CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

 

This policy explains how conflicts of interest are disclosed and managed by authors, editors, and reviewers of Jurnal Pengabdian Masyarakat Bidang Sosial dan Humaniora, abbreviated as ABDISOSHUM. Its aim is to keep the editorial process transparent and to protect the scholarly record. The terms “conflict of interest” and “competing interest” are used with the same meaning. Community service activities often involve partners, sponsors, and institutions that are close to the authors, so a clear and honest disclosure is especially important.

5
kinds of interest to disclose
2
statements in the Acknowledgments: competing interests and funding
Before
editors and reviewers disclose before they accept an assignment

1. What Is a Conflict of Interest?

A competing interest is any relationship, circumstance, or activity that could influence, or could reasonably appear to influence, how research is carried out, reported, reviewed, or edited.

Disclosure protects everyone. A disclosure is a protective step and not an accusation. Disclosing an interest does not mean that something is wrong. An ordinary scholarly disagreement is not, by itself, a disqualifying conflict.

2. Interests to Disclose

Type of interest Examples
Financial relationships Employment, consultancy, honoraria, shares, patents, royalties, or other commercial benefits, including benefits from a company, a business, or a supplier of goods that is connected with the activity
Funding and sponsorship Grants from the government, a foundation, a company, or an institution; paid expert work; and any involvement of a sponsor in the activity or in the article
Personal and professional relationships Supervisory, collaborative, or close personal ties with authors, reviewers, or editors, including recent coauthors
Interest in the subject or the partner Having designed, developed, or sold the program, module, product, or tool that the activity applies or evaluates; holding a position in, owning, or having family ties with the partner organization, such as a business, a school, a community organization, or a village government; or reporting an activity that was carried out for your own institution, students, or organization
Editorial and journal ties Membership of the editorial team or the reviewer board, or any other tie with the journal or the publisher, that may require a manuscript to be handled independently

3. Duties of Authors

  • Every author discloses all relevant interests. The corresponding author compiles one competing interests statement for the whole manuscript.
  • If there are no competing interests, the statement must say so.
  • A separate funding statement names the sources of support, the funding organizations, and the grant or contract numbers. It also states whether the funder had any role in the design of the activity, the collection and analysis of the data, or the preparation of the manuscript.
  • The funding statement does not replace the competing interests statement. Both statements are required.

Where to place the statements. The article template does not have separate sections for these statements. Place both statements in the Acknowledgments section, as its final paragraphs. If you have nothing else to acknowledge, still include the Acknowledgments section for the two statements.

Statement Example
No competing interests The authors declare no competing interests.
A declared interest Author A is employed by [name of the organization], which supplied the [name of the product] that was used in the activity. The other authors declare no competing interests.
Funding This activity was funded by [name of the funder] under grant number [number]. The funder had no role in the design of the activity, in the collection and analysis of the data, or in the preparation of the manuscript.

4. Duties of Editors and Reviewers

Role Duty
Editors Disclose relevant interests before accepting an assignment, and report any later interest promptly. An editor whose impartiality may be compromised must not decide on that manuscript. A manuscript that is submitted by an editor or by a member of the Editorial Board is handled by an editor who is not involved in it, and the author who is an editor takes no part in the evaluation or in the decision.
Reviewers Disclose relevant interests before accepting an invitation, and report any later interest promptly. A reviewer who has a disqualifying conflict must decline or withdraw. Examples are a close personal or supervisory relationship with an author, a recent collaboration, work at the same institution as an author, or a competing interest in the subject. See the Peer Review Process.
Safeguards When an editor or a reviewer declares a conflict, an editor who is not affected decides whether safeguards are sufficient or whether the work should be assigned to someone else.

5. Assessment and Late Disclosure

Matter How it is handled
Assessment Each declared interest is assessed for its relevance and its possible effect on the work.
Possible outcomes Publishing the disclosure with the article, asking for an independent assessment, or replacing the editor or the reviewer who is involved
Missing or late disclosure Declarations that are missing, incomplete, inaccurate, or late are considered in context. Material concerns are handled under the Publication Ethics, Allegations of Misconduct, and Correction and Retraction policies.

6. Scope

This policy covers interests that are connected with research and its assessment. Commercial considerations, including author fees, do not influence editorial decisions. Author fees and the ownership and management of the journal are explained on the Author Fees and Ownership and Management Information pages.

7. Related Pages

Topic Page
Ethical standards Publication Ethics
Review of manuscripts Peer Review Process
Authors and their contributions Authorship and Contributorship
Suspected misconduct Allegations of Misconduct
Corrections and retractions Correction and Retraction
Charges and ownership Author Fees and Ownership and Management Information
Where the statements belong in the manuscript Manuscript Preparation and Author Guidelines

Questions about this Policy

Questions about this policy, or about how to disclose a specific interest, can be sent to the editorial office at jurnal.abdisoshum@gmail.com. More contact details are available on the Journal Contact page.