Conflicts of Interest Statement
For Authors:
(1) All original research papers that are submitted to the International Journal of Teaching and Learning must be accompanied by a conflict of interest disclosure statement or a declaration by the authors that they do not have any conflicts of interest to declare.
(2) All articles that are published in the journal must be accompanied by this conflict of interest disclosure statement or a statement that the authors have replied that they have no conflicts of interest to declare. If a journal prints unsigned editorials, they should not have been written by anyone with a conflict of interest.
To facilitate this policy, all authors must privately disclose ‘All their potential conflicts of interest’ to the editors of the journal at the time of submission. These include all financial and non-financial interests and relationships (see definitions provided a little later in the text), direct employment with a private sector entity (whether full or part-time), and service on private sector and non-profit Boards and advisory panels, whether paid or unpaid.
(3) Authors should also disclose any conflict of interest that may have influenced either the conduct or the presentation of the research to the editors, including but not limited to close relationships with those who might be helped or hurt by the publication, academic interests and rivalries, and any personal, religious or political convictions relevant to the topic at hand.
(4) In the article, the authors must include a draft statement that discloses all relevant conflicts of interest and affiliations.
The relevance of financial conflicts of interest with private firms is defined as a relationship of any value with a firm that has a stake in the subject of the manuscript or its competitors.
Relevance for patents is defined as any invention or pending invention connected in any way to the subject. As relevance is often in the eye of the beholder, one must err on the side of full disclosure when drafting the disclosure statement. Editors will check a draft against the private financial disclosure statement and initiate discussions toward possible adjustments, if necessary.
What to report: Any financial relationship from the past three years (dating from the month of submission) of any size, should be disclosed. These potential conflicts of interest include:
- * Direct Employment- Either full-time or part-time
- * Grants and research funding (but not grants to your institution or others within your institution, on which you have not worked). These include substantial grants from trade associations and non-profit (50% or more) or funded by private sector firms
- * Consultancies
- * Travel grants, speaking fees, writing fees and other honoraria.
- * Paid expert testimony for one side in adversarial proceeding (this does not include testimony as a factual witness in a civil or criminal case)
- * Patents granted and pending applications, irrespective of whether they are generating royalties or not.
- * Stock ownership and investment in the related ‘sector’ funds or stock options, including those of immediate family members, but excluding diversified mutual funds and investment trusts Membership of private sector, scientific or other advisory Boards, whether paid or unpaid
In addition, any current negotiations regarding future employment or current job offers, either full- or part-time, must be disclosed.
In disclosing these financial arrangements to the editors, the authors can include dollar amounts, albeit they will not be printed in the journal. Editors may choose to exclude this information from the publication, but in no case should an editor or author consider an arrangement irrelevant based on its size alone.
Non-Financial Conflicts of Interest:
Authors may have strong views about the article being submitted for publication.
The authors must consider disclosing these views and the editors may choose to print any affiliations or expressions from these views that may be relevant. These may be personal, political or intellectual, and may include any expression of strongly held views relevant to the subject of submission.
Such disclosures may be original or they may be references to opinions previously expressed in books or monographs, opposite editorials (op-eds) or public comments, or to some prior sworn testimony or lobbying of legislators or legislative bodies. Disclosable non-financial conflicts of interest will also include membership or affiliation to non-governmental organizations that have an interest in the submission.
How do I Make a Declaration?
If you are submitting your article for publishing in the International Journal of Teaching and Learning that requires you to make a ‘Declaration of Conflicting Interests’, at the end of your manuscript, following any acknowledgments and prior to the references, under the heading ‘Conflict of Interest Statement’.
If no declaration is made, the following will be printed under this heading in your article: ‘None Declared’. Alternatively, you may wish to state that ‘The author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest’.
