Conflict of Interest Policy

The Academic Science Journal (ASJ) is committed to maintaining transparency, objectivity, fairness, and integrity in all stages of the publication process. All authors, reviewers, editors, and editorial board members must disclose any actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest that could influence, or appear to influence, the submission, review, editorial decision, or publication of a manuscript.

A conflict of interest may be financial, personal, academic, institutional, professional, political, or any other relationship or circumstance that may affect impartial judgment.

Conflicts of Interest for Authors

Authors must disclose any conflict of interest that may be relevant to the submitted manuscript. Such conflicts may include, but are not limited to:

Financial support, grants, sponsorships, or funding related to the research.
Employment, consultancy, advisory roles, or paid expert testimony.
Ownership of stocks, shares, patents, or intellectual property rights.
Personal or professional relationships that may influence the work.
Academic competition or collaboration that may affect objectivity.
Institutional affiliations or obligations that may influence the research or interpretation of results.

All sources of financial and non-financial support must be clearly disclosed in the manuscript. If there is no conflict of interest, authors should include the following statement:

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Conflicts of Interest for Reviewers

Reviewers must decline a review invitation if they have any conflict of interest that could affect their ability to provide an objective and unbiased review.

Reviewers should declare a conflict of interest if they:

Have a recent or current collaboration with any of the authors.
Work at the same institution as any of the authors.
Have a personal, academic, financial, or professional relationship with any of the authors.
Have direct competition with the authors or their research group.
Have prior knowledge of the manuscript that may compromise the double-blind review process.
Feel unable to provide a fair and impartial evaluation.

If a conflict of interest becomes apparent after accepting the review, the reviewer must immediately inform the editor and withdraw from the review process where appropriate.

Conflicts of Interest for Editors

Editors and editorial board members must handle manuscripts fairly, objectively, and independently. Editors must recuse themselves from handling any manuscript where a conflict of interest exists.

An editor should not handle a manuscript if the editor:

Has a personal, academic, financial, or professional relationship with the authors.
Has collaborated recently with the authors.
Works at the same institution as the authors.
Has a direct academic or professional competition with the authors.
Has any interest that may influence, or appear to influence, the editorial decision.

In such cases, the manuscript should be assigned to another qualified editor or editorial board member with no conflict of interest.

Funding Disclosure

Authors must disclose all sources of funding that supported the research, including grants, institutional support, commercial funding, or any other financial assistance.

If no funding was received, authors should include the following statement:

This research received no external funding.

Funding sources must not influence the study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, writing of the manuscript, peer review, or editorial decision.

Editorial Independence

Editorial decisions at ASJ are based on the scientific merit, originality, methodological quality, ethical compliance, relevance to the journal’s scope, and reviewers’ recommendations. Decisions must not be influenced by financial interests, personal relationships, institutional pressure, political considerations, or any other non-scientific factor.

Failure to Disclose Conflicts of Interest

Failure to disclose a relevant conflict of interest may be considered a breach of publication ethics. If an undisclosed conflict of interest is identified before publication, the journal may request clarification, require revision of the disclosure statement, suspend review, or reject the manuscript.

If an undisclosed conflict of interest is discovered after publication, ASJ may issue a correction, expression of concern, or retraction, depending on the seriousness of the case and its effect on the integrity of the published work.

Responsibility for Disclosure

All authors, reviewers, editors, and editorial board members are responsible for declaring any actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest as early as possible.

By submitting, reviewing, or handling a manuscript for ASJ, all parties confirm that they will comply with this Conflict of Interest Policy.