This page states BMU-wide publishing principles. It does not replace journal-specific author guidelines, peer-review descriptions, fee schedules or discipline-specific ethical requirements. Operational claims apply only where implemented by the relevant journal or publisher system.
Scope of competing interests
Competing interests may be financial, personal, professional, academic, political, ideological or institutional. The relevant question is whether a reasonable reader or decision-maker would consider the relationship material to the work or editorial process.
Author disclosures
Authors should disclose relevant interests and sources of funding or support. Where there are no relevant competing interests, the publication should include an appropriate negative declaration if required by the journal.
Funder and sponsor roles
Funding statements should identify the source of support and, where relevant, describe the role of funders or sponsors in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, writing and the decision to submit.
A sponsor’s involvement must not be obscured through vague acknowledgements where it materially shaped the research or manuscript.
Editorial conflicts
Editors and reviewers should disclose case-specific conflicts and recuse themselves where impartiality could reasonably be questioned. Editorial authority should not be exercised over one’s own work or that of close collaborators, family members or other materially connected persons.
Financial separation
Fees, waivers, advertising, sponsorship and institutional relationships must not determine peer review or acceptance. A person responsible for an academic decision should not use financial status as a proxy for scholarly merit.
Post-publication correction of disclosures
Where a material competing interest or funding role was omitted, the journal should determine whether a correction is sufficient or whether the omission affected the integrity of the editorial process or interpretation of the work.
Institutional relationships
A partnership between BMU and an institution does not entitle that institution, its employees or affiliates to preferential publication. Institutional cooperation and editorial independence should remain distinct.
Transparency as context
Disclosure is designed to make relevant relationships visible. The existence of an interest does not automatically invalidate research; undisclosed or unmanaged interests can, however, undermine confidence in the process.
Policy basis and interpretation
Adapted principally from JHWCR Policy 24 and related governance provisions. The BMU version generalises journal-specific material into a publisher framework and removes details that should remain title-specific. Where a journal publishes a more specific requirement that is consistent with these principles, the journal-specific rule governs that journal's submissions.
Questions about this framework may be sent to info@bmuventures.com.