Conflict of Interest
Journal Policies
Conflict of Interest
Contents
Overview
The Sapientia Filipina: Review of Education and Multidisciplinary Studies (SFREMS) is committed to maintaining the highest standards of integrity, transparency, impartiality, and accountability throughout the scholarly publishing process. To preserve public trust in published research, all participants in the publication process—including authors, reviewers, editors, Editorial Board members, and journal staff—are required to disclose any actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest that could influence, or reasonably be perceived to influence, the conduct, evaluation, interpretation, or publication of scholarly work.
Transparent disclosure enables fair editorial decision-making and safeguards the credibility and independence of the journal.
Authors must disclose any relationships, affiliations, activities, or financial interests that could influence—or appear to influence—the design, conduct, analysis, interpretation, or reporting of their research.
Potential conflicts of interest may include, but are not limited to:
All disclosures should be submitted at the time of manuscript submission and updated promptly if circumstances change during the editorial or publication process.
If no conflicts of interest exist, authors should include the following statement:
“The authors declare no conflict of interest.”
Reviewer Conflict of Interest
Peer reviewers are expected to conduct reviews objectively, independently, and without bias.
Reviewers must decline or withdraw from reviewing a manuscript if they have any actual, potential, or perceived conflict of interest that could compromise their impartiality.
Examples include:
Reviewers must promptly notify the Editorial Office if a conflict becomes apparent after accepting a review assignment.
Editor Conflict of Interest
Editors must perform their editorial responsibilities independently and objectively.
Editors must recuse themselves from handling manuscripts when they have:
When a conflict exists, editorial responsibility will be assigned to another qualified editor.
The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for ensuring that editorial decisions remain free from inappropriate influence.
Editorial Board Responsibilities
Members of the Editorial Board are expected to uphold the same standards of transparency and impartiality as editors.
Editorial Board members should:
Management of Conflicts of Interest
The Editorial Office evaluates all disclosed conflicts of interest to determine whether they may affect the integrity of the editorial or peer review process.
Where appropriate, the journal may:
Editorial decisions are based exclusively on scholarly merit and are never influenced by financial, institutional, political, or personal interests.
Funding Transparency
Authors must disclose all sources of financial support for the research, including:
The role of the funding organization in:
should be clearly described.
If the funding source had no involvement, authors should state this explicitly.
Undisclosed Conflicts of Interest
Failure to disclose relevant conflicts of interest constitutes a breach of publication ethics.
Where undisclosed conflicts are identified, the journal may:
Editorial actions will be proportionate to the seriousness of the omission.
Ongoing Disclosure
The obligation to disclose conflicts of interest continues throughout the publication process.
Authors, reviewers, and editors are expected to inform the Editorial Office promptly if new conflicts arise:
The journal may update published conflict of interest statements when necessary.
Commitment to Transparency
The Sapientia Filipina: Review of Education and Multidisciplinary Studies (SFREMS) is committed to fostering transparency, accountability, and fairness throughout the publication process. By requiring comprehensive conflict of interest disclosures from authors, reviewers, editors, and Editorial Board members, the journal ensures that editorial decisions remain objective, independent, and consistent with internationally recognized standards of publication ethics and research integrity. These practices strengthen the credibility of published research and reinforce public confidence in multidisciplinary scholarship across education, the social sciences, humanities, business, health sciences, engineering, information technology, agriculture, environmental sciences, public administration, and related disciplines.
Alignment with International Standards
This Conflict of Interest Policy has been developed in accordance with internationally recognized principles of publication ethics, editorial independence, transparency, and responsible scholarly publishing and is aligned with:
Committee on Publication Ethics
Core Practices
Guidance on conflicts of interest, editorial independence, peer review, and publication ethics.
publicationethics.org →International Committee of Medical Journal Editors
Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work
Recommendations on disclosure of relationships and activities, editorial independence, and conflicts of interest.
icmje.org/recommendations →Directory of Open Access Journals
Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing
Requirements for transparent conflict of interest policies, editorial governance, and ethical publishing.
doaj.org/apply/guide →SFREMS periodically reviews and updates this Conflict of Interest Policy to ensure continued alignment with evolving international standards for publication ethics, editorial transparency, research integrity, and responsible open-access scholarly publishing.
Sapientia Filipina · Review of Education and Multidisciplinary Studies · NIRD
