Official publication of Rawalpindi Medical University

Conflict of Interest Policy

Conflict of Interest Policy

The conflict of interest and bias potentially occurs when professional judgment concerning a primary interest (e.g.:-the validity of research) may be influenced by a secondary interest (e.g.:- financial gain).

To overcome these conflicts JRMC follows the following guidelines:-

  • All participants in the peer-review and publication process must consider and disclose their relationships and activities when fulfilling their roles in the process of article review and publication.
  • When authors submit a manuscript of any type or format they are responsible for disclosing all relationship and activities that might bias or be seen to bias their work.
  • Reviewers at the time they are asked to critique a manuscript, are asked, if they have relationships or activities that could complicate their review. They are advised to recuse themselves from reviewing specific manuscripts if the potential for bias exists, by informing the editor.
  • Editors who make final decisions about manuscripts are also advised to recuse themselves from editorial decisions if they have relationships or activities that pose potential conflicts related articles under consideration. All editorial staff members who participate in editorial decisions are requires to provide the editors with a current description of their relationship and activities and are recused from any decisions in which an interest that poses a potential conflict exists. Editorial staff is prohibited to use any information for financial gain.
  • Articles are published with statements or supporting documents, such as

                    – Authors’ relationships and activities; and

                    – Sources of support for the work, including sponsor names along with explanations of the role of those sources if any in study design; collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; writing of the report; any restrictions regarding the submission of the report for publication; or a statement declaring that the supporting source had no such involvement or restrictions regarding publication;

                    – Whether the authors had access to the study data, with an explanation of the nature and extent of access, including whether access is ongoing.