Conflicts of Interest

The Uzbek Journal "Problems of Mechanics" is committed to transparency, impartiality, editorial independence, and the integrity of the scholarly record.

A conflict of interest, also referred to as a competing interest, exists when a financial, professional, institutional, academic, personal, intellectual, or other relationship could influence, or could reasonably be perceived as influencing, the conduct, interpretation, peer review, editorial assessment, or publication of scholarly work.

The existence of a conflict of interest does not necessarily indicate misconduct and does not automatically prevent submission, peer review, editorial participation, or publication. However, all relevant interests must be disclosed transparently and managed appropriately.

Failure to disclose a relevant conflict of interest may result in editorial investigation and corrective action.

Scope of the Policy

This policy applies to all participants in the journal’s publication process, including:

  • authors;
  • co-authors and corresponding authors;
  • peer reviewers;
  • the Editor-in-Chief;
  • Deputy Editors;
  • Section Editors and Associate Editors;
  • Editorial Board members;
  • Guest Editors;
  • editorial and administrative staff;
  • the publisher;
  • persons involved in technical, production, or publication management;
  • external consultants involved in the evaluation or publication process.

Each participant is responsible for identifying and disclosing their own actual, potential, or perceived competing interests.

Actual, Potential, and Perceived Competing Interests

An actual competing interest exists where a relationship or interest directly affects a person’s responsibilities or decisions.

A potential competing interest exists where a relationship could reasonably create a conflict in the future or under particular circumstances.

A perceived competing interest exists where an informed third party could reasonably believe that a person’s judgment may be influenced, even if no actual influence has occurred.

Where uncertainty exists, the interest should be disclosed to the Editorial Office, which will determine whether and how it should be managed.

Types of Competing Interests

Competing interests may be financial or non-financial and may include, but are not limited to, the following categories.

Financial Interests

Relevant financial interests may include:

  • research grants and contracts;
  • employment or anticipated employment;
  • consultancy fees;
  • honoraria;
  • speaker fees;
  • travel support;
  • conference registration or accommodation support;
  • paid expert testimony;
  • stock, share, or equity ownership;
  • royalties;
  • intellectual property income;
  • patents or pending patent applications;
  • paid advisory roles;
  • commercial research support;
  • provision of equipment, software, materials, or services;
  • any other direct or indirect financial relationship connected to the work.

Authors must disclose the official name of each funding organization and the applicable grant or contract number.

Financial support must be disclosed regardless of whether the authors believe that the funder influenced the research.

Professional and Academic Interests

Professional or academic competing interests may include:

  • recent or ongoing collaboration;
  • recent co-authorship;
  • supervisory or mentoring relationships;
  • employment at the same institution;
  • membership of a relevant editorial or advisory board;
  • leadership or governance roles in professional organizations;
  • direct academic competition;
  • involvement in a competing research project;
  • professional disputes;
  • participation in the preparation or evaluation of the work;
  • responsibility for assessing an author’s employment, promotion, degree, or funding application.

Personal Interests

Personal competing interests may include:

  • close personal relationships;
  • family relationships;
  • serious personal disputes;
  • relationships involving dependency, authority, or influence;
  • circumstances that could reasonably compromise impartial judgment.

Personal information should be disclosed only to the extent necessary to identify and manage the relevant conflict.

Institutional Interests

Institutional competing interests may include:

  • affiliation with an institution that may benefit from the findings;
  • institutional ownership of relevant intellectual property;
  • direct institutional involvement in funding or conducting the research;
  • institutional relationships that could affect editorial impartiality;
  • pressure from an employer, sponsor, founder, owner, or governing organization.

Intellectual and Ideological Interests

Relevant non-financial interests may also arise from:

  • strongly held academic positions;
  • publicly stated views directly related to the manuscript;
  • advocacy roles;
  • involvement in policy development relevant to the research;
  • participation in disputes concerning the theory, method, technology, or findings under review.

A scientific opinion or academic disagreement alone does not automatically constitute a conflict. It should be disclosed where it could reasonably interfere with objective evaluation.

Period Covered by Disclosure

The journal does not apply a fixed disclosure period.

Participants must disclose any current, recent, anticipated, or past interest that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the submitted work, peer review, editorial decision, or publication process.

An older relationship must still be disclosed if its relevance or influence continues.

Author Disclosure Requirements

All authors must disclose any actual, potential, or perceived competing interest related to the manuscript.

Authors must provide complete information concerning:

  • funding and financial support;
  • employment and institutional relationships;
  • consultancy and advisory roles;
  • intellectual property and patents;
  • relevant commercial interests;
  • relevant professional or academic relationships;
  • personal relationships that may affect impartiality;
  • participation in editorial or governance roles related to the manuscript;
  • any role of a sponsor in the study or publication process.

Disclosures must be submitted at the time of manuscript submission and updated whenever circumstances change.

The corresponding author is responsible for collecting the declarations of all authors and ensuring that the manuscript contains a complete Competing Interests statement.

