Any conflict of interest (financial, professional, personal, or otherwise) must be disclosed to the journal’s editorial office as soon as it is recognized or suspected, including, but not limited to, the following: having financial interest with the findings, having competition to publish the same findings, having collaboration or publication with an author in the recent past, working at the same institution with the author, having a dispute with the author, and being a friend/family member/present or previous mentor of the author. This policy applies to all editors, reviewers, and editorial staff.
All peer reviewers are requested to disclose any conflicts of interests before agreeing to review a manuscript and to decline to review any manuscript for which a conflict or appearance of conflict exists. In the event that a peer reviewer recognizes a conflict of interest that may compromise his or her ability to make an unbiased assessment of a manuscript, it is required that the reviewer decline to review the manuscript and inform the editorial office. If the staff or representatives of Xia & He Publishing, Inc. discover potential evidence of a conflict-of-interest violation, the issue will be addressed on a case-by-case basis through investigation and recusal. If a reviewer discloses a conflict of interest but still reviews the manuscript, that review will not be considered in the evaluation of that manuscript, and an alternative review will be arranged.
The academic editor to whom a manuscript has been assigned is asked to disclose to the managing editor any potential conflict of interests that may affect his/her judgement and to decline the assignment. The editorial staff must exclude themselves from participating in editorial decisions regarding manuscripts for which potential conflicts of interest exist.
Submissions from Editors, Editorial Board Members, or Employees
Submissions from editors, members of the editorial board, or employees will undergo the same rigorous peer-review process as other submissions and will be treated no differently from any other manuscripts submitted to the journal. To ensure unbiased review, the Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editor, Editorial Board Member, and the Editorial Staff will not make decisions for, handle, or review his/her own manuscript. All possible measures will be undertaken to avoid any potential conflict of interest in the handling of such manuscripts at all stages including allocation of the handling editor, reviewer selection, decision making and, if required, processing for publication. Moreover, the status of editorial board membership/employment should be declared in the conflict of interest statement of the published article.