OPRE COI Policy

A conflict of interest (COI) arises when the objective judgement of a participant in the review process (Area Editor, Associate Editor, or Reviewer) is potentially impaired. OPRE requires Area Editors and Associate Editors to monitor manuscripts they are handling for potential COIs. (Note that reviewers cannot see author name(s) since the review process is double-anonymous.)

COI relationships include, but are not limited to the following:

• Active current collaboration;
• Co-authorship within the past 3 years;
• Collaboration on a funding proposal within the past 3 years;
• Employed at the same institution;
• (Former) PhD student and PhD advisor;
• Personal relationship or rivalry that prevents objectivity.

The journal has two back-up Editor-in-Chiefs, that handle manuscripts for which the Editor-in-Chief has a COI with the authors.

OPRE allows for Editors to submit manuscripts to the OPRE journal. An Area Editor cannot handle his/her own manuscript, or the manuscript of his/her co-Area Editor (in the case of Areas with two Area Editors). An Area Editor may handle the manuscript of an Area Editor from a different Area. An Area Editor may handle the manuscript of an Associate Editor from the same Area.