Conflicts of Interest
Conflicts of Interest and Funding Transparency
Policy Statement
Neutrosophic Optimization and Intelligent Systems (NOIS), published by Sciences Force LLC, is committed to protecting the independence, impartiality, and integrity of scholarly research and publication.
The journal recognizes that financial, professional, institutional, academic, and personal relationships may influence, or reasonably appear to influence, the conduct, evaluation, interpretation, or publication of scientific work.
The existence of a competing interest does not necessarily imply improper conduct or invalidate research. However, relevant interests must be disclosed and appropriately managed so that authors, editors, reviewers, and readers can assess their potential influence.
This policy establishes the requirements for identifying, disclosing, evaluating, managing, and reporting conflicts of interest throughout the publication process.
It applies to all authors, reviewers, editors, guest editors, Editorial Board members, and publisher personnel who participate in editorial assessment or publication decisions.
The policy is consistent with the publisher's Conflicts of Interest and Funding Transparency framework and is informed by relevant guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
- Definition and Types of Conflicts of Interest
A conflict of interest, also referred to as a competing interest, exists when a financial or non-financial interest could reasonably influence, or be perceived as influencing, professional judgment or the independent conduct and reporting of research.
Conflicts may be actual, potential, or perceived. Disclosure is required when a reasonable person could consider the relationship relevant to the research or editorial process, even if the individual believes that the interest has not affected their judgment.
Financial Interests
Financial competing interests may include:
- Employment, consultancy, or paid advisory relationships.
- Research grants, sponsorship, or other financial support.
- Honoraria, speaking fees, paid expert testimony, or travel support.
- Ownership of shares, stock options, or other financial interests.
- Patents, patent applications, licensing arrangements, or royalties.
- Commercial contracts involving research data, methods, software, or related technologies.
- Paid professional services that may affect the conduct or reporting of the research.
Non-Financial Interests
Non-financial competing interests may include:
- Personal or family relationships.
- Recent or ongoing research collaboration.
- Academic supervision or mentoring relationships.
- Employment or institutional relationships.
- Professional competition or substantial academic disputes.
- Membership of advisory committees or governing bodies.
- Editorial appointments or positions of influence.
- Strong intellectual commitments directly related to the research under evaluation.
- Other relationships that could reasonably compromise independent judgment.
Not every professional association constitutes a disqualifying conflict. The relevant consideration is whether the relationship could materially influence, or reasonably appear to influence, the research or its assessment.
- Period Covered by Disclosure
Authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose relevant current interests, relationships arising within the preceding three years, and known future commitments that could affect the submitted work.
The three-year period is a general reporting standard rather than an absolute limit.
Continuing financial holdings, patents, intellectual property rights, royalty arrangements, long-standing personal relationships, and other interests with a continuing potential influence must be disclosed even when they originated more than three years earlier.
Individuals should disclose relevant interests when uncertain rather than assume that a relationship is immaterial.
The responsible editor determines whether additional information or management measures are required.
- Responsibilities of Authors
All authors must provide accurate and complete declarations of competing interests at the time of manuscript submission.
The corresponding author is responsible for collecting relevant information from every co-author and ensuring that the submitted declaration reflects their individual circumstances.
Authors must not rely solely on the corresponding author's personal interests when completing the declaration.
Disclosures must be updated if a relevant relationship emerges or materially changes during peer review, revision, acceptance, or publication.
Authors must disclose interests relevant to the subject, methodology, interpretation, commercial applications, or potential consequences of the research.
For studies involving optimization software, artificial intelligence systems, proprietary algorithms, decision-support tools, commercial technologies, or potentially marketable mathematical methods, authors must disclose relevant intellectual property and commercial relationships.
A financial or institutional interest does not automatically disqualify a manuscript from consideration. The journal evaluates whether the interest has been disclosed adequately and whether reasonable safeguards can protect the independence and reliability of the work.
Authors remain responsible for the accuracy of the published Competing Interests Statement.
- Competing Interests Declaration
Every submitted manuscript must include a Competing Interests Statement.
Where no relevant competing interests exist, authors must provide an explicit declaration.
The standard wording is:
Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
Where relevant interests exist, the statement must identify the affected author or authors, describe the nature of each material relationship, and explain its connection to the research where necessary.
