Authors
Authors and contributors must disclose relevant financial and non-financial competing interests.
Macaw Publications is committed to maintaining editorial independence and to identifying, disclosing, and appropriately managing competing interests that could influence, or reasonably be perceived to influence, scholarly judgement.
Editorial decisions concerning submitted and published scholarly work should be based on academic merit, methodological quality, research integrity, ethical acceptability, relevance to the journal's aims and scope, and the reliability of the work. Commercial, financial, personal, institutional, political, or reputational considerations must not improperly determine the acceptance or rejection of individual manuscripts.
The purpose of this policy is to protect the independence, fairness, credibility, and transparency of editorial decision-making across journals published by Macaw Publications.
The policy establishes expectations concerning competing interests for authors, reviewers, Editors-in-Chief, handling editors, Editorial Board members, Guest Editors, publisher personnel, and other individuals who participate in scholarly publishing decisions.
The existence of a competing interest does not necessarily indicate misconduct. Appropriate disclosure allows editors and the publisher to determine whether an interest can be managed transparently or whether recusal, reassignment, additional oversight, or another protective measure is necessary.
This policy applies to individuals and organisations whose interests or relationships could affect the submission, review, editorial assessment, publication, correction, or continuing management of scholarly content.
Authors and contributors must disclose relevant financial and non-financial competing interests.
Reviewers must identify relationships or interests that could compromise independent assessment.
Editors must disclose relevant interests and recuse themselves where impartial handling cannot reasonably be maintained.
Board membership must not be used to obtain preferential treatment for manuscripts, authors, institutions, or collaborators.
Guest Editors are subject to the same conflict disclosure, recusal, and independent-handling requirements as permanent editors.
Publisher-level financial, commercial, organisational, or reputational interests must not improperly override independent editorial judgement.
The Editor-in-Chief and authorised editors exercise scholarly judgement within the journal's published aims, scope, peer-review procedures, research-integrity requirements, and editorial policies.
Macaw Publications may establish journal policies, maintain publishing infrastructure, administer production, provide integrity oversight, ensure legal compliance, and support the editorial process. These publisher responsibilities must not be used to require acceptance or rejection of a manuscript for inappropriate commercial or reputational reasons.
Where serious legal, ethical, security, research-integrity, or publication-policy concerns arise, the publisher and editorial leadership may work together to determine appropriate action. Such intervention should be documented and directed towards protecting the scholarly record rather than obtaining a preferred commercial outcome.
Editorial decisions should be based on considerations relevant to responsible scholarly publication.
Relevance to the stated aims and scope of the journal.
Originality and scholarly contribution.
Methodological and analytical quality.
Reliability of evidence and conclusions.
Research and publication integrity.
Ethical acceptability and required ethical oversight.
Quality and relevance of independent peer-review reports.
Author responses to substantive editorial and reviewer concerns.
Editorial decisions must not be based improperly on an author's nationality, geographical location, ethnicity, race, religion, gender, political belief, institutional prestige, professional status, personal relationship, ability to pay publication charges, or another characteristic unrelated to the scholarly assessment of the manuscript.
Decisions must likewise not be altered merely to increase publication volume, citation metrics, journal rankings, publisher revenue, institutional visibility, or the interests of sponsors, advertisers, partners, or other third parties.
A competing interest is any relationship, activity, commitment, or circumstance that could influence, or reasonably be perceived as influencing, an individual's scholarly judgement or editorial responsibility.
Employment, consultancy, honoraria, grants, investments, ownership, patents, royalties, commercial relationships, or other financial interests related to the research or its outcomes.
Current or recent collaboration, supervision, mentorship, professional dependency, institutional relationships, academic competition, or similar professional connections.
Family, close personal relationships, serious personal disputes, or other relationships that could affect impartial scholarly judgement.
Strong intellectual commitments, direct scientific competition, advocacy positions, or prior involvement in a disputed matter that could materially affect objectivity.
Circumstances in which an individual's institution, department, laboratory, organisation, or employer may obtain a direct advantage or disadvantage from an editorial outcome.
Relationships arising from editorial positions, journal ownership, publisher roles, special-issue management, or participation in another publication decision involving the same authors or research.
