To ensure objectivity, neutrality and transparency in research and to ensure that accepted principles of ethical and professional conduct have been followed, authors and peer-reviewers participating in the manuscript submission stage should include information regarding sources of funding and potential conflicts of interest, financial or non-financial, – whether they actually had an influence. In most cases, this declaration will not stop work from being published nor will it always prevent someone from being involved in a review process. Undeclared interests may incur sanctions. Submissions with undeclared conflicts that are later revealed may be rejected. Published articles may need to be re-assessed, have a corrigendum published, or in serious cases be retracted.
The types of the conflicts for the authors are:
- research grants from funding agencies. Please give the information about research funder and the grant number in the Acknowledgements part of the manuscript;
- honoraria for speaking at conference;
- financial support for attending conference;
- financial support for educational programs;
- employment or consultation;
- support from a project sponsor;
- position on advisory board or board of directors or other type of management relationships;
- multiple affiliations;
- financial relationships, for example equity ownership or investment interest;
- intellectual property rights (e.g. patents, copyrights and royalties from such rights);
- references to the “predatory” journals;
- holdings of spouse and/or children that may have financial interest in the work;
- personal relationships or competing interests directly or indirectly tied to this research;
- professional interests or personal beliefs that may influence your research.
The corresponding author must collect the conflict of interest (listed above) disclosure from all authors and declare them on behalf of all authors during manuscript submission stage in Modern Stochastics: Theory and Applications (MSTA) journal. Declared conflicts of interest will be considered by the editor and reviewers.
MSTA intends to prevent from the conflict of interest assigning submissions to editors and inviting peer-reviewers. They should decline in any of the below situations occur and declare any conflicts to the journal. Peer-reviewers must declare their interests in the ‘Confidential’ section of the review form, which will be considered by the editor. Close competitors should consider declining. This information will not be made public.
The types of conflicts of interests for editors and peer-reviewers are:
- editors and/or peer-reviewers have a recent publication or current submission with any author of the manuscript;
- editors and/or peer-reviewers share or recently shared an affiliation with any author of the manuscript;
- editors and/or peer-reviewers collaborate or recently collaborated with any author of the manuscript;
- editors and/or peer-reviewers have a close personal connection to any author of the manuscript;
- editors and/or peer-reviewers have a financial interest in the subject of the work of the manuscript;
- editors and/or peer-reviewers feel unable to be objective for the manuscript.