Conflict of Interest Policy

Conflict of Interest

This policy applies to BioMedica, owned and published by the University of Health Sciences, Lahore, and hosted by Discover STM Publishing Ltd.

What counts as a conflict of interest

A conflict of interest exists when authors, reviewers or editors have interests that are not fully apparent and that may influence their judgment about what is published. The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) describes them as interests that, if revealed later, would make a reasonable reader feel misled. Declaring an interest does not by itself lead to rejection. Manuscripts are judged on their merit.

Examples include:

Having received fees for consulting.
Having received research funding.
Having been employed by a related company or organisation.
Holding stocks or shares in a company that might be affected by the publication of the paper.
Having received funds for attending a related symposium or talk.
Having a close personal or professional relationship with a person whose work is discussed.

Other interests that a reasonable reader might feel have affected the research should also be declared. Details of financial arrangements do not need to be disclosed.

Authors

Authors must declare all financial and non-financial interests, and all sources of funding, at submission. The declaration is placed at the end of the manuscript, after the Acknowledgements and before the References, under the heading Declaration of Conflicting Interests. If there is none, please state that the authors declare no conflict of interest. Authors are also asked to confirm that no agreement with a research sponsor prevents them from publishing both positive and negative results.

Editors and reviewers

Editors and reviewers must decline to handle a manuscript where they have a conflict of interest, for example a recent collaboration, a shared institution or a financial link with the authors. Reviewers must tell the editor about any such interest before accepting an invitation. The same rules apply to editors and guest editors who write content for the journal, and to members of the University of Health Sciences staff who submit to the journal.

Undeclared interests

If an undeclared conflict of interest comes to light after publication, the journal will investigate following COPE guidance and may publish a correction or, in serious cases, a retraction. See our Corrections, Retractions and Expressions of Concern policy.