The Research Journal of Pharmacy and Technology (RJPT) focuses on preventing conflicts of interest by addressing their root causes. Conflict of interest arises when personal or financial interests interfere with professional duties, leading to biased research and decision-making. These conflicts can seriously harm institutions by reducing their efficiency, trust, and overall effectiveness. By eliminating the root causes of conflict of interest, RJPT aims to promote transparency, fairness, and ethical standards.
This method helps to ensure the success and growth of institutions involved in Pharmacy and Technology, promoting a reliable and trustworthy scientific community. RJPT strives to avoid hiding anything from the general public and believes that all information should be known and mentioned in manuscripts. RJPT ensures that it does not reject study papers simply because they have some conflict of interest, although such conflicts will be disclosed in the published manuscript.
At RJPT, all authors are required to identify potential conflicts of interest and determine how these interests interfere with secondary interests that may affect the institution's and journal's reliability. Therefore, it is mandatory for authors to specifically mention conflicts of interest likely to affect the institution's trust. If, after assessing the manuscript, the author finds no competing interests, this should also be stated in the manuscript with a declaration that no competing interests were found in the study.
Conflicts of interest are often associated with financial matters, but they can also occur in personal, professional, and non-financial matters, including relationships with institutions or individuals. As mentioned earlier, if the author finds no possible competing interests (related to personal, professional, and non-financial matters) after assessing the manuscript, it becomes the author's responsibility to explicitly state: "After successful assessment of the manuscript, the author found no conflict of interest and declares that this manuscript/research is free from all possible conflicts of interest." This statement should be included in the manuscript before the acknowledgments section.
However, if the author identifies any conflict of interest, it is the author's duty to state and explain the type of conflict of interest. This information should be made available to the editor during submission or upon request.
It is compulsory for the author to provide the following four types of information:
- Author and institution's relationship with commercial bodies that provided assistance for the work mentioned in the manuscript.
- Author's relationship with other commercial bodies and institutions that may have an interest in the field on which the manuscript is based.
- Complete information related to financial tie-ups involving relatives (spouse, children), if any.
- All non-financial matters that have interrelation with the submitted manuscript.
Editors, Reviewers & Journal Manager
Conflict of interest arises when there is interference between the editor's objective decision-making and the reviewer's peer review. These conflicts may be financial, personal, or related to relationships with other organizations. If the editor or reviewer encounters a conflict of interest, they must describe it fully in the manuscript before publication. If they feel the need to replace themselves with someone without a relation to the subjects mentioned in the manuscript, they should do so. Otherwise, they should specifically describe their roles in the manuscript's review process.
Sometimes, it is essential to hire a reviewer from other fields to review manuscripts related to smaller fields of science or subdivisions of larger domains to avoid bias and maintain manuscript integrity. Additionally, the editor has the option of conducting an objective review of the manuscripts.
It is recommended that all authors of a particular manuscript address all possible competing interest statements to the corresponding author so that these can be included in the manuscript before publication.