Conflict of Interest

A conflict of interest is actual if there is a relationship, or apparent if there is a chance of a relationship. In either instance, journal Editors, Associate Editors, Editorial Board members, authors, and reviewers must declare any actual or apparent conflicts of interest so that appropriate mitigating action can be taken.

Editors

The journal has protocols in place to receive potential conflict-of-interest information from all Editors and Associate Editors on a regular basis; either annually or when they are appointed or re-appointed. Identification of editorial service with related or competitive publications, institutional ties, identification of frequent collaborators, and so on are examples of such information. Editors handle their personal conflicts of interest, as well as those of their Associate Editors, staff, authors, reviewers, and Editorial Board members, in consultation with the RMS journal. They keep track of all editorial staff and editorial board members' relevant interests (financial, scholarly, and other) (which is updated at least annually). Article submissions from Editors, Editorial Board members, or staff are processed in such a way that no information of the review process is available to the Editor or employee, other than anonymous evaluations and decisions.

Authors

Any personal interest or relationship that could be affected by the publication of the submitted paper must be disclosed by the author. The funding sources must be mentioned in the manuscript. if any.  Any financial interest in corporate or commercial entities dealing with the subject matter of the essay must be disclosed by all authors. The corresponding author is responsible for informing the Editor of any actual or apparent conflict of interest at the time the manuscript is submitted on behalf of all authors. Such conflicts will be addressed in the published article's Acknowledgement section. If conflicts of interest are discovered after publication, authors must offer amendments.

Reviewers

A reviewer is responsible for providing an unbiased assessment of a manuscript's scientific merit. Any event or relationship that could influence or be interpreted as influencing this assessment must be reported to the Editor. Personal links to the authors, parallel competitive research on the same issue as the article, or professional or financial ties to an entity with an interest in the issue under evaluation are all examples of these. When a real or perceived conflict of interest is revealed, the Editor has the final say on whether or not to use a review that was submitted or requested.