According to the guidelines of the Association of American Medical Colleges, The Council of Science Editors and the World Association of Medical Editors, Conflict of Interest in scientific publications refers to "situations in which financial or other personal considerations may compromise or have the appearance of compromising, an investigator's professional judgment in conducting or reporting research."

Every Scopub journal requires authors to state all conflicting interests in relation to their work. The manuscript submitted must include a 'conflict of interest' section at the end of the manuscript listing all the financial and non-financial issues. Where authors have no conflicting interests, they should mention clearly with a statement such as "Authors declare that there is no conflict of interest".