Conflict of Interest Policy for Editors

Editors of the Libyan Journal of Dentistry — the Editor-in-Chief and the handling editors — are required to disclose all actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest and to recuse themselves from handling any manuscript where such a conflict exists.

Categories of Conflict

An editor must declare a conflict in any of the following circumstances:

  • Personal relationships — a current or recent personal or family relationship with any of the authors.
  • Professional and academic relationships — co-authorship within the past three years; a shared grant or formal collaboration; a supervisor/supervisee relationship (current or within five years); institutional affiliation in common with any of the authors.
  • Competing interests — active research on a topic closely competitive with the work; publication of competing work in the previous three years.
  • Financial interests — direct financial interest in any product affected by the work; recent consultancy or honoraria from any party with a financial interest; patent applications related to the subject of the work.
  • Other — personal animosity towards any of the authors; any other circumstance that the editor judges could be perceived as a conflict.

Disclosure

Conflicts must be declared at the earliest opportunity — ideally at the point of assignment of the manuscript. Where the editor is uncertain whether a circumstance constitutes a conflict, the presumption is to disclose.

Recusal

  • Where a substantive conflict exists, the editor recuses themselves from handling the manuscript;
  • The Editor-in-Chief designates an alternative handling editor who has no conflict;
  • Where the conflict concerns the Editor-in-Chief themselves, a senior member of the Editorial Board is designated by the Faculty to handle the manuscript in their place.

Editor's Own Manuscripts

The Editor-in-Chief does not handle manuscripts authored by themselves or by their immediate co-workers. Editorial Board members do not handle manuscripts in which they are authors or contributors. Editors' own submissions are treated under the standard editorial process by an independent editor.

Annual Review

Editors review and update their conflict-of-interest disclosure annually.