Conflicts of Interest

Conflicts of Interest Policy — Selaparang: Journal of Law Studies (SEJALS)

To maintain transparency, impartiality, and public trust in the academic publishing process, Selaparang: Journal of Law Studies (SEJALS) requires all authors, reviewers, and editors to declare any potential conflicts of interest that could influence, or be perceived to influence, the presentation, evaluation, or publication of a manuscript.

  1. Authors' Responsibilities
  • Disclosure: Authors must disclose any financial, personal, professional, or institutional relationships that could inappropriately bias their work. Financial interests include grants, honoraria, employment, consultancies, stock ownership, or expert testimony.
  • Funding Sources: All sources of financial support for the research and preparation of the manuscript must be explicitly acknowledged in the manuscript (e.g., funding agencies, grant numbers, or sponsoring institutions).
  • Statement Requirement: Manuscripts must include a formal "Declaration of Competing Interest" section prior to the references list. If no conflict exists, authors should state: "The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper."

 

  1. Reviewers' Responsibilities
  • Impartiality: Reviewers must decline to evaluate any manuscript if they have a financial, personal, or collaborative connection with any of the authors or institutions involved.
  • Notification: If a potential conflict of interest arises during the review process (e.g., prior collaboration, competitive research, or institutional rivalry), the reviewer must immediately notify the Managing Editor and recuse themselves from reviewing the manuscript.

 

  1. Editors' Responsibilities
  • Recusal: Editors who have a direct conflict of interest with a submitted manuscript (e.g., being a co-author, a colleague from the same department, or a close collaborator) must delegate the handling of that manuscript to another unbiased editor or board member.
  • Objective Judgment: Editorial decisions regarding publication must be based solely on the manuscript's scholarly quality, original legal analysis, and relevance to the journal's scope, completely free from commercial or personal influence.