Disclosures should be written in clear language and provide sufficient information for readers to understand the relationship without exposing unnecessary personal or confidential information.
General statements such as "conflicts have been managed" are insufficient when a relevant competing interest should be identified.
Authors must not state that no competing interests exist when a material financial, professional, personal, or institutional relationship has been identified.
For double-anonymous review, information that could identify the authors must be submitted through the appropriate confidential editorial file or submission field. The finalized declaration must appear in the published version of the article.
- Funding and Sponsorship Disclosure
All manuscripts must include a Funding Statement.
Authors must identify financial or material support relevant to the research, including grants, sponsorships, institutional funding, equipment, computational infrastructure, datasets, software licenses, and other significant in-kind contributions.
Where available and applicable, the declaration should include funding organization names and grant identifiers.
Authors must explain the role of funders or sponsors in:
- Research design and methodology.
- Collection or acquisition of data.
- Data analysis and interpretation.
- Development of computational models or algorithms.
- Preparation or review of the manuscript.
- The decision to submit or publish the findings.
If a funder had no role in these activities, the Funding Statement should say so clearly.
Where no external funding was received, the statement should read:
Funding: This research received no external funding.
The absence of external funding does not remove the requirement to disclose relevant financial or non-financial competing interests.
Funding and Competing Interests Statements are separate disclosures and must accurately reflect the circumstances of the research.
- Research Independence and Sponsor Influence
Authors must retain the scientific independence necessary to conduct, analyze, interpret, and report their research accurately.
Agreements with sponsors, funding organizations, commercial partners, or other third parties must not improperly prevent researchers from accessing relevant evidence, reporting scientifically justified conclusions, or publishing findings that are unfavorable to a sponsor.
Any material restrictions on access to data, software, research materials, or publication rights must be disclosed.
Where confidentiality, intellectual property, privacy, or legal obligations legitimately restrict public access, authors should explain those restrictions and describe the available means of independent assessment where possible.
For research involving commercially developed methods or proprietary technologies, authors must disclose relevant contractual relationships and identify who controlled the research design, analysis, interpretation, and decision to submit.
The journal may request clarification or independent methodological assessment where sponsor involvement raises substantial questions about the reliability of reported findings.
Commercial sponsorship alone does not constitute evidence of scientific misconduct.
- Responsibilities of Editors
Editors must exercise independent scientific judgment and disclose interests that may affect their ability to evaluate a manuscript impartially.
Relevant conflicts include financial interests, personal relationships, close research collaborations, recent joint grants, direct academic competition, and institutional relationships with the authors.
An editor who has a material conflict of interest must not oversee the scientific assessment of the affected manuscript.
Such an editor must not select reviewers, influence their recommendations, participate in the acceptance decision, or exercise inappropriate access to confidential editorial information.
The manuscript must be reassigned to an appropriately qualified editor without a relevant conflict.
Editorial recusals and reassignment decisions must be documented in the journal's editorial management system.
Members of the Editorial Board and authorized publisher staff involved in editorial work must provide annual conflict-of-interest declarations and update them when material circumstances change.
Editors must not use their position to secure favorable treatment for their own work, the work of collaborators, or research originating from their institutions.
- Manuscripts Submitted by Editorial Team Members
NOIS permits submissions from members of its Editorial Team, provided that such submissions receive independent scientific assessment without preferential treatment.
A manuscript authored or co-authored by an editor must be managed by a qualified independent editor who has no relevant personal, financial, or professional conflict of interest.
The author-editor must not participate in reviewer selection, confidential deliberations, or decisions concerning the manuscript.
Where a submission involves the Editor-in-Chief, responsibility must be transferred to an independent senior editor who can manage the evaluation without interference from the conflicted individual.
Where no suitable independent editor is available within the journal, an appropriately qualified external editor may be appointed.
The manuscript must undergo the external peer-review process applicable to its article type, with the same scientific and ethical requirements used for comparable submissions.
Editorial membership does not provide a guarantee of acceptance or any exemption from research integrity requirements.
The journal must maintain an internal record identifying the independent editor and documenting the steps taken to manage the conflict.
- Responsibilities of Peer Reviewers
Reviewers must disclose relevant conflicts of interest before accepting an invitation to review a manuscript.
Potential conflicts include current employment at the same institution as an author, close personal relationships, recent collaboration, joint research funding, supervisory relationships, direct scientific competition, and material financial interests connected to the research.
