Author Disclosure & Conflict of Interest

All manuscript authors must state explicitly whether potential conflicts do or do not exist (e.g. personal or financial). Potential conflicts of interest (including sources of funding) will be summarised in a separate section of the published article. All authors have to disclose whether they have received any writing assistance as well identify the source(s) of funding for writing assistance. Authors declaring no conflict of interest are required to publish this as a written statement within the separate section in the article.

All manuscript authors must certify that all their affiliations with or financial involvement(s) with any organisation or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript have been disclosed. Exclusion is disclosed to for example financial involvements include employment, consultancies, honorarium, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending and royalties. Details of relevant conflicts of interests (or the lack of) must be declared in the ‘Disclosure’ section of the manuscript for all listed authors.

External peer-reviewers must disclose any conflicts of interest that could influence and bias their opinions of the manuscript, and potential peer-reviewers should disqualify themselves from the peer-reviewing process for certain manuscripts if the invited peer-reviewer believes it that it is appropriate to be disqualified as peer-reviewer. Should any conflict of interest be declared by the invited peer-reviewer, the journal editor will judge whether the reviewer’s comments should be recognised and accepted. By acceptance, the invited reviewer will be disqualified and acknowledge by the editor for his sincerity.