Conflict of Interest

AL-ARBAH: Journal of Islamic Finance and Banking is committed to transparency and integrity in its editorial and peer-review processes, in line with the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Everyone involved in publication (authors, reviewers, and editors) must disclose any conflict of interest that could influence, or appear to influence, their judgment.

What is a conflict of interest?

A conflict of interest exists when a person’s professional judgment about a manuscript may be affected by a secondary interest. Such interests include:

  • Financial: employment, consultancy, honoraria, shareholding, grants, patents, or paid expert testimony related to the manuscript’s subject, including links to Islamic banks, financial institutions, or companies discussed in the study.
  • Institutional: affiliation with an organization whose interests may be affected by the publication.
  • Professional or academic: close collaboration, competition, or rivalry with the authors, reviewers, or editors involved.
  • Personal: family relationships or close personal ties.
  • Ideological or religious: strongly held beliefs that may affect objective assessment, for example of a fiqh position under discussion.

Authors

  • Authors must disclose all sources of funding for the research and any financial or non-financial interests related to the manuscript.
  • The disclosure must appear in a Declaration of Conflicting Interests statement placed before the References, and in the Comments for the Editor field during submission.
  • If there is no conflict, authors must state: “The author(s) declare no conflict of interest.”
  • Authors should state the role of funders, if any, in the study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, or the decision to publish.

Example: “This research was funded by [funder] under grant [number]. The funder had no role in the study design, data analysis, or decision to publish. The authors declare no other conflict of interest.”

Reviewers

  • Reviewers must decline a review invitation, or inform the editor immediately, if they have a conflict of interest. Examples include co-authorship or collaboration with any author within the last three years, belonging to the same institution, a personal relationship, or a competing interest in the topic.
  • Under double-blind review, a reviewer who recognizes the authors’ identity and believes this may affect their objectivity must notify the editor.
  • Reviewers must not use unpublished information from a manuscript for their own advantage.

Editors

  • Editors must not handle manuscripts in which they have a conflict of interest. Such manuscripts are assigned to another editor with no conflict.
  • Manuscripts submitted by the Editor-in-Chief, members of the editorial board, or staff of the journal’s publisher receive no special treatment. They are handled by an independent editor and go through the same double-blind peer review. The submitting editor is excluded from all decisions about the manuscript.
  • Editorial decisions are based only on the manuscript’s academic quality, originality, and relevance to the journal’s scope.

Undisclosed conflicts

If an undisclosed conflict of interest comes to light before or after publication, the journal will investigate according to COPE guidelines. Depending on the outcome, the journal may publish a correction, an expression of concern, or a retraction.