Reviewers should ordinarily decline an assignment where they are currently employed at the same institution as an author or have had a close supervisory, collaborative, or joint-grant relationship with an author during the preceding three years.
Other circumstances may also require recusal when they compromise, or reasonably appear to compromise, the reviewer's independence.
Where a reviewer is uncertain whether a relationship constitutes a conflict, the reviewer must disclose the circumstances to the handling editor before accessing or evaluating the manuscript.
If a conflict becomes apparent during the review, the reviewer must notify the editor promptly and seek instructions before continuing.
Reviewers must not use unpublished manuscript information to gain a competitive, financial, or professional advantage.
They must not request inappropriate citations, seek confidential information for unrelated purposes, or use the review process to disadvantage professional competitors.
The handling editor is responsible for determining whether an identified interest requires declining the reviewer, terminating an ongoing review, or adopting another appropriate safeguard.
The absence of a declared conflict does not prevent the journal from conducting independent checks when concerns arise.
- Guest Editors and Special Issues
Guest Editors and other individuals involved in Special Issue management are subject to the same conflict-of-interest standards as regular editors.
They must disclose relevant financial, institutional, personal, and professional relationships before accepting their appointments and whenever material circumstances change.
A Guest Editor must not manage a manuscript that they have authored or one involving a significant conflict of interest.
Such manuscripts must be reassigned to an independent editor.
Guest Editors must not select reviewers in a manner intended to favor particular authors, institutions, research groups, or sponsors.
Special Issue sponsorship, financial support, institutional collaboration, or other external involvement must be disclosed where relevant.
Sponsors must not control peer-review outcomes or scientific acceptance decisions.
The journal's authorized editorial leadership remains responsible for appropriate oversight and for ensuring that Special Issue publications satisfy the same standards as regular journal content.
- Publisher and Commercial Relationships
Sciences Force LLC is responsible for supporting an editorial environment in which scientific decisions remain independent of commercial interests.
Publication fees, waiver arrangements, sponsorship, advertising, institutional partnerships, or other financial considerations must not influence manuscript assessment or acceptance.
Publisher personnel who have a material competing interest in a particular editorial matter must disclose that interest and must not improperly participate in the associated scientific decision.
The publisher must not offer preferential editorial treatment in exchange for payment, sponsorship, advertising, or institutional support.
Where a legitimate financial or contractual relationship could reasonably affect perceptions of editorial independence, appropriate disclosure and safeguards are required.
Responsibility for scientific decisions remains with authorized and appropriately independent editors.
- Third-Party Research and Publication Services
Authors must disclose significant assistance provided by third-party organizations or professional services when that assistance may be relevant to the conduct, analysis, reporting, or interpretation of the research.
Such services may include commercial data collection, statistical analysis, software development, specialist research consulting, medical writing, and manuscript preparation.
The disclosure should explain the nature of the assistance and identify relevant funding arrangements.
Professional services must not be used to conceal substantive research contributions or create misleading authorship declarations.
The use of legitimate professional assistance is not prohibited, but authors remain responsible for the integrity and accuracy of the research.
Undisclosed sponsor control, purchased authorship, fraudulent writing services, and arrangements designed to manipulate publication decisions are unacceptable.
- Assessment and Management of Declared Conflicts
The disclosure of a competing interest does not automatically require manuscript rejection or withdrawal from every editorial activity.
The journal evaluates the nature, significance, duration, and potential influence of the disclosed relationship.
Where appropriate, management measures may include:
- Reassignment to an independent editor.
- Replacement of a conflicted reviewer.
- Additional independent scientific or methodological review.
- Clarification or expansion of disclosure statements.
- Independent verification of disputed analytical findings.
- Further examination of funding or contractual arrangements.
- Disclosure of relevant safeguards in the published article.
The appropriate response depends on whether the conflict can be managed without compromising scientific integrity or public confidence in the evaluation.
Where the conflict cannot be adequately managed, the affected individual must be excluded from the relevant editorial responsibility.
Material management decisions must be recorded in the journal's editorial system.
- Undisclosed Conflicts and Post-Publication Concerns
Concerns about potentially undisclosed competing interests may be raised before or after publication.
The journal will assess credible allegations fairly and proportionately.
