Conflict of Interest (COI) Policy

Purpose and scope

APALM is committed to transparent, unbiased scholarship. All contributors—authors, editors, and peer reviewers—must disclose any relationships or activities that could be perceived to influence the submitted work. APALM follows the ICMJE Recommendations and uses the ICMJE Uniform Disclosure Form to standardize disclosures.

What must be declared

Disclose financial (e.g., employment, consultancies, stock/equity, honoraria, patents, paid expert testimony, grants) and non-financial interests (e.g., personal, academic, ideological, or professional rivalries/alliances) from the past 36 months and any relationship reasonably relevant to the work. Authors must also disclose the role of funders (design; data collection/analysis; decision to publish; manuscript preparation). Guidance is adapted from ICMJE/COPE best practice linked here. 

Who, when, and how

  • Authors: Submit a completed ICMJE COI form at initial submission and update it at revision and acceptance if anything changes. A COI statement and a Funding statement will appear in the published article. You can download the form from this link. 

  • Editors: Handling editors must declare relevant COIs to the Editor-in-Chief (EiC). Where a COI exists, the EiC reassigns the manuscript to an independent editor and prohibits access to editorial decisions/files.

  • Reviewers: Reviewers must decline or disclose any COI before accepting an invitation (e.g., recent collaboration, institutional overlap, financial ties) so the editor can reassign or proceed with transparency.

Management and transparency

The journal will: (i) publish COI and Funding statements with the article; (ii) record editorial/peer-review COIs in the workflow; (iii) correct the record (erratum, expression of concern, or retraction) for undisclosed COIs that undermine the integrity of the work. 

Required statements (paste into manuscript)

  • Conflict of Interest: “All authors have completed the ICMJE Disclosure of Interest form. [Name] reports [relationships/activities/interests]; all other authors declare no competing interests.”

  • Funding: “This work was supported by [funder, grant number]. The funder had [no role / role in …].”

Form: ICMJE Uniform Disclosure Form (link on journal site). ICMJE