Conflicts of Interest

Conflicts of Interest

The Philippine Journal of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery follows the “Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals” of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (www.icmje.org), and is listed as such: https://www.icmje.org/journals-following-the-icmje-recommendations/ - P

Its academic editors are committed to fair and professional dealing in all aspects of our publishing operations. Their affiliations are listed on this website, and they additionally disclose other potential conflicts of interest when needed. Our role is to publish original work of value to the intellectual community in the best possible form and to the highest possible standards. We expect similar standards from our reviewers and authors. Honesty, originality and fair dealing on the part of authors, and fairness, objectivity and confidentiality on the part of editors and reviewers are among the critical values that enable us to achieve our aim. 

The PJOHNS endorses and behaves in accordance with the codes of conduct and international standards established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA), and World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) in their joint statement on the Principles of Transparency & Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing, available at https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.1.12.

Conflict of interest has been defined as a set of conditions in which professional judgment concerning a primary interest (such as validity of research) can be influenced by a secondary interest (such as financial gain). Conflict of interest (COI) exists when there is a divergence between an individual’s private interests (competing interests) and his or her responsibilities to scientific and publishing activities such that a reasonable observer might wonder if the individual’s behavior or judgment was motivated by considerations of his or her competing interests. COI in medical publishing affects everyone with a stake in research integrity including journals, research/academic institutions, funding agencies, the popular media, and the public. The Philipp J Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg is interested in COI as it relates to specific manuscripts.

Everyone has COIs of some sort. Having a competing interest does not, in itself, imply wrongdoing. However, it constitutes a problem when competing interests could unduly influence (or be reasonably seen to influence) one’s responsibilities in the publication process. If COI is not managed effectively, it can cause authors, reviewers, and editors to make decisions that, consciously or unconsciously, tend to serve their competing interests at the expense of their responsibilities in the publication process, thereby distorting the scientific enterprise. This consequence of COI is especially dangerous when it is not immediately apparent to others. In addition, the appearance of COI, even where none actually exists, can also erode trust in a journal by damaging its reputation and credibility.

AUTHORS

To prevent information on potential conflict of interest for authors from being overlooked or misplaced, it is necessary for that information to be part of the manuscript. Each author is expected to disclose any type of financial or proprietary interest related to the manuscript, including (but not limited to) stock in or ownership of an entity connected to a product described in the paper, consultancy for the company or competing companies, honoraria, travel support or patent rights to a drug, instrument or equipment, or benefits derived from the use thereof. Conflict of Interest also includes “intellectual passion,” (the tendency to favor positions that one has already espoused or perhaps even established); personal relationships (the tendency to judge the works of friends/colleagues or competitors/foes differently because of the relationship); political or religious beliefs (the tendency to favor or reject positions because it affirms or challenges one’s political or religious beliefs); and institutional affiliations (the tendency to favor or reject results of research because of one’s institutional affiliations). Where no conflict of interest exists, a written statement should be made to that effect.

REVIEWERS

Reviewers should preview a manuscript that they have been asked to review to see if they have conflicts of interest that could complicate their review. Reviewers must disclose to editors any conflicts of interest that could bias their opinions of the manuscript and should recuse themselves from reviewing specific manuscripts if the potential for bias exists. Reviewers are guided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) ethical guidelines for peer reviewers, available from: https://publicationethics.org/node/19886. Reviewers must maintain confidentiality about manuscripts and should not use data from such manuscripts or share such data with colleagues before they are published. Reviewers must not use knowledge of the work they are reviewing before its publication to further their own interests. Reviewers must not reproduce the manuscript for any purpose or use the peer review process as a means to further their own research aims, by requiring authors to respond to questions that are of interest to the reviewer but are not questions the study was designed to answer. Reviewers should refrain from suggesting their own published work be referenced.

EDITORS

Editors and Associate Editors who make final decisions about manuscripts should recuse themselves from editorial decisions if they have conflicts of interest or relationships that pose potential conflicts related to articles under consideration. Editorial team members who participate in editorial decisions must provide a current description of their financial interests or other conflicts (as they might relate to editorial judgments) and recluse themselves from any decisions in which a potential conflict of interest exists. Editors should publish disclosure statements about potential conflicts of interest related to any manuscript handled. Guest editors should follow these same procedures.