However, each author remains individually responsible for the accuracy and completeness of their own disclosure.

Funding and the Role of the Sponsor

All sources of financial and material support must be disclosed.

The manuscript must state whether the funder or sponsor had any role in:

  • study conception or design;
  • selection of methods;
  • data collection;
  • analysis or interpretation;
  • preparation or revision of the manuscript;
  • approval of the final version;
  • the decision to submit the manuscript;
  • control over access to data;
  • restrictions on publication.

Where the funder had no role in these activities, the manuscript may state:

The funder had no role in the design of the study; the collection, analysis, or interpretation of the data; the preparation of the manuscript; or the decision to submit the article for publication.

Funding or sponsorship must not determine the journal’s editorial decision.

Author Competing Interests Statement

Every manuscript must contain a Competing Interests statement, including manuscripts for which no competing interests exist.

Where there are no relevant competing interests, the following statement should be used:

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Alternatively:

The authors declare that they have no competing interests related to the content of this article.

Where competing interests exist, authors must provide a clear and sufficiently detailed statement identifying:

  • the author concerned;
  • the organization, individual, or relationship involved;
  • the nature of the financial or non-financial interest;
  • any measures taken to manage the conflict.

The journal may edit the wording of the statement for clarity while preserving its meaning.

Examples of Disclosure Statements

Financial relationship

Author A received research funding from [Organization]. Author B has provided paid consultancy services to [Organization]. The other authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Patent-related interest

Author A is named as an inventor on a patent application related to the technology described in this article.

Editorial role

Author A is a member of the Editorial Board of the Uzbek Journal "Problems of Mechanics". The author was not involved in the peer review, selection of reviewers, or editorial decision concerning this manuscript. The manuscript was handled by an independent editor.

No competing interests

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Peer Reviewer Competing Interests

Before accepting a review invitation, reviewers must assess whether they have any actual, potential, or perceived competing interest.

Reviewers must disclose interests involving:

  • recent or ongoing collaboration with an author;
  • recent co-authorship;
  • employment at the same institution;
  • supervisory, mentoring, or personal relationships;
  • financial interests related to the manuscript;
  • professional disputes;
  • direct academic competition;
  • involvement in the research;
  • access to the manuscript before submission;
  • any circumstance that may compromise impartiality.

A reviewer should normally decline the invitation where a conflict could reasonably affect the independence or credibility of the review.

If a conflict becomes apparent after the review has begun, the reviewer must stop the evaluation and immediately contact the editor.

The editor will determine whether the reviewer may continue or should be replaced.

Reviewers must not use the review process to promote personal, institutional, financial, or academic interests.

Editor and Editorial Board Competing Interests

Editors and Editorial Board members must disclose any competing interest relating to a manuscript before participating in its evaluation.

An editor must not handle a manuscript where the editor:

  • is an author or co-author;
  • contributed to the research;
  • recently collaborated or published with an author;
  • works at the same institution as an author where impartiality may be questioned;
  • has a supervisory, mentoring, personal, or financial relationship with an author;
  • has a direct academic or commercial interest in the findings;
  • is involved in a dispute with an author;
  • has another relationship that could reasonably compromise editorial independence.

An editor with a competing interest must not:

  • access confidential manuscript materials beyond what is necessary to identify the conflict;
  • select reviewers;
  • communicate confidentially with reviewers;
  • participate in editorial discussions;
  • make or influence the editorial decision.

The manuscript must be reassigned to an independent editor with no relevant competing interest.

Manuscripts Submitted by Editors and Editorial Board Members

Editors and Editorial Board members may submit manuscripts to the journal, but their submissions receive no preferential treatment.

Such manuscripts must:

  • be handled by an independent editor;
  • undergo the journal’s standard double-anonymous peer review;
  • be evaluated by at least two independent reviewers;
  • be considered without the participation of the submitting editor or Board member;
  • receive no guaranteed acceptance or accelerated processing.

The published article must include an appropriate disclosure of the author’s editorial role.

Guest Editors and Special Issues

Guest Editors must disclose relevant competing interests before accepting an appointment.

A Guest Editor must not handle a manuscript where the Guest Editor:

  • is an author or co-author;
  • collaborated closely with the authors;
  • has a relevant institutional, financial, personal, or academic interest;
  • cannot ensure an independent and impartial process.

Such manuscripts must be transferred to the Editor-in-Chief or another independent editor.

Special issue sponsorship, external funding, or institutional support must be disclosed and must not influence manuscript acceptance or editorial decisions.

Publisher and Editorial Staff Competing Interests

The publisher and editorial staff must not use financial, institutional, commercial, political, or personal interests to influence decisions concerning individual manuscripts.

Staff involved in:

  • author fee administration;
  • waiver decisions;
  • sponsorship;
  • advertising;
  • production;
  • marketing;
  • technical support

must not influence scientific evaluation or editorial decisions unless they also hold a formally declared editorial role and have no relevant conflict.

