Declaration of Interest
Conflicts of interest refer to any circumstances or relationships that may not be obvious but could influence the impartiality of authors, reviewers, or editors. Authors must disclose any personal, financial, academic, political, or commercial connections that could affect their research.

If no conflicts exist, authors should state: “Declarations of interest: none.” This declaration will be included in the published article if accepted.

Where conflicts are present, authors must complete and submit a separate declaration of interest form with full details, which will be retained in the journal’s records.

Authorship
Authors must confirm that all listed contributors have significantly participated in the research or manuscript preparation and have approved the final version. They must also verify that the submission is original, has not been published previously (except as an abstract or thesis) and is not under review elsewhere.

Acknowledgment of Contributors
Individuals who contributed to the research but do not qualify for authorship should be recognised in the acknowledgments section. This includes those who offered technical, editorial, or other forms of assistance.

Changes to Authorship
The author list and sequence should be finalised before submission. Any modifications such as adding, removing, or reordering authors are only permitted before acceptance and require approval from the Editor.

Requests for changes must include:

A written explanation for the change and confirmation from all authors agreeing to the revision, including consent from any author being added or removed.

After acceptance, authorship changes will be considered only in exceptional cases with editorial approval. If approved after publication, a corrigendum will be issued.

Dispute Resolution
In cases of authorship disagreements, the journal will follow the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) to address and resolve the matter, which may involve contacting the relevant institutions.