Disclosure enables editors, reviewers, and readers to evaluate the work with appropriate contextual information. Disclosure of an interest does not automatically prevent publication.
Authors should provide a competing-interest statement during manuscript submission and update the declaration if relevant circumstances change before publication.
Where no relevant competing interests exist, the journal may require an explicit statement confirming that the authors declare no relevant competing interests.
Authors should disclose relevant financial relationships associated with the work, its subject matter, or organisations that could be affected by the findings.
Employment or paid appointments.
Consultancy or advisory relationships.
Research grants or other relevant financial support.
Speaker fees, honoraria, or paid expert activities.
Patents, licences, intellectual-property interests, or royalties.
Equity ownership, investments, or other direct commercial interests where relevant.
Authors should identify funding or material support relevant to the research according to the journal's submission requirements.
Where a funder, sponsor, company, institution, or other organisation participated in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, publication decisions, or another material aspect of the work, that role should be disclosed where relevant.
Financial support does not by itself invalidate research. Transparent disclosure allows readers and editors to understand the relationship between the sponsor and the published work.
A reviewer who identifies a significant competing interest should disclose it to the handling editor before accepting or continuing the review.
The editor will determine whether the interest can be managed or whether another reviewer should be appointed.
Reviewers should not use confidential peer-review access to advance personal, professional, financial, competitive, or scholarly interests.
Current or recent close collaboration with an author.
Current employment within the same immediate research group, department, or closely connected organisational unit.
Current or recent supervisory, student, mentor, or closely dependent professional relationship.
Significant personal relationship or serious personal dispute with an author.
Direct financial interest in the findings or publication outcome.
Circumstances in which strong competition or another relationship creates a reasonable concern about impartiality.
Editors must not handle manuscripts where a material competing interest prevents, or reasonably calls into question, impartial editorial judgement.
Where such an interest exists, responsibility for the manuscript should be transferred to another suitably qualified independent editor.
A conflicted editor should not select reviewers, participate in confidential deliberations, influence the recommendation, or make the final decision for the affected manuscript.
A manuscript authored or co-authored by an Editor-in-Chief, handling editor, Editorial Board member, Guest Editor, publisher representative, or another individual with editorial authority must be handled independently.
The submitting editor or board member must not select reviewers, participate in the editorial assessment, access protected reviewer identities beyond what is permitted by the journal's peer-review model, or determine the final decision.
The manuscript remains subject to the same scholarly, peer-review, ethics, revision, and publication requirements as comparable submissions from other authors.
Where an Editor-in-Chief submits a manuscript to their own journal, editorial responsibility must be assigned to another appropriately qualified editor who is independent of the submission and authorised to manage the review and decision.
The Editor-in-Chief must have no role in reviewer selection, review assessment, revision requirements, or final decision for that manuscript.
The editorial record should allow the journal to demonstrate that the submission received independent handling if legitimate questions arise later.
Guest Editors must disclose relationships with proposed authors, sponsors, institutions, organisations, or other parties that could affect editorial independence.
Guest Editor-authored manuscripts must be assigned to an independent editor and handled according to the Macaw Publications Special Issues & Guest Editor Policy.
A Guest Editor must not make an editorial decision on their own manuscript or on another manuscript where a material conflict of interest exists.
Board members must not use their position to obtain preferential treatment for their own manuscripts.
Board members should disclose relevant interests when asked to handle or advise on a manuscript.
Board members must not pressure editors to accept manuscripts from colleagues, students, institutions, collaborators, or other connected persons.
Board membership must not be used to influence citation, peer-review, special-issue, or publication decisions for personal or institutional benefit.
Board members should keep their publicly displayed affiliations and relevant professional information current.
Publisher revenue considerations must remain separate from the scholarly assessment of individual manuscripts.
Article Processing Charges, subscriptions, sponsorship, advertising, institutional arrangements, service agreements, or other sources of revenue must not determine whether an individual manuscript is accepted or rejected.
Editorial personnel should not be instructed to accept manuscripts merely to meet financial targets, increase issue size, expand publication volume, or generate additional author charges.
