Conflict of Interest and Competing Interests Policy

The International Journal of Research and Community Empowerment (IJoRCE) is committed to ensuring transparency, objectivity, and integrity in its research, peer-review, editorial, and publication processes. Authors, Peer Reviewers, Editors, and Editorial Staff must disclose and appropriately manage any actual, potential, or perceived Conflict of Interest (COI) or Competing Interest that could influence, or reasonably be perceived to influence, the research, review, editorial decision, or publication process.

Authors

All authors must disclose any relevant financial, personal, professional, institutional, academic, commercial, or other substantive competing interests related to the submitted work.

Every manuscript must include a Declaration of Competing Interest, whether or not a conflict of interest exists. If no competing interest exists, authors must explicitly state that no known competing interest exists. If a competing interest exists, the authors must provide a clear and appropriate disclosure in the manuscript.

Authors are also required to confirm the disclosure of all relevant financial and non-financial competing interests, including funding sources, through the signed Statement of Manuscript Authenticity submitted together with the manuscript.

Peer Reviewers

Peer Reviewers must disclose any actual, potential, or perceived competing interest that may affect their objectivity or independence.

Reviewers with a relevant competing interest should decline the review assignment. If a potential conflict becomes apparent after accepting the assignment, the reviewer must immediately inform the Editor so that appropriate action can be taken.

Editors and Editorial Staff

Editors and Editorial Staff must disclose any competing interest related to manuscripts under consideration and must not participate in the evaluation, reviewer selection, editorial discussion, or decision-making process when such a conflict may affect, or reasonably appear to affect, their impartiality.

When an Editor has a relevant competing interest, the manuscript must be assigned to another qualified Editor who is free from such conflict.

Management of Competing Interests

The existence of a competing interest does not necessarily prevent manuscript submission, peer review, or publication; however, relevant interests must be transparently disclosed and appropriately managed.

Undisclosed competing interests identified before or after publication may be investigated by the IJoRCE Editorial Team. Depending on the circumstances, appropriate actions may include requesting additional disclosure, replacing a reviewer or editor, issuing a correction or other post-publication notice, or taking further editorial action in accordance with the IJoRCE Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement.

Detailed responsibilities and procedures concerning competing interests are provided in the IJoRCE Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement. Author disclosure requirements are also specified in the official IJoRCE Manuscript Template 2026 and Statement of Manuscript Authenticity.