Conflict of Interest Policy
Introduction
Journal of Azzaytuna University (JAZU) is committed to transparency and integrity regarding any financial, personal, professional, or academic relationships or interests that may influence, or may reasonably be perceived to influence, the integrity of research, peer review, or editorial decision-making.
This policy aims to safeguard the independence and objectivity of scientific and editorial decisions and to maintain the confidence of authors, reviewers, editors, and readers in the integrity of the publication process.
Authors
All authors are required to disclose clearly any relationships or interests that may influence the objectivity of the research, the interpretation of its results, or the publication process.
Disclosure of any direct or indirect funding related to the research.
Disclosure of relevant financial relationships or interests.
Disclosure of relevant employment, consultancy, or professional relationships.
Disclosure of patents or patent applications related to the research.
Disclosure of commercial interests that may be related to the research findings.
Disclosure of personal or academic relationships that may affect objectivity.
Reviewers
Reviewers must disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest before accepting an invitation to review a manuscript. A reviewer should decline the review if a conflict of interest could affect, or could reasonably be perceived to affect, their impartiality or objectivity.
The journal seeks to ensure that peer review is conducted independently and objectively, without personal, financial, professional, or academic interests that could influence the evaluation.
Editors and Editorial Board
Editors and members of the editorial board must disclose any conflict of interest relating to manuscripts under their consideration.
An editor must recuse themselves from making an editorial decision if they have a direct relationship with the manuscript or any of its authors, or if they have any interest that could compromise the independence of the decision. In such cases, the manuscript should be assigned to another qualified editor.
Types of Conflicts of Interest
A conflict of interest may be financial, personal, professional, or academic. It may be actual, potential, or reasonably perceived as capable of influencing the integrity or objectivity of the research or publication process.
Financial interests or relationships related to the research.
Personal relationships that may affect impartiality.
Employment, consultancy, or professional relationships.
Academic relationships or competition that may affect evaluation.
Transparency and Disclosure
The journal is committed to providing clear information regarding conflicts of interest associated with published articles. Where a conflict of interest exists, the article should include a statement describing its nature.
If no conflict of interest exists, this should be stated clearly in the published article.
Principle of Research Integrity
The Journal of Azzaytuna University emphasizes that disclosure of a conflict of interest does not necessarily constitute misconduct. Rather, disclosure is an essential measure of transparency that enables authors, editors, reviewers, and readers to assess factors that may influence the research or the decision-making process.
The Editorial Board reserves the right to take appropriate action where a significant conflict of interest has not been disclosed or where such a conflict is found to have compromised the integrity of the research, peer review, or editorial decision-making process.