Macaw Publications journals may operate under different financial models. Some journals may charge an APC, while others may publish without an APC.
Where an APC applies, the existence, amount, payment, waiver, reduction, or non-payment of that charge must not affect reviewer selection, reviewer recommendations, editorial assessment, revision requirements, or acceptance decisions.
Authors should consult the individual journal website for the current and authoritative fee or no-fee information.
Financial or organisational support for a journal, special issue, research project, conference collection, or other publishing activity must not give the sponsor authority to determine editorial outcomes.
Sponsors must not require acceptance of particular manuscripts, suppress unfavourable findings, select peer reviewers for inappropriate purposes, dictate conclusions, or interfere with legitimate corrective action.
Relevant sponsorship relationships should be disclosed where necessary for readers to understand the context of published content.
Acceptance or rejection of scholarly manuscripts must not depend on the existence of advertising relationships with an author, institution, company, sponsor, or other organisation.
Where advertising is accepted by a journal or publisher, it should be identifiable as advertising and should not be designed in a manner that could reasonably be mistaken for independent scholarly or editorial content.
Editors and reviewers must not require authors to add irrelevant references for the purpose of increasing citations to a particular editor, reviewer, journal, publisher, institution, research group, or publication.
Citation suggestions should have a legitimate scholarly basis and should improve the accuracy, context, completeness, or interpretation of the manuscript.
Editorial decisions must not be conditioned on an author's willingness to make inappropriate citation additions.
Manuscripts from institutions associated with editors, board members, advisers, collaborators, sponsors, or publisher personnel remain subject to appropriate independent assessment.
Where a relationship between a handling editor and an author's institution creates a material conflict, the manuscript should be reassigned to an independent editor.
Journal ownership, publisher identity, editorial leadership, and relevant management information should be represented accurately on the publisher and journal websites.
Ownership of a journal provides responsibility for publishing governance but does not entitle the owner or publisher to dictate scholarly decisions on individual manuscripts for inappropriate financial, personal, political, or reputational purposes.
Where a journal is formally affiliated with another society, institution, organisation, or sponsor, the relationship should be described accurately and should not imply endorsement beyond the actual relationship.
Editorial appointments should be based on relevant scholarly expertise, professional standing, suitability for the journal's scope, and willingness to fulfil editorial and ethical responsibilities.
Editors should have identifiable expertise relevant to the journal's disciplinary coverage.
Current affiliations should be represented accurately.
Individuals should consent to serve before being publicly presented as editorial members.
Editors must follow journal policies concerning confidentiality, peer review, conflicts, integrity, and editorial independence.
Editorial membership may be reviewed where an individual is inactive, uncontactable, inaccurately represented, or unable to fulfil the responsibilities of the role.
Where an editor identifies a material competing interest, the manuscript should be managed through an independent editorial pathway.
The competing interest is disclosed internally to the appropriate editorial authority.
The conflicted editor is removed from substantive manuscript handling.
An appropriately qualified independent editor is appointed.
Reviewer selection and editorial assessment are conducted independently of the conflicted individual.
The independent editor makes or oversees the final decision according to the journal's governance structure.
Appropriate records of the reassignment should be retained where necessary to demonstrate independent handling.
In such circumstances, responsibility should be transferred to another suitably qualified senior editor, designated independent editor, or comparable editorial authority who can act without the relevant conflict.
The Editor-in-Chief should not receive preferential access to confidential review information or influence the final decision while recused.
Where Macaw Publications, a publisher representative, or a closely associated party has a material interest in a particular submission, the manuscript should receive editorial handling that protects the independence of scholarly assessment.
Publisher personnel with a direct material conflict should not influence reviewer selection, scholarly recommendations, or the final decision.
Appropriate independent editorial oversight may be arranged where necessary to protect confidence in the process.
Editors or reviewers who identify a conflict must not disclose, copy, distribute, exploit, or use unpublished manuscript information merely because they have withdrawn from handling the work.
Confidential material may be shared only where legitimately necessary for editorial, research-integrity, legal, technical, or ethical assessment.
Discovery of an undisclosed competing interest after publication does not automatically require retraction.
