Declaration of interests form

Submitting authors should complete a Declaration of Interests according to this template:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/15dRcUS5P6Ulog5AbxtpYG5fPxNzlRsYL/edit

We ask authors to complete this form because conflicting and unmanaged interests have the potential to disrupt or compromise decision-making in a research project. However, it is only possible to evaluate if this might be happening if the interests that relate to a submitted work have been comprehensively disclosed.

Completing this form can be daunting because journal policies on declarations of interest are collectively unclear and inconsistent on what counts as an interest, how interests are related to conflicts of interest, and the difference between declaring interests and managing conflicts of interest. We hope this form, with its guidance notes, helps.

An interest is any commitment, obligation, duty or goal associated with a particular social role or practice that relates to the commitments, obligations, duties, or goals associated with the particular work being described in a submission to Evidence-Based Toxicology.

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Having an interest is not the same thing as having a conflict of interest. A conflict of interest arises when serving one interest could involve working at the expense of another interest.

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Authors can view an example of how to complete the form here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uUUF9pZkaD3YGV-5U1eQv4tLGlOEWD3G/edit

Why complete the form?

Authors are recommended to use the declaration of interests form to gather information about author interests for the purposes of declaring them, then identifying and managing conflicts. We recommend including the completed forms in the preprint upload.

In the manuscript itself, authors can summarise the interests and processes for identifying and managing conflicts of the entire team in a “Declaration of Author Interests” section and include three sub-sections within that: financial interests; research interests; and conflicts of interest.

Example of how to declare interests in a manuscript

We recommend including a “Declaration of Interests” section, as follows:

Declaration of interests

Financial interests. The following authors declare that they, their family, close relations or acquaintances, currently have, have had in the last five years, or expect to have in the next two years, financial interests (potential gains or losses) that could be affected by the submitted publication: [enter author initials or state “None”]

Non-financial interests. The following authors declare that they have interests that could influence or be affected by the submitted publication in relation to the following: research findings [initials], or commitments to standards or processes [initials], or statements of public record [initials], or personal relationships [initials], or are in a position where they could be perceived as representing another person or organisation [initials].

Explanation of interests. [Explain where appropriate any of the above interests, if any were considered to constitute a potential conflict of interest, and if so how such potential conflicts of interest were managed in the project.]