Conflict of Interest and Funding Policy

The Journal of Child and Youth Psychology (JCYP) is committed to ensuring that scholarly evaluation and publication processes are conducted in an impartial, transparent, and independent manner. Authors, reviewers, and editors are required to disclose actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest that could influence scientific evaluation, interpretation, or editorial decision-making.

1. What Is a Conflict of Interest?

A conflict of interest is any financial, personal, academic, professional, or institutional relationship that could influence, or reasonably be perceived to influence, scholarly judgment, interpretation, or decision-making.

Conflicts may include, but are not limited to:

• Financial interests, fees, consultancy, or commercial relationships,
• Relationships with organizations or sponsors supporting the research,
• Patent, licensing, or intellectual property interests,
• Close personal or professional relationships,
• Recent collaboration or co-authorship,
• Significant academic competition or direct professional interests,
• Close involvement within the same institution, research group, or project,
• A direct possibility of benefiting or being disadvantaged by the study's conclusions.

2. Author Conflict of Interest Declaration

All authors must disclose any actual or potential conflicts that could influence the design, conduct, analysis, interpretation, or publication of their work.

Authors should also provide an explicit declaration when no conflict exists.

3. Financial Conflicts of Interest

Financial interests relevant to the research or subject of the manuscript should be disclosed.

Examples may include:

• Consultancy fees,
• Speaker fees,
• Shareholdings or commercial interests,
• Patent or licensing rights,
• Paid expert or advisory roles,
• Research or equipment support.

4. Non-Financial Conflicts of Interest

Conflicts of interest are not limited to financial relationships. Personal, academic, professional, or institutional relationships may also affect impartiality.

Authors should disclose such relationships where they could reasonably influence the interpretation or publication of the work.

5. Funding and Support Declaration

All financial and in-kind support received for the conduct, data collection, analysis, preparation, or publication of a study must be disclosed.

The declaration should, where applicable, include:

• Name of the funding organization,
• Grant or project number,
• Supported author(s) or research team,
• The role of the funder or sponsor in the research.

6. Role of the Funder or Sponsor

If a funder or sponsor had any role in the research process, that role must be clearly described.

Relevant roles may include:

• Study design,
• Data collection,
• Data analysis,
• Interpretation of findings,
• Preparation of the manuscript,
• The decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

7. Conflicts of Interest for Reviewers

Before accepting a review invitation, reviewers should consider whether any conflict of interest could affect their impartiality.

Close personal or professional relationships with the authors, recent collaboration, significant academic competition, financial relationships, or similar circumstances should be disclosed to the editor.

8. Conflicts of Interest for Editors

Editors must not participate in the evaluation or decision-making process for manuscripts in which they have a relevant conflict of interest.

This particularly includes:

• Their own manuscripts,
• Manuscripts by close collaborators,
• Manuscripts by authors with whom they have close personal relationships,
• Work in which they have a direct academic or financial interest.

Such submissions must be handled by another independent editor.

9. Editorial Independence

Decisions to accept, revise, or reject manuscripts are based solely on scholarly and editorial criteria.

10. Institutional Relationships

Sharing an institutional affiliation with an editor, publisher, or editorial board member does not automatically disqualify a manuscript from consideration.

Where a close working relationship or another circumstance could compromise impartiality, the manuscript is handled by an editor without a relevant conflict and reviewed by appropriately independent reviewers.

11. Funding and Publication Decisions

Receipt of funding is neither a positive nor negative criterion for publication.

All manuscripts are subject to the same editorial and peer-review standards regardless of funding source.

12. Where Declarations Should Appear

Conflict of interest and funding information should be provided in the Cover File at initial submission and included under appropriate headings in the final version of the article.

The editorial office may request further clarification or supporting documentation where necessary.

13. Incomplete or Inaccurate Disclosure

If a relevant conflict of interest or funding relationship is found to have been omitted or inaccurately reported, the editorial office may request an explanation and supporting documentation.

Depending on the nature of the issue, the review process may be suspended, the manuscript may be rejected, or other appropriate editorial action may be taken.

14. Conflicts Identified After Publication

If an incomplete or inaccurate conflict of interest or funding declaration is identified after publication, the matter will be evaluated in accordance with publication ethics and the need to preserve the accuracy of the scholarly record.

A correction or explanatory notice may be issued where appropriate. More substantial post-publication action may be taken where the undisclosed conflict materially affects the reliability or integrity of the research.

15. Core Principle