Business Innovation and Entrepreneurship Journal (BIEJ) is committed to ensuring transparency, impartiality, and editorial independence throughout the scholarly publishing process.

BIEJ recognizes that financial, professional, academic, institutional, and personal relationships may influence, or reasonably be perceived to influence, the conduct, evaluation, interpretation, or publication of research.

To safeguard the integrity of its publications, BIEJ requires authors, reviewers, editors, and individuals involved in editorial decision-making to disclose relevant actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest.

1. Definition of Conflict of Interest

A conflict of interest, also referred to as a competing interest, arises when a person’s professional judgment or responsibilities may be influenced, or may reasonably appear to be influenced, by secondary interests.

Conflicts of interest may include, but are not limited to:

• Financial Interests: Research funding, employment, consultancy fees, honoraria, stock ownership, patents, commercial interests, or other financial relationships relevant to the research.
• Personal Relationships: Family relationships, close friendships, personal disputes, or other relationships that could compromise impartial judgment.
• Professional and Academic Interests: Direct academic competition, supervisory relationships, close research collaboration, or professional relationships that may affect objectivity.
• Institutional Interests: Organizational affiliations, commercial partnerships, institutional obligations, or competing institutional interests that may influence editorial or research decisions.
• Intellectual or Other Non-Financial Interests: Strong commitments, affiliations, or interests that could reasonably affect the objective evaluation or interpretation of a manuscript.

The existence of a competing interest does not necessarily indicate unethical conduct or invalidate a research contribution. However, transparent disclosure is essential to enable appropriate evaluation and management.

2. Responsibilities of Authors

All authors are required to disclose relevant financial and non-financial competing interests when submitting a manuscript.

Authors must also disclose the sources of funding or sponsorship supporting the research, including the role of sponsors, where applicable, in research design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, or decisions concerning publication.

Disclosures must be accurate, complete, and updated whenever new relevant circumstances arise during the editorial process.

BIEJ recommends the following statements:

3. Responsibilities of Peer Reviewers

Reviewers must disclose any relationship or circumstance that could affect their ability to provide an independent and objective assessment.

Potential conflicts may involve recent research collaboration, direct professional competition, supervisory relationships, close personal connections, or financial interests relating to the authors or research.

Reviewers must inform the handling editor promptly when such circumstances exist and should decline or withdraw from a review assignment when impartiality cannot reasonably be maintained.

Reviewers must not use unpublished information obtained during peer review for personal, professional, academic, or commercial advantage.

4. Responsibilities of Editors and Editorial Board Members

Editors and Editorial Board members must exercise independent academic judgment and disclose competing interests that could affect their editorial responsibilities.

Editors must recuse themselves from handling manuscripts where relevant relationships or interests could compromise, or reasonably appear to compromise, impartiality.

Examples include manuscripts authored by editors themselves, close collaborators, family members, or individuals with whom they have significant competing interests.

When an editor has a relevant conflict, responsibility for the manuscript will be transferred to another appropriately qualified and unconflicted editor.

Manuscripts submitted by members of the Editorial Board will be subject to the journal’s normal editorial and peer-review standards, with independent handling and decision-making.

5. Publisher and Editorial Independence

The Faculty of Entrepreneurship, Universitas Garut, as the publisher of BIEJ, supports the editorial independence of the journal.

Editorial decisions must be based on scholarly merit, methodological rigor, originality, relevance to the journal’s scope, and research integrity.

Financial considerations, institutional interests, sponsorship arrangements, personal relationships, or other non-academic pressures must not improperly influence manuscript acceptance, rejection, or editorial evaluation.

6. Management and Non-Disclosure of Competing Interests

When a relevant conflict of interest is identified, BIEJ may request further disclosure, appoint independent reviewers or editors, require clarification in the published manuscript, or take other proportionate measures to safeguard the editorial process.

Failure to disclose a material competing interest may result in additional investigation, rejection of a manuscript, publication of a correction, an Expression of Concern, or retraction where the undisclosed interest seriously compromises the reliability or integrity of the publication.

All relevant disclosures will be evaluated according to their nature and significance. BIEJ does not automatically disqualify a manuscript solely because a potential conflict has been declared.

7. Transparency and Continuing Disclosure

Conflict of interest statements will be included in published articles, as appropriate, to enable readers to assess relevant relationships and interests.

Authors, reviewers, and editors remain responsible for disclosing newly identified competing interests during the editorial process and, where relevant, after publication.

Through transparent disclosure and appropriate management of competing interests, BIEJ aims to maintain public trust, protect editorial independence, and promote responsible scholarly communication.