Conflicts of Interest

The Journal of Sports, Exercise, and Performance (JOSEP) is committed to transparency, impartiality, and reliability in scholarly publishing. Authors, reviewers, and editors are therefore required to disclose any existing or potential conflicts of interest that may influence the manuscript evaluation or publication process.

What Is a Conflict of Interest?

A conflict of interest exists when an author, reviewer, editor, or any person involved in the publication process has personal, academic, financial, institutional, or professional relationships that may directly or indirectly influence their scholarly judgment, evaluation, or interpretation.

A conflict of interest does not necessarily imply misconduct; however, failure to disclose it may compromise the transparency and credibility of the publication process.

Situations That Should Be Disclosed

Authors, reviewers, and editors should consider and disclose the following situations when relevant:

• Financial support, grants, funding, sponsorship, or consultancy relationships
• Commercial or institutional relationships that may benefit directly or indirectly from the study results
• Close academic, personal, or professional relationships among authors, reviewers, or editors
• Recent collaboration, co-authorship, project involvement, thesis supervision, or close institutional relationship
• Connections with products, devices, software, measurement systems, or service providers used in the research
• Personal views, competition, bias, or interests that may affect the evaluation of the manuscript

Responsibilities of Authors

Authors must clearly disclose any existing or potential conflicts of interest during manuscript submission. If no conflict of interest exists, this should also be explicitly stated in the manuscript.

Author declarations should include financial support, sponsorship, institutional support, consultancy, product or service relationships, or any interest that may influence the interpretation of the work.

Suggested statement:

Responsibilities of Reviewers

Reviewers should assess whether they have any conflict of interest related to the manuscript topic, authors, institutions, or research outcomes before accepting a review invitation.

Reviewers should decline the invitation or inform the editor in the following cases:

• Close personal, academic, or professional relationship with the authors
• Recent collaboration or co-authorship with the authors
• Financial or institutional interest related to the topic or results of the manuscript
• Competition, disagreement, or personal circumstances that may prevent an impartial review

Responsibilities of Editors

Editors must withdraw from the decision-making process for manuscripts in which they have a conflict of interest or assign the manuscript to an impartial editor. Editorial decisions must be based solely on scientific quality, ethical compliance, methodological rigor, and relevance to the journal’s aims and scope.

Editors consider conflict of interest declarations submitted by authors or reviewers and may reorganize the review process when necessary.

Funding and Sponsorship Disclosure

If the research was supported by financial funding, project grants, institutional support, sponsorship, or any external source, this information must be clearly stated in the manuscript. If the funding body had any role in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, or publication decisions, this role must also be disclosed.

Failure to Disclose

If an undisclosed conflict of interest is identified, the editorial office may initiate an investigation. For manuscripts under evaluation, additional clarification may be requested, the review process may be suspended, or the manuscript may be rejected.

For published articles, a correction may be issued, readers may be informed, or retraction procedures may be initiated when necessary.

Transparency Principle

JOSEP considers conflict of interest declarations an essential element of transparency and reliability in the publication process. All parties are expected to disclose relevant information openly, honestly, and in a timely manner.