A conflict of interest exists where professional judgement about the validity of research could be influenced by a secondary interest such as financial gain, personal relationships, academic rivalry or institutional loyalty.

•      Authors must declare all financial and non-financial competing interests, and all sources of funding with grant numbers, in a declaration section of the manuscript. Where none exists, the statement must read: "The authors declare no conflict of interest."

•      Reviewers must decline to review where they have a recent collaboration, shared institution, supervisory relationship, or commercial interest connected with the authors or the work.

•      Editors must recuse themselves from any manuscript authored by themselves, a close colleague, a current or recent student, or a collaborator within the past [three] years.

•      Undisclosed conflicts discovered after publication are handled as a correction or, where the omission is material, a retraction.