Conflict of Interest

The Indonesian Journal of Acupuncture is committed to maintaining transparency, integrity, and objectivity throughout the research and publication process. All authors, reviewers, editors, and editorial board members are required to disclose any financial or non-financial relationships, activities, or interests that could influence, or reasonably be perceived to influence, their professional judgment regarding a manuscript.

Authors

All authors must disclose any potential conflicts of interest related to their submitted manuscript. These may include, but are not limited to, employment, consultancies, honoraria, research funding, grants, stock ownership, patents, personal relationships, professional affiliations, or other interests that could influence the research, its interpretation, or its publication. Authors must provide a conflict of interest statement in their manuscript, even when no conflicts exist. If there are no conflicts of interest to declare, authors should include the following statement:

"The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest related to this study."

Authors must also disclose the sources of financial or material support for the research and describe the role of the funder, if any, in the study design, data collection, data analysis, interpretation of findings, manuscript preparation, and the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

Reviewers

Reviewers must disclose any financial, professional, personal, or other relationships that could affect the impartiality of their assessment. Reviewers who identify a potential conflict of interest must inform the handling editor and decline the review when the conflict could compromise their objectivity. Reviewers must maintain confidentiality and must not use unpublished information obtained during peer review for personal or professional advantage.

Editors and Editorial Board Members

Editors and editorial board members must disclose any actual or potential conflicts of interest related to manuscripts under consideration. An editor who has a conflict of interest must not participate in the evaluation or decision-making process for the affected manuscript. The manuscript will be handled by an independent editor who has no relevant conflict of interest.

Editorial decisions must be based on the manuscript's scientific merit, originality, methodological quality, relevance to the journal's scope, and compliance with publication ethics, without inappropriate influence from commercial, personal, or institutional interests.

Disclosure and Management

All disclosed conflicts of interest will be evaluated by the editorial team, and appropriate measures will be taken to protect the integrity and impartiality of the editorial process. The journal may request additional information or supporting documentation when necessary. Failure to disclose relevant conflicts of interest may result in editorial action in accordance with the journal's publication ethics policies.

This policy is informed by the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), particularly its guidance on the disclosure of financial and non-financial relationships and activities. For further information, authors may consult the ICMJE Disclosure of Interest guidance.