Editorial Independence & Conflict of Interest Policy

Virtual Economics is committed to ensuring impartial editorial decision-making and independence in the evaluation and handling of submitted manuscripts. Author disclosure requirements relating to funding, authorship contributions, conflicts of interest and data availability are described separately in the Research Transparency & Author Responsibilities Policy.

Authors, reviewers, editors and members of the Editorial Board are required to disclose any financial, institutional, personal or professional relationships that could be perceived to influence the evaluation, interpretation or publication of a manuscript. Conflicts of interest may include, but are not limited to, institutional affiliation, research collaboration, supervisory or mentoring relationships, joint projects or grants, personal relationships, direct academic competition or any financial interest connected to the research.

Authors

Authors are required to provide conflict-of-interest disclosures within the manuscript in accordance with the journal’s Research Transparency & Author Responsibilities Policy. Failure to provide accurate disclosure may lead to editorial action, including rejection, publication of a correction or retraction.

Reviewers

Reviewers must decline an invitation to review if they have a conflict of interest with the authors, institutions or subject matter of the manuscript. Reviewers must not evaluate manuscripts if they have recent collaboration, shared affiliation, supervisory relationships or personal connections with any of the authors, or if they are engaged in competing research. Reviewers must treat all manuscripts as confidential documents and must not use unpublished material for their own research.

Editors and Editorial Board Members

Editors and Editorial Board members must not handle manuscripts in which they have a conflict of interest. This includes manuscripts submitted by colleagues from the same institution, collaborators, former or current students or supervisors, close professional partners or personal associates. Editors must recuse themselves from the editorial process in such cases.

Handling of Submissions Involving Potential Conflicts of Interest

To safeguard impartial editorial assessment, Virtual Economics applies additional oversight procedures when a manuscript is submitted by an editor, a member of the Editorial Board, or an author affiliated with the publishing institution.

An editor who has any personal, professional or institutional connection with the authors or the research must withdraw from all involvement in the editorial evaluation of the manuscript. Such editors are excluded from assigning reviewers, accessing reviewer reports, participating in internal discussions or influencing the publication decision.

Where a potential conflict exists, the submission is reassigned to an independent editor who has no connection with the authors or their institution. Wherever practicable, the editor responsible for the manuscript is based at a different institution and, where possible, in a different country. This editor conducts the initial assessment, appoints reviewers, manages correspondence and submits a recommendation regarding publication.

Reviewers invited to evaluate the manuscript must likewise be independent and must not have collaborative, institutional or personal links with the authors. If a conflict is identified at any stage, an alternative reviewer is appointed.

The final publication decision is taken by the Editor-in-Chief, or by another senior editor who has no conflict of interest, and is based solely on the scholarly quality of the manuscript and the peer-review reports.

All disclosures of conflicts and the steps taken to manage them are recorded within the journal’s editorial system in order to maintain transparency and an auditable editorial process.

Author conflict-of-interest declarations appearing in published articles are governed separately by the Research Transparency & Author Responsibilities Policy.

Editorial Independence and Commercial Influence

Editorial decisions in Virtual Economics are made independently of the publisher and are based solely on the scholarly merit, originality and relevance of the manuscript. The publisher has no role in the evaluation of manuscripts, the selection of reviewers, editorial deliberations or publication decisions. The journal does not permit commercial, financial or institutional considerations to affect editorial judgement. The journal currently does not charge submission or publication fees.