Publication Ethics

Duties of Editors

• Publication Decisions: The Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board hold the ultimate authority to accept, reject, or request revisions for submitted manuscripts, based solely on the paper's intellectual merit, originality, and relevance to the journal's scope.
• Objectivity and Fair Play: Editors will evaluate manuscripts without prejudice regarding the authors' race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, ethnic origin, citizenship, or institutional affiliation.
• Confidentiality (Double-Blind Review): The editorial staff guarantees strict confidentiality. The identities of the authors must be concealed from the reviewers, and the identities of the reviewers must be concealed from the authors throughout the review process.
• Declaration of Competing Interests: Editors must recuse themselves from evaluating manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships with any of the authors or institutions associated with the papers.
• Respecting Author Requests: Editors will respect well-reasoned requests from authors to exclude specific individuals from reviewing their submission, provided it does not compromise the rigorous peer-review process.
• Vigilance over the Published Record: Editors will actively investigate any suspected ethical misconduct or authorship disputes, guided systematically by COPE flowcharts, to maintain the integrity of the scholarly record.

Duties of Reviewers

• Contribution to Quality: Peer-review is an essential component of formal scholarly communication. Reviewers assist the editors in making informed publication decisions and help authors improve the scientific quality of their manuscripts.
• Punctuality: Any invited referee who feels unqualified to review the research or knows that a timely review is impossible should immediately notify the editor and decline the invitation to participate.
• Strict Confidentiality: Manuscripts received for review are confidential documents. They must not be shared, shown, or discussed with others without authorization from the Editor-in-Chief.
• Standards of Objectivity: Reviews should be conducted objectively and constructively. Personal criticism of the author is highly inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments and evidence.
• Identification of Plagiarism: Reviewers should notify the editor of any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published data of which they have personal knowledge.
• Conflict of Interest Avoidance: Reviewers must not evaluate manuscripts in which they have potential conflicts of interest stemming from collaborative, financial, or competitive relationships with the authors or their institutions.

Duties of Authors

• Originality and Plagiarism: Authors must declare that their work is entirely original. If the work or words of others have been used, they must be appropriately cited or quoted. Plagiarism and self-plagiarism in all forms are unethical and unacceptable.
• Multiple or Concurrent Publication: Authors must not submit the same manuscript to more than one journal simultaneously. Submitting essentially the same research to multiple journals constitutes unethical publishing behavior.
• Authorship Criteria: Authorship must be strictly limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the study. All significant contributors must be listed as co-authors. The corresponding author ensures all co-authors have approved the final manuscript.
• Data Access and Retention: Authors may be asked to provide raw data in connection with a paper for editorial review. Authors should be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable time after publication.
• Protection of Subjects & Privacy: If the research involves human subjects or animals, authors must ensure compliance with relevant ethical guidelines and laws (e.g., obtaining Ethical Clearance). Patient privacy must be fiercely protected; no personal identifying information should be published without explicit consent.
• Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest: All authors must transparently disclose any financial relationships, research funding, consultant expenses, or intellectual property rights that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript.
• Reporting Fundamental Errors: If an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in their own published work, it is their immediate obligation to notify the journal editor and cooperate fully to retract or publish an erratum for the paper.