To ensure transparency and eliminate any potential bias, TEPIAN requires authors to declare any financial and/or non-financial competing interests related to their submitted work. The corresponding author is responsible for submitting a statement on behalf of all co-authors.

Competing interests may include any financial or non-financial interests that could interfere with, or be perceived to undermine, the objectivity, integrity, and value of a publication. This includes potential influences on the judgment, data presentation, analysis, and interpretation of the research.

Financial Competing Interests

These may include:

• Funding: Any monetary support for the research (e.g., salaries, equipment, materials, or other expenses) from organizations that could be financially impacted by the publication. Authors must disclose the specific role of the funder in the research process, such as in the study design, data collection, analysis, decision to publish, or manuscript preparation.
• Employment: Any current or anticipated employment by organizations that may financially benefit or be harmed by the publication.
• Personal Financial Interests: Authors must disclose any shares, consultation fees, reimbursements, or patents related to organizations that could gain or lose financially due to the publication. Information on the status of patent applications and any potential influence from the manuscript on those applications should also be disclosed.

However, TEPIAN does not require authors to disclose the amount of funding support in the manuscript.

Non-financial Competing Interests

This includes any unpaid personal or professional relationships with organizations or individuals involved in the research. This could include memberships, advisory positions, or consulting services.

Application to Authors

Authors must declare and specify the presence or absence of competing interests at the end of their article. Since TEPIAN follows a single-blind peer review process, the competing interests statement should be worded in a way that does not reveal the identities of the authors to the reviewers. The details of the competing interests must also be included in the cover letter.

The competing interest statement in the published article may be one of the following:

• "The authors declare the following competing interests: …….."
• "The authors declare no competing interests."
• "The authors declare that they have unavoidable confidentiality agreements that prevent them from disclosing their competing interests in this work."

Reviewers' Competing Interests

TEPIAN asks reviewers to exclude themselves if they have a significant conflict of interest, whether financial or otherwise. Financial interests do not automatically disqualify someone from evaluating an article, but reviewers must inform the handling editor if they have any competing interests that could be perceived as relevant. Editors will take this into account when deciding whether to assign the manuscript to the reviewer and while considering their feedback.

Editors' Competing Interests

All editorial board members and guest editors at TEPIAN are required to declare any financial or non-financial competing interests. This includes prior publications with any of the authors or shared affiliations. Editors must recuse themselves from handling manuscripts where a conflict of interest exists. If an editor is a co-author of a submitted manuscript, this must be disclosed, and the peer review process for their manuscript will be overseen by other editors.

Editorial staff must also declare any competing interests that could influence their editorial practices. Failure to do so is considered a disciplinary offense.

At TEPIAN, we uphold the independence of our journals and ensure that reviewer and editorial decisions are not compromised by commercial, financial interests, or any relationships with advertisers or sponsors. Any potential conflicts of interest will be disclosed to maintain transparency. [back to Publication Ethics]