Where necessary, the responsible editor may request explanations, supporting information, or relevant documentation from the individuals involved.
The investigation should distinguish an inadvertent omission from deliberate concealment and assess whether the undisclosed interest materially affected the research, its evaluation, or the conclusions presented.
A finding of nondisclosure does not automatically establish that the scientific findings are unreliable.
Where the findings remain valid, a correction or disclosure update may be sufficient.
Where serious concerns remain unresolved, an expression of concern may be considered.
Retraction may be appropriate when the publication is fundamentally unreliable or when serious ethical irregularities, including compromised peer review, justify that action under the journal's publication ethics procedures.
Any action must be supported by the evidence and the need to protect the scholarly record.
Relevant institutions, funders, or competent authorities may be contacted where appropriate.
- Confidentiality and Recordkeeping
Competing-interest declarations and related supporting documents must be handled in accordance with the journal's confidentiality and data protection requirements.
Information collected during submission or editorial assessment must be accessible only to authorized individuals with a legitimate role.
The journal must maintain adequate records of author declarations, editorial and reviewer conflicts, recusals, reassignment decisions, and significant integrity investigations.
Public disclosures must provide meaningful transparency without unnecessarily exposing confidential contractual details or sensitive personal information.
Records must be retained in accordance with applicable legal obligations, legitimate editorial requirements, and the publisher's records management arrangements.
Conflict-of-interest information must not be falsified, concealed, or altered to misrepresent the circumstances of an editorial decision.
- Publication of Disclosure Statements
Accepted manuscripts must contain clear and accurate Competing Interests and Funding Statements in the version of record.
The statements should be presented consistently in the article, normally within the Statements and Declarations section before the References.
All authors must be covered by the Competing Interests Statement, including those who have no relevant interests to disclose.
The Funding Statement must identify relevant funding or explicitly confirm that no external funding was received.
Where funders participated in the research or publication process, their roles must be described accurately.
The journal may publish an additional editorial transparency statement where an unusual or significant conflict-management arrangement is relevant to readers, particularly in cases involving editor-authored submissions.
Disclosure statements must be retained or appropriately corrected in subsequent article versions and associated publication records.
- Complaints and Independent Review
Authors, reviewers, readers, and other interested parties may report concerns about undisclosed competing interests or the independence of editorial decisions.
Complaints must be assessed by individuals who do not have a relevant conflict in the matter.
A complaint concerning the Editor-in-Chief or another senior editor must be referred to an appropriately independent person who was not involved in the disputed decision.
The journal will consider the available evidence, seek relevant responses where appropriate, and determine whether corrective action is necessary.
Individuals who raise concerns in good faith must not be subjected to retaliation or discriminatory editorial treatment.
Confidentiality will be maintained to the extent consistent with fair assessment, appropriate corrective action, and applicable legal requirements.
Publication Ethics, Complaints, and Appeals: ethics_reporting@sciencesforce.com
- Policy Responsibility and Review
The Editor-in-Chief, authorized handling editors, and publisher are responsible for implementing this policy within their respective areas of responsibility.
The policy applies to regular submissions, Special Issues, editorial correspondence, and post-publication research integrity matters.
The journal will review the policy when professional guidance, publishing procedures, legal requirements, or identified integrity concerns make revision necessary.
Material changes must be communicated clearly and applied consistently with the journal's other published policies.
The purpose of this policy is to preserve the independence of scientific judgment, ensure meaningful disclosure, and maintain confidence in the reliability of the scholarly record.
Related Policies and Official Information
Journal: Neutrosophic Optimization and Intelligent Systems (NOIS)
Publisher: Sciences Force LLC, United States
Publisher Ethics and Policies: https://sciencesforce.com/publisher
Editorial Policies: https://ojs.sciencesforce.com/index.php/nois/policies
Publication Ethics Statement: https://ojs.sciencesforce.com/index.php/nois/publication_ethics
Information for Authors: https://ojs.sciencesforce.com/index.php/nois/information_for_authors
Editorial Team: https://ojs.sciencesforce.com/index.php/nois/about/editorialTeam
Editorial Office: nois@sciencesforce.com
Publication Ethics, Complaints, and Appeals: ethics_reporting@sciencesforce.com
Official Journal Website: https://ojs.sciencesforce.com/index.php/nois/index