What are Conflict of Interest Statements, Funding Source Declarations, Author Agreements/Declarations and Permission Notes?

Many Journals request that the Author(s) supply them with one or more of these items at initial submission stage.

Please note: Most journals require a formal format for these items. A generic form can be found further down this page.

To create one of these items, you're required to:

• Have located a journal to submit to.
• Have checked the Guide for Authors for that journal (sometimes a sample form is provided for you to download and complete).

If these are part of journal requirements, it'll be listed at the 'Attach File/Upload Files' step during the submission process.

Answer

Journals may request one or more of the following be uploaded as part of your submission:

An Author Agreement is a statement to certify that all authors have seen and approved the final version of the manuscript being submitted. They warrant that the article is the authors' original work, hasn't received prior publication and isn't under consideration for publication elsewhere.

A Conflict of Interest or Competing Interest is defined as a set of conditions in which professional judgment concerning a primary interest, such as the validity of research, may be influenced by a secondary interest, such as financial gain. See the Competing Interests Factsheet for more information.

A Declaration of Interest (sometimes called a Disclosure Statement) is a notification from the author that there's no financial/personal interest or belief that could affect their objectivity, or if there is, stating the source and nature of that potential conflict. To prevent ambiguity, authors must state explicitly whether potential competing interests do or don't exist, so you may be asked to provide one, even if no competing interests exist.

• Many Elsevier journals use our Declaration Tool helps authors step-by-step through the process of preparing well-considered and ICMJE-compliant Please watch this short video on how to use the Declaration Tool in Editorial Manager.
• Many medical journals follow ICMJE Recommendations. For these titles, you can download the ICMJE COI form, complete it and save it on your computer, then submit the completed form to the journal along with your manuscript.

Please refer to each journal’s guide for authors for information on how to provide a Declaration of Interest statement for that journal.

A Funding Source Declaration contains a declaration of any funding or research grants (and their source) received in the course of study, research or assembly of the manuscript.

A Permission Note is a statement that permission has been received to use any material in the manuscript such as figures etc. which isn't original content. See Elsevier's Permission Guidelines for more information.

When in doubt, always consult with your professor, advisor, or someone in a position of authority who can guide you to the right course of action.

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