Research and Publications

Conflicts of Interest, Data Availability & Funding

Each article must contain the following statements, placed before the references:

  • Conflict of interest. Authors declare any financial or personal relationships that could be seen to influence the work, or state that there are none.
  • Funding. The sources of funding, the grant numbers and the role of the funder, or a statement that the research received no external funding.
  • Data availability. Where the data supporting the findings can be found (repository and identifier), or the reason why they cannot be shared.
  • Ethics. Ethical approval and informed consent for studies involving people or animals.
  • Author contributions (recommended).

Editors and reviewers also declare conflicts of interest. A conflict of interest does not by itself lead to rejection, but undisclosed conflicts are treated as a breach of publication ethics.