Journal of Medical and Allied Sciences follow the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) guidelines for conflict of interest (COI) policies requires authors, reviewers, and editors to disclose any relationships or activities that could potentially bias their work or decisions. This includes financial interests, personal relationships, and any other affiliations that might influence the integrity of the research and its publication.

Key aspects of COI policy:

• Author disclosure: Authors must disclose all financial and non-financial relationships that could be perceived as a conflict of interest, including any financial support, consultancies, employment, stock ownership, honoraria, patents, or other potential conflicts.
• Reviewer disclosure: Reviewers must disclose any potential conflicts of interest that might affect their impartiality when evaluating a manuscript and must recuse themselves if necessary.
• Editor disclosure: Editors must disclose any conflicts of interest related to manuscripts under consideration and must recuse themselves from decisions where a conflict exists.
• Transparency: All disclosed conflicts should be transparently communicated to readers, typically in a conflict of interest statement within the published article.
• Funding disclosure: Journals should require authors to disclose all sources of funding for the research, including grants, pharmaceutical company funding, or other support.
• Role of sponsors: If a study is sponsored, the journal should require a clear explanation of the sponsor's role in the research and manuscript preparation.
• Compliance with ICMJE recommendations: The journal should explicitly state that it follows the ICMJE recommendations on conflict of interest and should provide a link to the latest version of the ICMJE guidelines.
• Use of ICMJE disclosure form: Journals should require authors to use the ICMJE's uniform disclosure form to ensure consistent and comprehensive disclosure. ICMJE Conflict of interest disclosure form to be filled. The authors of all submitted manuscripts must declare in the covering letter whether they have any conflicts of interest.
• Editorial board policies: The journal should have clear policies regarding the evaluation of manuscripts submitted by individuals involved in editorial decisions.
• Regular disclosure statements: Editors should regularly publish their own disclosure statements and those of their journal staff.
• Recusal: In situations where a conflict of interest exists, the editor should recuse themselves from the decision-making process and delegate it to another editor.
• No use of information: Editorial staff must not use information gained through working with manuscripts for private gain.