[TGDK][Feature] Extend Conflict of Interest Management for Articles and Users

[SSanchez7]

Important

This implementation is part of a set of features and fixes developed within the context of a project for the TGDK academic journal, with the goal of customizing Janeway to meet the journal's specific needs, which may also be extended to other contexts.

Note

This implementation requires as a base:

• [TGDK][Feature] Add configurable Custom Editor Assignment tool for enhanced editor management #4554

Problem / Objective

The current system for managing conflicts of interest (COIs) allows authors to provide comments about potential conflicts during the article submission process. While this approach is functional and addresses basic needs, it can be further enhanced to provide more structured and detailed options for managing COIs.

The goal is to expand the tools available for identifying and addressing COIs, ensuring that editorial processes—such as assigning editors and reviewers—are fair, transparent, and aligned with journal policies. By extending the existing functionality, this feature aims to streamline workflows and improve decision-making during the assignment process.

---

Solution

The new functionality is configurable through a journal-level setting called "Enable Competing Interest Selections," which is available in the Review Settings. By default, this option is disabled to ensure compatibility with journals that do not require these features.

This feature introduces new mechanisms and configurations to manage conflicts of interest more effectively

User-Specific COIs in Article Submissions:

• Authors can select specific journal members who have conflicts of interest with their submitted article.
• This functionality is integrated via a dual list box field in the article submission form, allowing authors to search for.
• These COIs will be visible in the submission summary view, enabling editors to review and take necessary actions during the editorial process.

---

Domain-Based COIs in User Profiles:

• Authors can define email domains (e.g., @domain.com) that represent conflicts of interest across all their submissions.
• This is implemented as a tag-style text field in the user profile form, allowing authors to add and manage multiple domains.
• These domain-level COIs will also be visible during the editor/reviewer selection process, ensuring that conflicted users are not considered for assignment by default.

---

Integration into Assignment Workflows

• During the selection of editors and reviewers, any journal members flagged as having conflicts of interest with the article will be excluded from being assigned.
• Editors can override this restriction if necessary by updating COI information directly in the article’s metadata, allowing flexibility while maintaining the integrity of the assignment process.

---

To support these enhancements, several new models and changes have been implemented to facilitate seamless integration into the existing system.

• AccountArticleCI: Manages many-to-many relationships between journal members and articles to track COIs specific to a submission.
• EmailDomainCI: Stores all email domains flagged as COIs, based on user input, filtered, and validated.
• AccountEmailDomainCI: Tracks many-to-many relationships between users and flagged email domains, with implications for all submissions by the user as an author.