A conflict of interest exists when professional judgment concerning a primary interest may be influenced by a secondary interest.

ICJME recommendation

Author’s Conflict of Interest

At the point of submission, Ci-STEM Journal of Digital Technologies and Expert Systems requires that each author reveal any personal and/or financial interests or connections, direct or indirect, or other situations that might raise the question of bias in the work reported or the conclusions, implications, or opinions stated. When considering whether you should declare a conflicting interest or connection, please consider the conflict of interest test: Is there any arrangement that would embarrass you or any of your co-authors if it was to emerge after publication and you had not declared it?

Corresponding authors are responsible to confirm whether they or their co-authors have any conflicts of interest to declare, and to provide details of these. The statement includes any information regarding whether the manuscript is under consideration for other publication, or whether you have any patents that relevant to the manuscript. If the manuscript is published, any conflict of interest information will be written in the Conflict of Interest statement.

Author’s Acknowledgement

Authors whose manuscripts are submitted for publication must declare all relevant sources of funding in support of the preparation of a manuscript. Ci-STEM Journal of Digital Technologies and Expert Systems requires full disclosure of financial support as to whether it is from government agencies, the pharmaceutical or any other industry, or any other source. Authors are required to specify sources of funding for the study and to indicate whether or not the manuscript was reviewed by the sponsor prior to submission. This information should be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript.

In addition to disclosure of direct financial support to the authors or their laboratories and prior sponsor-review of the paper, corresponding authors will be asked to disclose all relevant consultancies since the views expressed in the contribution could be influenced by the opinions they have expressed privately as consultants. This information should also be included in the Acknowledgments section of the manuscript.

Reviewer’s Conflict of Interest

Reviewers must disclose to editors any conflicts of interest that could bias their opinions of the manuscript, and should recuse themselves from reviewing specific manuscripts if the potential for bias exists. As in the case of authors, silence on the part of reviewers concerning potential conflicts may mean either that such conflicts exist that they have failed to disclose, or that conflicts do not exist. Reviewers must not use information of the manuscript they are reviewing before it is being published, to further their own interests.