Conflict of Interest and Disclosure Policy

Avicenna Journal of Medical Sciences (AJMS) is committed to transparency in scholarly publishing and requires authors, reviewers, editors, and Editorial Board members to disclose financial and non-financial relationships or activities that could influence, or reasonably be perceived to influence, their work or editorial judgment.

A potential conflict of interest does not necessarily imply misconduct. However, transparent disclosure allows editors, reviewers, and readers to assess whether relevant relationships may have influenced the research, interpretation, peer review, or publication process.

Authors

Authors must disclose all relevant financial and non-financial relationships and activities that could reasonably be perceived to influence the submitted work.

These may include, but are not limited to:

Employment or consultancy relationships
Research grants or other financial support
Honoraria or speaker fees
Advisory board membership
Stock ownership or other financial interests
Patents or intellectual property interests
Paid expert testimony
Personal or professional relationships
Academic competition or institutional relationships
Other circumstances that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the work

Authors should provide a clear Conflict of Interest Statement with every submission.

If no relevant conflict exists, authors should state:

Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Funding and Sponsor Role

All sources of financial and material support for the research must be disclosed.

Authors should identify the funding organization and, where applicable, describe the funder’s role in:

Study design
Data collection
Data analysis or interpretation
Preparation or review of the manuscript
The decision to submit the manuscript for publication

Where the funder had no role in these activities, this should be stated explicitly.

Authors should retain appropriate independence in accessing, analyzing, interpreting, and reporting their research data.

Peer Reviewers

Reviewers must disclose any relationship or circumstance that could affect, or reasonably be perceived to affect, their ability to provide an impartial review.

Reviewers should decline an invitation to review when a significant conflict exists.

Potential conflicts may include recent collaboration with an author, direct academic competition, personal relationships, institutional relationships, financial interests, or involvement in closely related work.

Reviewers must not use confidential information obtained through peer review for personal, academic, professional, or financial advantage.

Editors and Editorial Board Members

Editors and Editorial Board members must disclose relationships or activities that could influence their editorial responsibilities.

An editor must not participate in the assessment, reviewer selection, or editorial decision for a manuscript where a relevant conflict of interest exists.

Such manuscripts should be assigned to another appropriately qualified editor who has no relevant conflict.

Manuscripts Submitted by Editors or Editorial Board Members

AJMS permits editors and Editorial Board members to submit manuscripts to the journal, provided that the editorial process is conducted independently.

The submitting editor or Editorial Board member must have no involvement in reviewer selection, peer review, editorial discussion, or the final publication decision concerning their manuscript.

Where appropriate, the published article should include a statement describing the independent editorial handling of the manuscript.

Institutional and Personal Relationships

Institutional affiliation alone does not automatically constitute a conflict of interest.

However, editors and reviewers should consider whether close professional, supervisory, collaborative, personal, or competitive relationships with an author could compromise, or appear to compromise, impartiality.

Where uncertainty exists, the relationship should be disclosed to the Editor-in-Chief or responsible editor.

Disclosure in Published Articles

Relevant author disclosures and funding information should be included in the published article.

Where authors declare no relevant conflicts, a statement to that effect should also be published.

Disclosure of a relationship does not automatically prevent publication. The purpose of disclosure is to ensure transparency and allow appropriate editorial assessment.

Undisclosed Conflicts of Interest

Failure to disclose a relevant conflict may be considered a breach of publication ethics.

If an undisclosed conflict is identified during editorial assessment, AJMS may request clarification or additional disclosure and may suspend consideration of the manuscript where necessary.

If an undisclosed conflict is identified after publication, the journal may publish a correction, disclosure statement, expression of concern, or take other appropriate action depending on the nature and significance of the omission.

Editorial Independence

Editorial decisions at AJMS are based on the scientific quality, originality, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, relevance, and scholarly contribution of submitted manuscripts.

Editorial decisions must remain independent of financial considerations, publication charges, sponsorship, advertising, institutional influence, personal relationships, or other inappropriate external pressures.

Policy Framework

AJMS follows internationally recognized principles concerning disclosure and competing interests, including relevant recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Conflict of Interest and Disclosure Policy