All authors are required to complete and submit to the journal the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest Form. This interactive form will help each author to determine in a particulate manner if there is a conflict of interest.

Each article should have a section with the declaration of conflict of interest of the authors and the main author of the paper is responsible for making the declaration and ensuring that all co-authors have reviewed and approved it.

A conflict of interest exists when:

• A participant in the writing, review, and publication process (author, reviewer, or editor) has ties to activities that may influence his or her judgment inappropriately, regardless of whether or not that judgment was affected. The most common conflict of interest lies in financial relationships, personal relationships, academic rivalry, or intellectual passion.
• Peers acting as external reviewers should disclose to the editors any conflict of interest that might bias their opinions of the manuscript and should excuse themselves from reviewing the manuscript if they deem it appropriate
• Editors will be informed of reviewers' conflicts of interest so that they can interpret their reports and judge for themselves whether they should disqualify them
• Reviewers should not use their reading of the paper to further their own interests before the manuscript is published.
• When authors submit a manuscript for publication, they have the responsibility to acknowledge and declare their financial connections and any other conflicts of interest that might bias their work
• Editors making final decisions on manuscripts may not have any financial or personal commitments to any of the authors and papers they will judge
• Editors who participate in final decisions on manuscripts should provide a current description of their own financial interests (which may affect their editorial judgments) and disclose any decisions in which they may have a conflict of interest.