Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Notes on the Submission of Papers

Disclosure of financial and other interests Some journals have policies requiring authors of submitted papers to declare potential conflicts of interest. The purpose is not to remove the conflict but to publicize it, and to allow readers to form their own conclusions on whether any conflict of interest exists. For many of the papers submitted to the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society this is unlikely to be an issue. However, such interests may take many forms, including financial considerations and situations where one or more of the authors have acted as consultants or advisors (paid or otherwise) to a project relevant to the submitted paper. This does not imply that there is anything wrong with holding such interests or that research published by authors with such interests is thereby compromised. With the aim of encouraging transparency and accountability, however, authors of material submitted to the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society are asked to disclose any financial or other interest that may be relevant and/or would prove an embarrassment if it were to emerge after publication and they had not declared it. The appropriate place for such disclosures is in a covering note to the Editor. At the Editor's discretion, this information may be printed at the end of the paper if it is published