Conflicts of Interest policy

Last Updated: August 2026

DScholar Press International is committed to maintaining absolute transparency, objectivity, and scientific integrity across all published works. Financial, personal, or professional relationships that inappropriately influence or bias the design, evaluation, or reporting of research can compromise scholarly trust. This policy outlines the disclosure obligations and management protocols for Conflict of Interest (COI) applicable to authors, peer reviewers, and editors across our manuscript management platform.

1. Author Disclosure Requirements

All submitting authors must explicitly declare any potential conflicts of interest during initial portal submission. If no conflicts exist, an explicit statement must be included in the manuscript:

  • Financial Relationships: Grants, research funding, employment, consultancies, honoraria, patent applications/registrations, stock ownership, or paid expert testimony within 36 months of submission.
  • Non-Financial Relationships: Personal, academic, political, or professional affiliations, board memberships, or institutional rivalries that may influence findings or interpretation.
  • Mandatory Statement: Every published work must contain a dedicated "Competing Interests" section disclosing funding sources and potential conflicts, or stating: "The authors declare no competing interests regarding the publication of this work."

2. Peer Reviewer Responsibilities & Recusal

Peer reviewers play a critical role in preserving academic objectivity and must evaluate invited manuscripts without personal or financial bias:

  • Immediate Recusal: Invited reviewers must decline evaluation invitations via the portal if they have co-authored works, held joint grants, or maintained close professional ties with any manuscript author within the past 3 years.
  • Institutional Conflicts: Reviewers must recuse themselves if the manuscript originates from their own institution, department, or a direct commercial competitor.
  • Confidential Pre-Publication Use: Reviewers are strictly prohibited from using unpublished information or data from assigned manuscripts for personal or commercial gain.

Editor Rules & Portal Recusal Protocols:

  • Editorial Submissions: If a Press Editor (PE) or Volume/Series Editor (MS) submits a manuscript to the press, another independent editor is assigned via the portal to oversee review, ensuring total editorial isolation.
  • Management Isolation: Submitting editors have no portal permissions or visibility regarding reviewer identities, evaluation comments, or decision logs for their own submissions.

3. Undisclosed Conflicts & Corrective Action

When undisclosed conflicts of interest are identified post-submission or post-publication:

  • Investigation: The editorial office investigates undisclosed conflicts following standard COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) guidelines.
  • Post-Publication Amendments: If an undisclosed COI is verified post-release, an official Correction / Corrigendum notice will be appended to the published work and metadata indexing platforms.
  • Severe Non-Disclosure: Failure to disclose significant competing interests that alter the validity of research outcomes may result in formal manuscript retraction and notification of the author's home institution.

4. Editorial Office & Support Contact

For inquiries or confidential disclosures regarding potential conflicts of interest, contact our editorial oversight team:

DScholar Press International
An imprint of DScholar Research Consultancy and Analytics (OPC) Private Limited
Address: 5337, Sonamoni Sipai Para, Ranirbazar, Agartala, West Tripura, Tripura 799035, India
Email: publisher@dscholarpress.com / md@dscholarpress.com
Phone: +91-7209227555