The journal will consider the nature and seriousness of the interest, whether disclosure was required, whether the omission was deliberate, and whether the interest materially affected the research, peer review, editorial process, interpretation, or reliability of the publication.
Appropriate action may include publication of a corrected competing-interest statement, editorial clarification, Expression of Concern, further investigation, or retraction where the integrity or reliability of the publication has been seriously compromised.
Authors, editors, reviewers, and Guest Editors must not coordinate reviewer selection, identities, recommendations, or editorial decisions in a manner intended to circumvent genuine independent assessment.
Fabricated reviewer identities, impersonation, undisclosed coordinated review arrangements, or manipulation of editorial records may be treated as serious publication-integrity concerns.
Editors and reviewers should not handle manuscripts where a close family, personal, or comparable relationship with an author creates a reasonable concern regarding impartiality.
The same principle applies where serious personal hostility or another relationship could reasonably compromise objective assessment.
Individuals should disclose the relevant relationship rather than attempting to determine privately that the relationship is unimportant.
Previous knowledge of a manuscript, preprint, conference presentation, grant application, or earlier journal submission does not automatically constitute a conflict.
However, prior involvement should be disclosed where it creates confidentiality obligations, prior decision-making involvement, close collaboration, access to privileged information, or another circumstance that may affect independent assessment.
Use of automated or AI-assisted systems does not remove human responsibility for identifying and managing conflicts of interest.
Editors remain responsible for evaluating potential conflicts associated with reviewer recommendations, author relationships, institutional connections, integrity screening, and editorial decisions.
Confidential manuscript information must be handled in accordance with the Macaw Publications AI & Generative AI Use Policy and applicable confidentiality requirements.
Authors, reviewers, editors, readers, institutions, and other stakeholders may report credible concerns regarding editorial interference or unmanaged conflicts of interest.
Identify the journal, manuscript, article, or editorial matter concerned.
Describe the alleged conflict or interference clearly.
Provide supporting evidence where reasonably available.
Distinguish factual evidence from inference or allegation.
Disclose any relevant competing interest of the complainant where appropriate.
The matter may be referred to the Editor-in-Chief, another independent senior editor, an appropriate editorial committee, or the publisher depending on the circumstances.
Where the concern involves the Editor-in-Chief, appropriate independent senior editorial or publisher-level review should be arranged.
Where the concern involves publisher interference, the matter should be assessed in a manner that preserves appropriate editorial independence and documentary accountability.
Authors may raise a reasoned appeal where they believe a manuscript decision was materially affected by an unmanaged conflict of interest, significant procedural irregularity, or inappropriate external interference.
Appeals should provide specific grounds and supporting information rather than merely expressing disagreement with an editorial decision.
Where feasible, reconsideration should involve a qualified individual who was not solely responsible for the disputed decision.
Significant concerns regarding editorial independence or competing interests should be examined proportionately and on the basis of available evidence.
Preliminary assessment of the allegation and available evidence.
Identification of relevant individuals, manuscripts, decisions, relationships, and records.
Opportunity for relevant parties to provide an explanation where appropriate.
Independent assessment where the normal editorial authority is itself conflicted.
Appropriate corrective, editorial, governance, or post-publication action based on the findings.
Where necessary, records may be retained concerning conflict declarations, editor recusals, manuscript reassignment, reviewer selection, editorial decisions, appeals, integrity concerns, and other relevant actions.
Such records are confidential and should be accessed only for legitimate editorial, ethical, technical, administrative, or legal purposes.
A conflicted reviewer may be removed and replaced with an independent reviewer.
A manuscript may be transferred to another editor where independent handling is required.
An earlier decision may be reassessed where credible evidence indicates that an unmanaged conflict materially affected the process.
Editorial, reviewer, or Guest Editor appointments may be reconsidered where repeated or serious policy breaches occur.
Published disclosures may be corrected or supplemented where an important competing interest was omitted.
Serious cases involving manipulation, deception, or compromised publication integrity may result in further investigation or action under the Publication Ethics & Research Integrity and Post-Publication Corrections & Retractions policies.
Commercial or reputational concerns must not prevent legitimate correction of the scholarly record.
