Conflict of Interest and Competing Interests Policy

Sustainability Education Review (SuER) is committed to ensuring that scholarly evaluation and publication decisions are conducted transparently and independently. Authors, reviewers, editors, and other individuals involved in the publication process must disclose relationships or interests that could reasonably be perceived as influencing their professional judgment.

1. Definition

A competing interest or conflict of interest exists when professional judgment concerning the validity, interpretation, evaluation, presentation, or publication of scholarly work could be influenced, or could reasonably be perceived as being influenced, by another interest or relationship.

The existence of a competing interest does not necessarily imply misconduct and does not automatically prevent publication. Transparency and appropriate management are required.

2. Financial Competing Interests

Financial competing interests may include, but are not limited to:

  • research funding or grants;
  • employment;
  • consultancies;
  • paid advisory roles;
  • honoraria;
  • speaker fees;
  • ownership of shares or other financial interests;
  • patents or intellectual property interests;
  • commercial relationships;
  • financial support for travel, research materials, data collection, or publication;
  • other financial relationships that could reasonably be perceived as relevant to the submitted work.

3. Non-Financial Competing Interests

Non-financial competing interests may include:

  • personal or family relationships;
  • close professional relationships;
  • recent or ongoing research collaboration;
  • supervisory or student relationships;
  • institutional relationships;
  • academic rivalry or personal disputes;
  • membership in organizations with a direct interest in the subject of the manuscript;
  • strong intellectual, professional, ideological, advocacy, or policy commitments that could reasonably affect impartial judgment;
  • other circumstances that could reasonably create an actual, potential, or perceived conflict.

4. Author Disclosure

Authors must disclose all relevant financial and non-financial competing interests at the time of submission.

A Competing Interests Statement should be included in the manuscript or supplied through the journal submission system as required.

Authors with no relevant competing interests should state:

“The authors declare that they have no competing interests.”

Where competing interests exist, authors should describe them sufficiently to allow readers and editors to understand the nature of the relationship without unnecessary disclosure of irrelevant personal information.

5. Funding and Sponsor Involvement

Funding sources must be disclosed separately from competing interests where appropriate.

Authors should identify the role of a funder or sponsor in:

  • study design;
  • participant recruitment;
  • data collection;
  • data analysis;
  • interpretation of findings;
  • preparation of the manuscript;
  • decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

If the funder had no role in these activities, authors may state this explicitly.

6. Reviewer Competing Interests

Reviewers must disclose any competing interest that could affect, or reasonably appear to affect, their ability to provide an independent and impartial review.

A reviewer should normally decline the invitation when a relevant conflict exists, including where the reviewer:

  • has a close personal or professional relationship with an author;
  • is currently collaborating or has recently collaborated closely with an author;
  • has a direct supervisory or student relationship with an author;
  • has a substantial financial interest related to the research;
  • is involved in a direct dispute or close competition with an author or the work;
  • cannot otherwise provide an impartial assessment.

Merely working in the same broad research field does not itself constitute a conflict of interest.

7. Editor Competing Interests

Editors must disclose relevant competing interests and must recuse themselves from handling manuscripts when their independence could reasonably be questioned.

An editor must not make or influence an editorial decision concerning a manuscript where the editor has a material personal, financial, professional, institutional, supervisory, collaborative, or other relevant conflict.

Such submissions must be assigned to an independent editor who has no relevant conflict of interest.

8. Submissions by Editors and Editorial Board Members

Editors and editorial board members are permitted to submit scholarly work to SuER, but their editorial role must provide no advantage during evaluation.

Manuscripts authored or co-authored by the Editor-in-Chief, editors, editorial board members, publisher personnel, or individuals closely associated with the journal must be handled independently.

The author-editor must not:

  • select reviewers;
  • access reviewer identities where review is anonymous;
  • participate in editorial deliberations;
  • make the final decision on the manuscript.

The same scholarly standards and peer review requirements apply to these manuscripts as to other submissions.

9. Institutional Conflicts

Manuscripts submitted by authors affiliated with the journal's publisher, sponsoring organization, host institution, or institutions represented by the editorial leadership must not receive preferential treatment.

Where an institutional relationship could reasonably raise concerns about editorial independence, the manuscript should be assigned to an appropriately independent handling editor and reviewers.

10. Publisher and Sponsor Interests

Ownership, financial support, institutional sponsorship, advertising, partnerships, grants, or other sources of journal revenue must not determine editorial decisions.

Editorial decisions remain the responsibility of qualified editors acting according to scholarly criteria and journal policy.

11. Disclosure in Published Articles

Relevant author competing interests should be disclosed in the published article.

Where authors declare no competing interests, the published article may include a statement confirming that no competing interests were declared.

12. Undisclosed Competing Interests

If a potentially relevant competing interest is identified after submission or publication, SuER will assess whether the undisclosed information materially affects the editorial process, interpretation of the work, or confidence in the published record.

Depending on the circumstances, the journal may:

  • request clarification;
  • update the competing interests statement;
  • publish a correction;
  • reconsider the editorial decision;
  • publish an Expression of Concern;
  • take other appropriate action where serious misconduct or misrepresentation is established.

13. Principle of Transparency

When uncertainty exists, authors, reviewers, and editors are encouraged to disclose a potentially relevant relationship rather than assume that it is immaterial. The editorial office will determine whether and how the disclosed interest should be managed.