Conflict of Interest Policy

Naturae upholds a rigorous conflict of interest policy to ensure transparency, fairness, and integrity throughout the editorial process. A conflict of interest is any personal, professional, institutional, financial, or ideological connection that could influence, or appear to influence, the assessment or editorial decisions regarding a submitted manuscript.

Categories of Potential Conflicts:

• Personal/Relational: including friendships, rivalries, family ties, or shared political or ideological views.

• Financial: encompassing research funding, sponsorships, or any monetary interests linked to the work.

• Institutional: such as shared affiliations between authors, reviewers, or editors.

• Academic/Intellectual: including direct competition or recent collaborative work.

Author Obligations:

Authors must disclose any actual or potential conflicts at the time of submission. This includes all forms of financial support or institutional relationships, which must be transparently acknowledged within the manuscript.

Reviewer Obligations:

Reviewers invited to assess manuscripts are required to declare any conflicts prior to accepting the assignment. Should a conflict impair their impartiality, they must decline the review.

Editorial Obligations:

Editors are obligated to recuse themselves from handling any manuscripts for which they have conflicts, transferring responsibility to an uninvolved editor to preserve the integrity of the review process.

Transparency and Compliance:

To maintain editorial integrity, the journal reserves the right to disclose relevant conflicts when appropriate. Violations of this policy may lead to corrective actions, including manuscript retraction, suspension of submission privileges, and notification of relevant institutions.