Where reliable evidence demonstrates that a published article requires correction, Expression of Concern, retraction, or another appropriate notice, the necessary action should not be suppressed merely because it may be inconvenient to an author, editor, institution, sponsor, journal, or publisher.
Protection of the reliability and integrity of the scholarly record takes precedence over inappropriate commercial or reputational considerations.
Relevant author competing-interest information should be presented transparently in or with the published article according to the journal's publication format.
A competing-interest statement should be included where required by the journal.
Relevant funding information should be stated separately where appropriate.
Relevant sponsor involvement may be described where necessary for transparent interpretation.
Where no relevant competing interests exist, an explicit no-conflict declaration may be published.
Suggested wording:
“The authors declare that they have no competing interests relevant to the content of this article.”
Suggested approach:
Authors should describe the nature of the relevant relationship sufficiently clearly for readers and editors to understand the potential interest.
Disclosure should be specific rather than relying on vague phrases such as “conflicts may exist”.
Each journal should maintain an up-to-date public list of its Editor-in-Chief, editors, and Editorial Board members together with appropriate institutional affiliations.
Editorial titles and affiliations should be accurate, current, and should not imply institutional endorsement of the journal unless such endorsement genuinely exists.
Individuals should not be listed as editorial members without their knowledge and agreement to serve.
Macaw Publications maintains identifiable publisher and contact information to support transparent communication concerning editorial governance, publication policies, and research integrity.
Macaw Publications
H.No. 4-123/8/172, Road No. 1, Indraprastha Colony,
Hathiguda, Hayath Nagar, Hyderabad,
Telangana – 501505, India
Email: publisher@macawpublications.com
Editorial independence and competing-interest management operate together with other Macaw Publications policies.
Governs reviewer selection, editorial assessment, confidentiality, decisions, revisions, and appeals.
Governs authorship, misconduct, ethical oversight, integrity concerns, data issues, and publication ethics.
Establishes independent handling and oversight requirements for guest-edited content.
Governs corrective action where post-publication concerns materially affect the scholarly record.
Describes access, copyright, licensing, APC transparency, and separation of author charges from editorial decisions.
Establishes human accountability, confidentiality, and responsible use of automated tools in editorial workflows.
This policy is informed by recognised principles of editorial independence, publication ethics, transparent scholarly publishing, and responsible journal governance.
DOAJ transparency principles emphasise visible conflict-of-interest policies, transparent ownership and management, identifiable editorial teams, peer-review transparency, and responsible publication ethics.
Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing
DOAJ journal criteria require accurate editorial-board information, institutional affiliations, clear editorial processes, and transparent author charges and publishing practices.
Web of Science journal evaluation considers editorial rigour, peer-review oversight, editorial-board composition, publisher accountability, website accuracy, and adherence to appropriate scholarly standards.
Scopus journal selection considers the quality and credibility of editorial policy, peer review, publication ethics, journal governance, content quality, and continuing publishing performance.
Questions or concerns involving a particular manuscript should normally be directed to the editorial office of the relevant journal.
Publisher-level concerns regarding editorial interference, undisclosed competing interests, conflicts involving senior editors, financial influence, Guest Editor conflicts, or unresolved governance matters may be directed to:
Macaw Publications
H.No. 4-123/8/172, Road No. 1, Indraprastha Colony,
Hathiguda, Hayath Nagar, Hyderabad,
Telangana – 501505, India
Email: publisher@macawpublications.com
Correspondence should identify the relevant journal, manuscript, article, editor, or editorial matter and should provide sufficient information to permit appropriate assessment.
Macaw Publications is committed to protecting scholarly decision-making from inappropriate commercial, financial, institutional, personal, or reputational influence. Potential competing interests are managed through disclosure, independent assessment, recusal, editorial reassignment, transparent publication, and appropriate corrective action when necessary.
Macaw Publications invites qualified and experienced scholars to contribute to its Editorial Boards and Reviewer Panels.
Applications are welcomed from researchers with relevant academic expertise, publication experience, and a commitment to research integrity and responsible peer review.
Appointments are subject to academic suitability, expertise, and editorial requirements.