The American Psychological Association defines a conflict of interest as "a situation in which a researcher must choose between two or more competing interests, such as the need to report research findings honestly and the need to make money, get published, or keep outside funding." When a researcher takes on competing responsibilities, such as working on a different topic, writing a new grant application, teaching, or peer reviewing, this is referred to as a conflict of commitments. According to Cope↗ Conflicts of interest occur when authors, reviewers, or editors have interests that are not fully disclosed, which may affect their judgements on what is published and, when exposed later, might cause a reasonable reader to feel mislead or tricked.

Financial or commercial links are the most frequent kind of conflicts of interest, which cast doubt on the reliability of journals or authors. Therefore, in order to maintain the integrity of the research, we urge authors, editors, and peer reviewers to disclose any conflicts of interest that may affect their work or review objectively.

The "Declaration of Conflicting Interests Policy" of the Pakistan Journal of Professional Psychology: Research and Practice is extremely rigorous. Everyone involved in the peer-review or publishing process must identify any potential conflicts of interest and declare all improper interests in a formal declaration of conflicting interests that can be carried within the paginated published article. This is done to ensure transparency.

When competing interests are revealed, the articles will be fairly examined and may not always be rejected.

All financial and personal interests that can affect how their submitted content is evaluated and published must be disclosed by authors. When there isn't a conflict of interest, the author should state, "The author(s) declare that they have no competing interests." However, in a conflict-of-interest situation, the author(s) musts:

• Acknowledge all forms of financial assistance provided in the contributions.
• Acknowledge any business or financial ties to the contributions that might give the impression of a conflict of interest and discuss with the editor where to declare this information in the journal.
• Mention that they have not signed any contracts with the sponsors of the study that limit them from disclosing both favorable and unfavorable findings, or that require them to obtain the sponsor's permission before publishing the research.

For Reviewers

Reviewers are required to disclose any conflicts of interest. The reviewer should decline the offer and give the editor a brief description of any potential conflicts that could skew their evaluation of the paper. From the standpoint of a reviewer, the most prevalent conflicts of interest are:

• Conflicts in the past with the author(s)
• collaborating on the same research project
• co-authorship of recent publications
• part of the pre-review procedure before an article submission

If a reviewer is unclear about any potential prejudice, they are welcome to consult with our editorial team for advice. Additionally, before the article is published, reviewers are not permitted to use any concept, methodology, or section of the under-review manuscript.

For Editor

The conflict of interest policy also applies to editors, just like it does to authors and reviewers. It is advised that the editor reject processing any manuscripts including any relationship or conflict that could lead to prejudice right once.