To minimize real or apparent conflicts of interest that would interfere with fair and impartial review of manuscripts, the SREE Publications Committee has adopted the following conflict of interest policy:

1. The Journal’s editors may not submit papers (as author or co-author) to the Journal during their tenure as editor.
2. The Journal’s editors may be authors on papers that were initially submitted before they were named as editors, though they may not be involved in the review or decision-making process for such manuscripts (more below).
1. An editor is an author or co-author of a paper (submitted before she/he became editor);
2. An editor has been substantially involved in the research reported in a paper;
3. An editor has a close professional relationship with an author (for example, the author is a current or former student, former advisor, frequent co-author, or regular collaborator of the editor);
4. An editor and author have a current or recent funder/funded relationship;
5. An editor is a colleague (from the same university or organization) of the author;
6. An editor has a close personal relationship with the author;
7. An editor feels that she/he has a conflict of interest for some other reason;
8. an author notifies the editors that she/he has a conflict of interest with one of the editors.
3. In the case of a conflict of interest, the editorial team will determine a review process that excludes the editor(s) who have a conflict of interest. This process will be one of the following, depending on the reasons for the conflict:
1. A different editor than the one with a conflict of interest will oversee the review process, with no involvement of the editor with a conflict of interest. The editor with a conflict of interest will not have access to the manuscript and related files in the online review system, and will have no input into the decision on the manuscript. This approach will be used for cases (c)-(h) above.
   
2. The editors will ask a member of the SREE publications committee to serve as corresponding editor to oversee the review of the manuscript. The JREE editors will not have access to the manuscript and related files in the online review system, and will have no input into the decision on the manuscript. This approach will be used in cases (a)-(b) above (and in other cases if deemed appropriate).
4. This Conflict of Interest policy will be posted on the Journal’s website.