User:Wgswanson

Hello. In order to ward off allegations of Conflict of Interest (COI) in advance, I wish to disclose the following information:

I have an affiliation with the journal Development and Cooperation (in German, Entwicklung und Zusammenarbeit), which is funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and commissioned by InWEnt (Capacity Building International). I am currently working as an unpaid intern for this journal. The journal is not published for profit.

This affiliation with the German government and InWEnt is a reasonable cause for concern, especially because many of the edits I make will refer to articles published in Development and Cooperation. However, I do not believe that the affiliation alone should countenance COI, even if my entries refer to articles published in Development and Cooperation.

One reason is the nature of the journal, which may be considered a pluralistic and credible source of information. As stated in the journal's mission statement, which may be found on its website (http://www.inwent.org/ez/index.en.shtml), "the journal does not serve as a governmental mouthpiece. Our mission is to provide a credible forum of debate, involving governments, civil society, the private sector and academia at an international level." Information from the journal will not

Another reason is my intention in posting to Wikipedia. My goal is to share information learned during the course of my internship with a wider audience than that normally reached by the journal.

I hope you will agree that this affiliation should not lead to the belief that I am behaving unethically. I will make every effort to ensure that any information relay from the journal will be sound and unbiased.

If you do not agree—–in general or in specific cases—–please contact me.