Conflict of Interest

The Journal of Healthcare Analytics and Informatics (JHAI) requires all authors, reviewers, and editors to declare any personal, financial, institutional, or intellectual interests that could reasonably be perceived to influence their conduct in relation to a manuscript. Transparent disclosure protects the integrity of the editorial process and supports informed reading of the published literature.

What counts as a conflict of interest

The Journal recognizes the following categories, in line with COPE guidance:

• Financial interests: employment, consultancy, stock ownership, honoraria, grants, patents, expert testimony, or other financial relationships with any organization that could be perceived as benefiting from the work. For this Journal, this includes interests in pharmaceutical, medical device, diagnostic, health insurance, and digital-health companies, and in providers of the data, software, models, or clinical systems described in a manuscript.
• Personal relationships: close personal, familial, or romantic relationships with another individual involved in the manuscript or its review.
• Institutional relationships: shared institutional affiliations between authors and reviewers or editors at the time of the work.
• Intellectual relationships: recent co-authorship (within five years), supervisory relationships, or sustained academic disputes that could compromise impartial judgment.
• Other interests: any other relationship or activity that the individual believes a reasonable observer might consider relevant to their participation in the editorial process.

Author declarations

Every manuscript must include a Conflicts of Interest section, listing all relevant interests for each author or stating that there are none. The section is published with the article. Authors who are uncertain whether to declare a particular interest should err on the side of disclosure.

Reviewer declarations

Reviewers must decline invitations where they have a conflict of interest with the authors. Where a conflict emerges after a review has commenced, the reviewer must notify the handling editor immediately. Detailed expectations are on the Peer Review Process page.

Editor declarations

Editors complete an annual conflict-of-interest declaration covering personal, financial, institutional, and intellectual interests. Editors recuse themselves from any submission in which they have a competing interest. The handling of submissions authored by editors is described on the Editorial Independence page.

Publisher independence

The publisher, World Research Union, plays no role in editorial decisions on individual submissions. Full details are on the Publisher page and the Editorial Independence page.

How to declare

Authors declare in the manuscript itself, in a dedicated Conflicts of Interest section. Reviewers declare on the OJS review form. Editors declare to the Editor-in-Chief and recuse themselves through the OJS workflow.