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Competing interests generally arise from personal, financial or professional/academic relationships that result in a divergence between the reviewer’s private interests and their responsibilities as neutral reviewer.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span id="more-94"></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Please contact the <a href="mailto: jon.tennant@scienceopen.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">editorial office</a> in case you are uncertain whether your personal relationship results in a conflict that has to be declared or not.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">In any case, <strong>please refrain from peer reviewing a paper if you personally feel unable to provide a fair and unbiased review.</strong> If you review or comment on a paper, neither allow your judgment to be influenced by any personal characteristics of the authors nor by private financial considerations or personal relationships.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Please see the <a 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