The Journal of English Language Teaching, Linguistics, and Literature (JETLEE) requires everyone involved in the publication process, including authors, reviewers, editors, and the publisher, to disclose and manage conflicts of interest. Transparency allows editors and readers to judge whether a relationship may have influenced the work, and protects the fairness of the editorial process. This policy follows the Core Practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

What Is a Conflict of Interest?

A conflict of interest exists when a person’s professional judgment about a manuscript, whether in writing, reviewing, or deciding on it, could be influenced, or could reasonably appear to be influenced, by a secondary interest. Having a conflict of interest is not in itself wrongdoing. Failing to disclose one is.

Conflicts may be:

1. Financial: employment, research grants, consultancy fees, honoraria, royalties, or any financial interest in a product, textbook, test, or service discussed in the manuscript. In language education, this includes authors who evaluate teaching materials, apps, or assessments that they developed, sell, or are paid to promote.
2. Academic: recent collaboration, co-authorship, or supervisory relationships (such as a supervisor and their current or recent student), or direct competition with the work under review.
3. Institutional: working in the same department or institution as an author, reviewer, or editor, or holding a position that could benefit from the publication.
4. Personal: family relationships, close friendships, or personal rivalries.
5. Intellectual or ideological: strongly held beliefs, advocacy roles, or political or religious commitments directly related to the subject of the manuscript that could affect objectivity.

Authors

All authors must disclose any financial or non-financial interest that could be seen as relevant to the submitted work. Disclosure covers the period from the start of the research to publication and is made at submission through the submission form and the cover letter.

Every manuscript must include a Conflict of Interest Statement, placed after the Funding Statement and before the Declaration of AI Usage.

Authors must also disclose all sources of funding for the research in the Funding Statement, including the role, if any, of the funder in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, or the decision to publish.

Reviewers

Reviewers must decline an invitation, or inform the editor immediately, if they:
1. know or can identify the authors and have a recent collaborative, supervisory, institutional, or personal relationship with them;
2. are working on closely competing research; or
3. have any other interest that could prevent a fair and objective evaluation.

Reviewers must not use any information from an unpublished manuscript for their own research or advantage. If reviewers suspect that authors have not disclosed a conflict, they should raise the concern with the editor.

Editors and Editorial Board Members

Editors and editorial board members must not handle any manuscript in which they have a conflict of interest, including manuscripts from colleagues in their own department, recent co-authors, current or former students, or family members. In such cases, the manuscript will be assigned to another editor who has no conflict, and the conflicted editor will have no access to the review process or the decision.

Editorial decisions are based solely on the scholarly quality of the manuscript and its relevance to the journal’s scope. They are not influenced by the authors’ institutional affiliation, the publisher’s interests, or any financial consideration, including article processing charges.

Undisclosed Conflicts

If an undisclosed conflict of interest comes to light during review or after publication, JETLEE will follow the relevant COPE flowcharts. The authors will be asked to explain the circumstances. Depending on the nature and seriousness of the conflict, the journal may:

1. add the missing statement and continue the review;
2. send the manuscript for additional independent review;
3. publish a correction to the Conflict of Interest Statement;
4. publish an expression of concern or retract the article; or
handle the case under the Allegations of Research Misconduct policy.

Deliberate concealment of a significant conflict of interest may be treated as research misconduct.