The existence, payment, reduction, or waiver of an article processing charge must not affect whether a manuscript is accepted or rejected. DOAJ’s transparency principles require editorial decisions to remain independent of author fees and other revenue sources.

Founder and Institutional Independence

The Founder, Publisher, associated institutions, funding organizations, government bodies, and commercial partners must not interfere in decisions concerning the acceptance, revision, or rejection of individual manuscripts.

Institutional support for the journal does not create a right to:

  • influence reviewer selection;
  • access confidential peer review information;
  • require publication of particular content;
  • prevent publication of academically valid content;
  • alter editorial decisions for non-academic reasons.

Management of Disclosed Competing Interests

Disclosure does not automatically result in rejection, reviewer exclusion, or removal from an editorial role.

The Editor-in-Chief or an independent designated editor will assess:

  • the nature of the interest;
  • its relevance to the manuscript;
  • the degree of possible influence;
  • whether disclosure alone is sufficient;
  • whether additional safeguards are required;
  • whether the individual should be recused;
  • whether the manuscript can be evaluated fairly.

Management measures may include:

  • publication of a disclosure statement;
  • appointment of an independent editor;
  • replacement of a reviewer;
  • exclusion from editorial discussion;
  • independent statistical, technical, or methodological assessment;
  • clarification of the sponsor’s role;
  • additional documentation;
  • rejection where the conflict cannot be appropriately managed.

Confidentiality and Publication of Disclosures

Competing interest information is handled confidentially during manuscript assessment and is made available only to persons who require it for editorial evaluation and conflict management.

The journal may share relevant disclosure information with editors, reviewers, integrity advisers, or other authorized persons where necessary for fair assessment.

If the manuscript is accepted, the Competing Interests statement will normally be published with the article.

The journal cannot guarantee that a relevant disclosure will remain confidential when publication or corrective action is necessary to protect the scholarly record.

Sensitive personal details that are not necessary to explain the conflict will not be published.

Undisclosed Competing Interests Before Publication

If an undisclosed competing interest is identified before publication, the journal may:

  • request clarification or supporting documents;
  • require an updated disclosure statement;
  • suspend peer review or production;
  • replace a reviewer or editor;
  • arrange additional independent evaluation;
  • reject the manuscript where the omission is serious or intentional;
  • refer the matter for consideration under the journal’s Research and Publication Misconduct Policy.

The journal will distinguish between an inadvertent omission and deliberate concealment.

Undisclosed Competing Interests After Publication

If a relevant competing interest is discovered after publication, the journal will assess:

  • whether the interest should have been disclosed;
  • whether it may have affected the research, peer review, or editorial decision;
  • whether the published conclusions remain reliable;
  • whether corrective action is required.

Possible actions include:

  • updating the Competing Interests statement;
  • publishing a formal correction;
  • conducting an editorial review;
  • requesting an institutional investigation;
  • publishing an expression of concern;
  • retracting the article where the undisclosed conflict seriously compromises the reliability or integrity of the publication.

COPE guidance recognizes that undisclosed conflicts discovered after publication may require an assessment of whether peer review or the publication decision would have differed if the information had been known.

Disputes Concerning Competing Interests

A person who disagrees with the journal’s assessment or management of a competing interest may submit a reasoned written request to the Editorial Office.

The request must:

  • identify the disputed decision;
  • explain the factual or procedural concern;
  • provide relevant supporting evidence;
  • avoid personal accusations or unsupported allegations.

Where possible, the matter will be reviewed by an editor or qualified person who was not directly involved in the original decision.

The journal may request guidance from an institution, research integrity office, funding organization, or other competent authority where the matter cannot be resolved through editorial assessment.

Complaints and Appeals

Complaints or appeals concerning conflicts of interest will be considered in accordance with the journal’s Complaints and Appeals Policy.

An appeal will not be accepted solely because an author, reviewer, or editor disagrees with a reasonable conflict-management measure.

The journal’s final decision will be based on the need to protect impartiality, editorial independence, procedural fairness, and the integrity of the scholarly record.

External Standards

The conflict-of-interest practices of the Uzbek Journal "Problems of Mechanics" are informed by:

  • COPE Core Practices;
  • COPE guidance on conflicts of interest;
  • COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers;
  • Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing;
  • the journal’s Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement;
  • the journal’s Peer Review Policy;
  • the journal’s Editorial Board Policy;
  • the journal’s Authorship Principles;
  • applicable national legislation and internationally recognized standards of research integrity.

DOAJ’s transparency principles expressly identify conflicts-of-interest policies as a required component of a journal’s visible publication ethics framework.

Policy Administration

This policy is effective from 1 August 2026 and will be reviewed periodically to ensure its continued alignment with applicable ethical standards and the editorial practices of the Uzbek Journal "Problems of Mechanics".

Questions, competing interest disclosures, complaints, appeals, or allegations concerning undisclosed competing interests should be submitted to the Editorial Office at instmechofficial@gmail.com.

All relevant matters will be considered in accordance with the journal’s applicable policies and relevant COPE guidance.


ISSN 2010-7250 (Online)