Conflict of Interest Policy

The management of conflicts of interest in the Critical Patient Journal (RDC) is carried out in accordance with the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), constituting an essential element for maintaining trust in the editorial process and in the credibility of the published research.

All participants in the editorial process of the Journal must declare, in a transparent and timely manner, any real, potential or perceived conflicts of interest, likely to compromise, or appear to compromise, the impartiality, objectivity, independence or integrity of their decisions, evaluations or interpretations.

Conflicts of interest are considered to be any relationships or circumstances of a financial, professional, institutional, academic, personal, family, political, ideological or other nature that may compromise, or be reasonably perceived as compromising, the scientific judgment, impartiality or independence of those involved in the editorial process.

 

⮚      Authors

Only authors who present a potential conflict of interest should attach to the submission the respective Individual Declaration of Conflicts of Interest, duly completed and signed, using the model recommended by the ICMJE.

Authors should identify all sources of funding for the study and describe the possible role of the funder in the study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation of results, writing of the manuscript and decision to submit for publication.

The authors' conflict of interest statement will be published along with the article, allowing readers to know any relationships that may influence the interpretation of the results.

The absence of conflicts of interest must also be expressly stated at the time of submission of the manuscript.

 

⮚      Reviewers

Reviewers should decline the invitation to review the manuscript whenever:

●        There is a conflict of interest, actual, potential or perceived;

●        Maintain or have maintained recent scientific, professional or personal collaboration with any of the authors that may compromise the impartiality of the review;

●        Do not have the appropriate technical-scientific competence to evaluate the manuscript.

Whenever a potential conflict of interest is identified after the review has been accepted, the reviewer must immediately communicate this situation to the Editorial Team and refrain from proceeding with the evaluation process.

 

⮚      Editors

Editors must refrain from participating in any editorial decision regarding manuscripts in which they have direct or indirect interests, personal or professional relationships, or any other circumstance that may compromise their independence and impartiality.

In these cases, the editorial process will be entirely conducted by another independent member of the Editorial Team, ensuring the fairness, transparency and integrity of the final decision.

If undeclared conflicts of interest are identified after publication, the Journal may publish a correction, an expression of concern or retract the article, whenever this is necessary to safeguard the integrity of the scientific record.