Spectrum of Mechanical Engineering and Operational Research (SMEOR) requires authors, editors, Editorial Board members, Guest Editors, and reviewers to disclose relevant conflicts of interest that could influence, or reasonably be perceived to influence, the research, peer-review process, editorial assessment, or publication decision.
A conflict of interest may be financial or non-financial and does not necessarily prevent submission, review, editorial involvement, or publication. The purpose of disclosure is to ensure transparency and to allow the journal to identify and appropriately manage circumstances that could affect, or reasonably be perceived to affect, impartiality.
The management of conflicts of interest forms part of the journal's broader Publication Ethics Statement.
Authors should avoid entering into agreements with study sponsors, funding organizations, commercial entities, or other parties that restrict their access to relevant research data or interfere with their ability to independently analyze and interpret the results, prepare manuscripts, or make decisions concerning publication.
All authors must disclose any financial, professional, personal, academic, institutional, or other relationships or interests that could influence, or reasonably be perceived to influence, their research, interpretation of the results, or presentation of the work.
Potential conflicts of interest may include, but are not limited to:
Funding alone does not necessarily constitute a conflict of interest. However, authors must disclose relevant relationships with funders or sponsors, particularly where such parties had a role in the study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation of results, preparation of the manuscript, or decision to submit the work for publication.
Authors must disclose potential conflicts of interest through the journal's online submission system during manuscript submission. A corresponding Conflicts of Interest statement must also be included in the manuscript before the reference list.
The corresponding author is responsible for collecting the relevant disclosures from all co-authors and ensuring that the statement submitted to the journal accurately reflects those disclosures. Each author remains individually responsible for the accuracy and completeness of their own conflict-of-interest disclosure.
Authors must update their disclosure if a relevant conflict of interest becomes apparent or changes during the editorial or publication process.
Example of a disclosure:
Conflicts of Interest: Author A has received research funding from Company A. Author B has received speaker honoraria from Company X and owns shares in Company Y. Author C has served as a consultant and expert witness for Company Z. Author D is an inventor on Patent X.
If no relevant conflicts of interest exist, authors should state:
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Editors, Editorial Board members, and Guest Editors must disclose any actual, potential, or reasonably perceived conflict of interest relating to a manuscript they are asked to handle.
An editor who has a relevant conflict of interest must not participate in the editorial handling, reviewer selection, peer-review process, access to confidential reviewer information, or editorial decision concerning that manuscript. The manuscript must be assigned to an appropriately qualified independent editor without a relevant conflict of interest.
Editors, Editorial Board members, and Guest Editors who submit manuscripts to SMEOR must have no involvement in the editorial handling, reviewer selection, peer-review process, access to confidential reviewer information, or editorial decision concerning their own submissions.
These requirements operate together with the journal's Editorial Independence policy.
Reviewers must disclose any actual, potential, or reasonably perceived conflict of interest before accepting a review assignment.
Reviewers should decline an invitation, or promptly inform the Editor if a conflict becomes apparent after accepting the invitation, where a personal, professional, financial, institutional, collaborative, supervisory, competitive, or other relationship could compromise, or reasonably be perceived to compromise, their impartiality.
Reviewers must not use confidential manuscript information, data, methods, results, ideas, or other unpublished material for personal, academic, professional, commercial, financial, or competitive advantage.
Additional requirements concerning reviewer independence, confidentiality, and the protection of unpublished scholarly material are provided in the journal's Peer Reviewer Conduct and Intellectual Property policy.
If a potentially relevant undisclosed conflict of interest is identified during peer review or after publication, SMEOR may request clarification or additional information from the individuals concerned and assess whether the undisclosed interest could have affected the integrity, transparency, interpretation, peer-review process, or editorial decision.
The existence of an undisclosed interest does not by itself establish research or publication misconduct. The journal will consider the nature and relevance of the interest, the circumstances of the case, and its potential effect on the research or editorial process.
Where an undisclosed conflict raises a credible publication ethics concern, the matter may be considered under the journal's Unethical Behaviour policy.
Where appropriate, the journal may take editorial or post-publication action. If formal amendment of the published scholarly record is necessary, the matter will be handled in accordance with the journal's Retraction and Correction Policies.
Conflicts of interest and related concerns will be considered in accordance with the journal's publication ethics policies and relevant guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
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