Conflict of Interest Policy

Journal of Applied Cryptanalysis & System Integrity (JACSI)

Definition

A conflict of interest (COI) exists when a participant in the editorial process (author, reviewer, or editor) has a relationship or interest that could unduly influence their judgment. JACSI distinguishes between:

  • Financial COI: Employment, consultancy, stock ownership, honoraria, patents, or paid expert testimony related to the manuscript's subject
  • Academic COI: Co-authorship (within 3 years), supervisor/student relationship (within 5 years), institutional affiliation, grant co-investigators, or manuscript collaboration
  • Personal COI: Close personal relationships, professional rivalries, or other relationships that could bias judgment

Author Obligations

1. Declaration: All authors must declare all potential conflicts of interest at submission time

2. Funding: All funding sources for the research must be disclosed

3. Published statement: A COI statement is published with every article (including "The authors declare no conflicts of interest")

4. Employer/funder influence: Authors must declare if any funder or employer had a role in study design, data collection, analysis, manuscript preparation, or publication decision

Reviewer Obligations

1. Pre-acceptance screening: Before accepting a review assignment, reviewers must assess whether any COI exists

2. Mandatory recusal: Reviewers must decline if they:

- Are from the same institution as any author

- Have co-authored with any author within the past 3 years

- Have a supervisor/student relationship with any author (within 5 years)

- Have a financial interest in the outcome

- Feel unable to provide an objective assessment for any reason

3. Disclosure: If a potential COI is identified after accepting the assignment, the reviewer must notify the handling editor immediately

4. Confidentiality: Reviewers must not use information from the manuscript for personal advantage

Editor Obligations

1. Recusal: The Editor-in-Chief or handling editor must recuse themselves from any manuscript where a COI exists

2. Substitute handling: Recused manuscripts are handled by another Editorial Board member with no COI

3. Transparency: The editor handling a manuscript is identified in the published article metadata

4. No exploitation: Editors must not use unpublished manuscript information in their own research

Editor-in-Chief Self-Submission

When the Editor-in-Chief submits a manuscript to JACSI:

  • The EiC is completely removed from the editorial process for that manuscript
  • An Associate Editor or Board member is designated as handling editor
  • The EiC has no access to reviewer identities, reports, or editorial correspondence for their submission
  • The handling editor's decision is final and cannot be overridden by the EiC

Institutional COI

JACSI recognizes that the Editor-in-Chief's institutional affiliations create a structural COI risk. To mitigate:

  • The endogeny policy (<=25% per calendar year) limits publications from editors' institutions
  • Manuscripts from the EiC's institution are handled by a Board member from a different institution and country

Enforcement

Violations of this policy may result in:

  • Rejection or retraction of the affected manuscript
  • Removal from the Editorial Board
  • Notification to the individual's institution
  • Publication of a correction or editorial notice
  • Reporting to COPE if the violation constitutes research misconduct

Reference

This policy follows COPE guidelines on conflicts of interest:

  • https://publicationethics.org/guidance/flowcharts
  • ICMJE Recommendations: http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/