Conflict of
Interest Policy.

A conflict of interest exists when an individual's professional judgment, research responsibilities, or editorial decisions may be influenced by personal, financial, commercial, professional, institutional, or other secondary interests.

Conflicts of interest may be actual, potential, or perceived. An actual conflict exists when competing interests directly affect professional responsibilities. A potential conflict involves circumstances that could develop into a conflict, whereas a perceived conflict arises when a reasonable observer may question an individual's impartiality.

The policy applies to all participants involved in manuscript preparation, submission, peer review, editorial evaluation, publication, and post-publication scholarly communication, including authors, reviewers, editors, editorial board members, and individuals acting on behalf of the journal.

CATEGORY 01 / FINANCIAL

Financial Conflicts of Interest

Financial competing interests arise when authors, reviewers, editors, their institutions, or other relevant parties possess financial relationships or economic interests that could benefit from or be affected by research findings, editorial decisions, or publication outcomes.

CATEGORY 02 / NON-FINANCIAL

Non-Financial Conflicts of Interest

Non-financial competing interests involve relationships, commitments, affiliations, or circumstances that may influence scholarly objectivity even when no direct financial benefit is involved.

Disclosure Standard

The examples above are not exhaustive. Individuals should disclose any relationship or interest that might reasonably be perceived as influencing the research, its interpretation, the peer-review process, or editorial decisions, even when they believe that their judgment has remained impartial.

All authors submitting manuscripts to Escalate: Economics and Business Journal must disclose relevant financial and non-financial competing interests that could influence, or reasonably be perceived as influencing, the research, analysis, interpretation, or presentation of their findings.

Authors Are Required To:

The corresponding author is responsible for coordinating disclosures among all co-authors and ensuring that the Conflict of Interest statement is complete and accurate. This administrative responsibility does not remove each co-author's individual obligation to disclose relevant interests.

Peer reviewers must disclose any competing interests that could compromise, or appear to compromise, the independence and impartiality of their scholarly assessment.

Reviewers should evaluate potential conflicts before accepting a review invitation and notify the responsible editor promptly whenever relevant circumstances are identified.

Potential Reviewer Conflicts Include:

Reviewers should decline invitations where significant conflicts prevent impartial evaluation. Where the relevance of an interest is uncertain, reviewers must consult the responsible editor before proceeding.

Reviewers must not use confidential manuscripts, unpublished data, or information obtained through peer review to advance their personal, academic, commercial, or professional interests.

Editors, Editorial Board members, and other individuals participating in editorial decisions must disclose relevant competing interests that may affect, or appear to affect, the fairness and independence of manuscript handling.

Editorial decisions must be based on scholarly quality, originality, methodological rigor, relevance, ethical compliance, and peer-review outcomes rather than personal relationships, institutional interests, financial considerations, or professional advantages.

Editorial Conflict Management

Editorial Board membership, institutional affiliation, publisher involvement, or commercial relationships must not confer preferential treatment, accelerated acceptance, or exemption from the journal's established peer-review and publication standards.

Editorial Recusal

When an editor's independence may reasonably be questioned, the manuscript must be handled by an appropriately independent editor. The conflicted editor must not influence reviewer selection, confidential assessments, or the final editorial decision.

Authors must disclose relevant research funding and financial or in-kind support received from governmental institutions, commercial organizations, nonprofit entities, academic institutions, or other sponsors.

Funding statements should identify the supporting organization and, where available, the applicable grant or award number. Authors should also explain the sponsor's role, if any, in the research design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, and decision to submit the work for publication.

The existence of financial support does not automatically establish a conflict of interest. However, sponsorship arrangements that may influence research interpretation, professional judgment, or editorial independence must be appropriately declared and evaluated.

Funding disclosure and Conflict of Interest declarations serve related but distinct purposes. Authors should provide both statements where required to ensure complete transparency.

Editorial Decision-Making

Disclosure of a competing interest does not automatically result in manuscript rejection. The journal evaluates each case according to the nature and seriousness of the conflict, the effectiveness of available management measures, and the possible implications for the integrity and reliability of the scholarly work.

Every submitted manuscript must include a dedicated Conflict of Interest declaration, regardless of whether a competing interest exists.

The statement should be clear, accurate, comprehensive, and consistent with any additional information supplied to the Editorial Office. Authors must not omit relevant interests simply because they believe those interests did not influence the research.

EXAMPLE 01 / NO CONFLICT

No Competing Interests

"The authors declare that they have no financial or non-financial conflicts of interest relevant to the research, authorship, or publication of this article."

EXAMPLE 02 / FINANCIAL INTEREST

Financial Conflict of Interest

"Author [Name] has received consulting fees from [Organization], which has a financial interest in the subject matter examined in this study. This relationship has been disclosed to the Editorial Office. The remaining authors declare no relevant competing interests."

EXAMPLE 03 / NON-FINANCIAL INTEREST

Non-Financial Conflict of Interest

"Author [Name] serves on the advisory board of [Organization], whose activities are relevant to the topic of this research. This affiliation has been disclosed. The authors confirm that the relationship is accurately represented in this declaration."

EXAMPLE 04 / RESEARCH SPONSORSHIP

Funding and Sponsor Involvement

"This study received financial support from [Funding Organization]. The sponsor's involvement in research design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, and manuscript preparation is described in the Funding Statement. Any relevant competing interests have been disclosed."

EXAMPLE 05 / EDITORIAL AFFILIATION

Author with an Editorial Position

"Author [Name] is a member of the Editorial Board of Escalate: Economics and Business Journal. The author did not participate in the editorial assessment, reviewer selection, peer-review evaluation, or editorial decision concerning this manuscript."

Important Instructions for Authors

The examples above are illustrative only. Authors must adapt their declarations to reflect their actual circumstances and must not use statements that inaccurately describe their relationships, funding arrangements, or the management of potential conflicts. A declaration of no conflicts must only be used after all authors have considered their relevant interests.

Where a potentially relevant conflict of interest is identified after manuscript submission or publication, the Editorial Team may initiate an appropriate assessment in accordance with the journal's publication ethics policies.

The journal may request clarification from the authors, examine available evidence, consult independent experts, or seek relevant institutional assistance where warranted.

Editorial actions will depend on whether the undeclared interest materially affects the transparency, independence, validity, or reliability of the published research.

Possible Editorial Responses

The journal handles confidential disclosures and allegations of undisclosed competing interests with appropriate care. Information is shared only as reasonably necessary for editorial evaluation, conflict management, publication transparency, or compliance with applicable obligations.

Individuals whose conduct is questioned should be provided with an appropriate opportunity to explain relevant circumstances before substantive editorial decisions are reached.

All assessments should be conducted proportionately, independently, and without discrimination. Editors involved in the assessment of a conflict of interest must themselves be free from material conflicts concerning the case.

Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)

Discussion guidance on handling competing interests and promoting transparency in scholarly publishing.

Taylor & Francis Author Services

Editorial guidance on competing interests, financial and non-financial disclosures, and publication transparency.

Sage Publishing

Publication ethics guidance concerning the declaration of competing interests and the responsibilities of authors, reviewers, and editors.

COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers

International guidance on reviewer impartiality, confidentiality, independence, and competing interest disclosure.