Conflict of Interest; Blind Spots at the Research Field

"Conflict of interest" or "competing interest" occurs when the author or sponsor of the study has a financial, commercial, legal, or professional relationship with the organization, individuals, study samples, or research environment, so as the results of that study are influenced. When the authors of a study seek to publish research, they must fully disclose what was mentioned above. Conflicts of interest can occur both financially and non-financially. In some cases, non-financial conflicts of interest are even more important than financial ones. Such conflicts originate from personal, political, academic, ideological, or religious issues (1). Although there is no single definition of conflict of interest in the scientific community, almost all reputable journals ask authors to disclose conflict of interest at the time of submitting their articles. However, various studies have shown that accurate disclosure of conflicts of interest is significantly rare (2-4).   In general, conflict of interest occurs in different forms, intentionally and unintentionally. Although conflict of interest in the field of medicine and equipment is significantly observed and its importance has been emphasized, there are new dimensions of conflict of interest that have not yet been addressed, including:1) Conflict of interest among managers and officials of organizations: Some ministers and managers of different departments in the field of health provide research on their performance and the indicators of their organizations, and have no reference to conflict of interest in their articles. Obviously, when a person conducts research on the performance and performance indicators of his organization, he may present a better image of the organization intentionally or unintentionally, which is in turn a kind of conflict of interest. 2) The relationship between the author / authors and the journal: When the journal editor and the author / authors of an article have relationships as colleagues, friends, or student and teacher, conflicts of interest may occur and cause the author’s / authors’ article to be easily accepted and go through a convenient and fast reviewing process, which will ultimately result in low quality the article(s). Conflicts of interest give rise to personal / organizational, political, religious, ideological, academic, or intellectual interests that may affect the published content, and may ultimately show the research methods, data interpretation, and conclusion biased and endanger human health and the environment. Thus, it should be noted that conflicts of interest might occur in different parts of any research, whether on the part of the research executive or sponsor or organization managers, etc. Therefore, informing people in this field can increase the quality of and confidence in the study results. health and the environment. Thus, it should be noted that conflicts of interest might occur in different parts of any research, whether on the part of the research executive or sponsor or organization managers, etc. Therefore, informing people in this field can increase the quality of and confidence in the study results. Ethical Considerations Compliance with ethical guidelines There were no ethical considerations to be considered in this research. Funding This research did not receive any grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or non-profit sectors. Authors' contributions Both authors equally contributed to preparing this article. Conflict of interest The authors declared no conflict of interest.