Conflicts of Interest & Funding Disclosure Policy

The Health and Research Journal is committed to transparency and research integrity. All authors must disclose any relationships or interests that could be perceived to influence the work.

Conflicts of Interest (COI)

A conflict of interest exists when an author’s (or their institution’s) financial, professional, or personal relationships could inappropriately influence—or be perceived to influence—the conduct, interpretation, or reporting of research.

Authors must disclose, where applicable, including but not limited to:

• employment, consultancies, honoraria, paid expert testimony, or advisory roles

• stock ownership or options

• patents (planned, pending, or issued) and royalties

• grants or other financial support

• personal relationships or academic competition that could be relevant

• any other circumstances that could be perceived as a conflict

If no conflicts exist, authors must explicitly state: “The authors declare no conflicts of interest.”

Funding

Authors must disclose all sources of funding and support (financial or material), including grant numbers where applicable. The role of the funder(s) in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, and the decision to publish must be stated.

If there was no external funding, authors must explicitly state: “This research received no external funding.”

Editorial and reviewer conflicts

Editors and reviewers are expected to declare potential conflicts of interest and to decline involvement when a conflict may compromise impartiality.

Publication of disclosures

Conflict of interest and funding statements may be published with the article to ensure transparency for readers.

The journal encourages authors to follow ICMJE disclosure recommendations and to provide disclosures for all authors.

COI and funding statements must be included in the manuscript (or entered in the submission metadata) at the time of submission.