Conflicts of interest

A conflict of interest (competing interest) exists when financial, personal, academic, political or institutional relationships could influence, or could reasonably be seen to influence, a person's judgement about a piece of work. Having a conflict is not wrong in itself; failing to declare it is. Journal Law and Justice asks everyone involved in publication to declare such interests so that readers and editors can judge them.

What to declare

• Financial: employment, consultancies, honoraria, grants, patents, stock ownership, paid expert testimony or fees from organisations that could gain or lose from the work.
• Personal: close relationships or rivalries with people whose work is under review.
• Academic and institutional: working at the same institution, recent collaboration, or holding a strongly opposing position.
• Non-financial: political, religious or ideological beliefs, or membership of advocacy groups, that relate directly to the work.

Authors

• State all funding sources, the funders' role in the study and every competing interest in a Declaration of Interests section.
• When there is nothing to declare, write: "The authors declare no conflict of interest."
• Declarations are published with the article.

Reviewers

• Decline an invitation, or tell the editor, when they work at the authors' institution, have collaborated with an author in the last three years, have a personal relationship with an author, or have a financial or competitive interest in the outcome.
• Do not review a manuscript they have already reviewed for another journal without telling the editor.

Editors and editorial board members

• Do not handle manuscripts from their own institution, close collaborators, students or relatives.
• Manuscripts they submit to the journal are handled by another editor, without access to the review, and judged by the same standards as any other.
• Members of the board declare their interests to the editor-in-chief each year.

When a conflict is discovered later

Undeclared conflicts found after publication are handled with the corrections policy and COPE guidance. Depending on their effect, the outcome may be a correction to the declaration, an expression of concern or a retraction.