Conflict of Interest

This policy has been developed with due regard to the recommendations of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the approaches of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) concerning the management of conflicts of interest in editorial practice.

The editorial office of the scholarly collection Ways to Improve Construction Efficiency adheres to the principles of transparency, academic integrity, editorial independence, and impartial manuscript assessment. In order to ensure objectivity, the editorial office requires authors, editors, editorial board members, and reviewers to disclose in a timely manner all actual or potential conflicts of interest that may affect the preparation, submission, peer review, editorial consideration, decision-making, or publication of a manuscript.

A conflict of interest is understood as any financial, professional, official, institutional, administrative, academic, or personal circumstance that may influence, or create the appearance of influencing, the impartiality of a participant in the editorial process.

Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest by Authors

At the time of manuscript submission, authors must inform the editorial office of all circumstances that may be regarded as a conflict of interest. Such disclosure should include sources of research funding, as well as the involvement of institutions, organizations, or other persons in the development of the research concept, conduct of the study, analysis of results, preparation of the manuscript, and the decision to submit it for publication.

Authors must also disclose financial and non-financial interests that may directly or indirectly affect the content of the manuscript, the interpretation of results, or the perception of the research. If no such circumstances exist, the authors should state that there is no conflict of interest.

Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest by Editors and Reviewers

Editors, editorial board members, and reviewers must promptly disclose any circumstances that may affect their impartiality. Such circumstances may include, among others, employment at the same institution as the author, official or administrative subordination, academic supervision, recent co-authorship, personal conflicts, competitive relationships, or any other interest in the outcome of the manuscript assessment.

A person for whom a conflict of interest has been identified shall not participate in the further consideration of the relevant manuscript.

Procedure for Managing Conflicts of Interest

If a conflict of interest is identified or reported, the editorial office applies the following procedure.

A conflict of interest may be recorded at the stage of manuscript submission, initial editorial screening, reviewer selection, peer review, or editorial decision-making.

Information on an actual or potential conflict of interest shall be considered by the handling editor or the Editor-in-Chief, provided that the latter is not a party to the conflict.

If the conflict of interest is confirmed, the relevant editor, editorial board member, or reviewer shall be recused from participation in the consideration of the manuscript.

For the further handling of the manuscript, another editor or an independent handling editor shall be appointed, provided that this person has no conflict of interest in relation to the authors, the authors’ institutions, or the content of the submitted manuscript.

If necessary, the appointed reviewer shall be replaced by another independent reviewer.

The grounds for recusal, replacement of a participant in the editorial process, and the subsequent actions of the editorial office shall be documented in the internal editorial records.

The final editorial decision shall be made solely on the basis of the scholarly quality of the manuscript, the results of independent peer review, and compliance with the journal’s editorial requirements.

Submissions by the Editor-in-Chief, Editors, and Editorial Board Members

Manuscripts submitted by the Editor-in-Chief, editors, and/or editorial board members shall be considered under a separate procedure.

The author of such a submission shall not participate in the initial consideration of the manuscript, the selection of reviewers, editorial correspondence concerning the evaluation of the manuscript, the analysis of reviewer reports, or the decision-making process regarding their own submission.

For the handling of such a submission, the editorial office shall appoint an independent handling editor who organizes the entire review process and ensures compliance with the journal’s standard editorial procedure.

Such manuscripts shall be reviewed by independent reviewers who are not in a relationship of subordination, administrative dependence, recent co-authorship, or any other conflict of interest with the author.

The editorial decision on such manuscripts shall be made on general grounds in accordance with the journal’s standards and the results of independent peer review.

Undisclosed Conflict of Interest

If a conflict of interest was not disclosed during submission, peer review, or editorial consideration but is identified later, the editorial office reserves the right to initiate an additional review, request explanations from the participants in the editorial process, reconsider the editorial decision, publish a clarification or correction, or take other measures in accordance with the journal’s editorial policy and the principles of publication ethics.

Implementation of the Policy

The editorial office ensures not only the public availability of this policy but also its actual and consistent implementation in editorial practice.