AME journals comply with the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE)’s uniform requirements on Conflicts of Interest.

1. Participants
Conflicts of interest exist when an author (or the author’s institution), reviewer, editor, editorial board member has financial or personal relationships with other individuals or organizations that could inappropriately influence his or her actions in a way that creates bias. The existence of such a relationship does not necessarily represent a true conflict of interest. The potential for conflicts of interest can exist whether or not an individual believes that the relationship affects their judgment. Financial relationships (e.g., employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patents) are the most easily identifiable conflicts of interest and are most likely to undermine the credibility of the journal, the authors, and the scientific value of the research (http://www.icmje.org/index.html).

2. Reporting Conflicts of Interest
All authors will be asked to fill in the ICMJE’s unified disclosure form (the latest version). The form can be downloaded at: https://cdn.amegroups.cn/static/public/coi_disclosure.docx. Each author should submit a separate form and is responsible for the accuracy and completeness of the submitted information. The corresponding author should use the information in the form completed by each author to create the COI statement for the manuscript. The statement (but not the forms) must be included along with the submission. The statement should include the initials of the author along with the conflicts of interest. The following examples show the format in which the Conflicts of Interest statement should appear in the manuscript:

“Conflicts of Interest: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form. The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.”

“Conflicts of Interest: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form. KSS and VS are former employees of Scanco Medical AG. NV is a current employee of Scanco Medical AG. The other authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.”

If the paper is accepted, the completed ICMJE’s unified disclosure forms will be required and will be published alongside the article.

Updated on April 25, 2022