Conflicts of Interest

In accordance with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Core Practices, Terra Alimentaria requires all participants in the publication process—authors, peer reviewers, and editorial board members—to transparently declare any potential Conflicts of Interest (COI).

A conflict of interest exists when professional judgment concerning the validity of research is influenced by a secondary interest, such as financial gain, personal relationships, or academic rivalry.

1. Types of Conflicts of Interest

  • Financial Conflicts: Include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and research funding or grants from organizations that may gain or lose financially from the publication of the manuscript.
  • Non-Financial Conflicts: Include personal or professional relationships, institutional affiliations, strong academic rivalries, or deeply held personal beliefs that could be perceived to influence objectivity.

2. Policy for Authors

All authors must disclose any financial or non-financial conflicts of interest that occurred within the last 3 (three) years related to the submitted work.

  • Disclosure Mechanism: Authors must include a mandatory "Conflicts of Interest" statement in the Declarations section of their manuscript (prior to the references) and sign the official Author Declaration Form.
  • No Conflict Statement: If no conflict exists, the authors must explicitly state: "The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper."

3. Policy for Peer Reviewers

To maintain the absolute integrity of our single-blind and double-blind peer-review processes, reviewers must recuse themselves from evaluating a manuscript if they recognize the work and identify a conflict of interest.

Reviewers must decline the review invitation (or contact the handling editor immediately) if they:

  • Have co-authored a publication with any of the manuscript's authors within the past 3 years.
  • Are currently affiliated with the same institution/department as the authors.
  • Have a direct supervisory, mentorship, or close personal relationship with the authors.
  • Have a direct financial interest in the results of the research.

4. Policy for Editors and Editorial Board Members

Editorial independence is strictly enforced. Editors will not handle the peer review or make acceptance/rejection decisions for manuscripts where they have a conflict of interest (e.g., papers submitted by colleagues from their own institution, or papers where they are listed as a co-author).

Submissions by Editorial Board Members: If an Editor-in-Chief, Managing Editor, or Editorial Board Member submits a manuscript to Terra Alimentaria, they are completely blinded to the review process of their own paper. The manuscript will be assigned to an independent Guest Editor or a different Editorial Board member to manage the peer review and final decision, ensuring a completely unbiased evaluation.

5. Undisclosed Conflicts of Interest

If an undisclosed conflict of interest is discovered after a manuscript has been published, the journal will follow COPE protocols to investigate. Depending on the severity of the undeclared conflict, this may result in the publication of an official Corrigendum, Expression of Concern, or full Article Retraction.