

All authors must declare any financial or personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence or bias their work.

  • A formal Conflict of Interest statement must be included in the manuscript prior to peer review.

  • If no conflicts exist, authors must explicitly state: "The authors declare that they have no competing interests."

  • Reviewers and editors must also disclose any potential conflicts of interest and disqualify themselves from evaluating manuscripts where a conflict exists.