Ethical Responsibilities of Authors
- Originality and attribution:Submissions must be original, not previously published in any language and not under consideration elsewhere. Use of others’ work must be properly cited and referenced.
- Authorship:Only individuals who made substantial intellectual contributions should be listed as authors. Contributor roles should be transparent; guest, gift, or ghost authorship is unacceptable.
- Conflicts of interest:All actual or potential conflicts (financial, institutional, or personal) must be disclosed at submission.
- Data transparency:Authors may be asked to provide raw data, analysis code, ethical approvals, or other documentation for editorial/reviewer verification. Authors should be prepared to supply these promptly.
- Compliance:Research involving human participants, animals, sensitive data, or identifiable information must include evidence of prior ethics approval and informed consent, as applicable.
- Corrections and retractions:If an error or ethical concern is identified at any stage (submission, review, early view, post-publication), authors must promptly cooperate with the editor on corrections, expressions of concern, or retractions.
- Concurrent/duplicate submission:Concurrent submissions to multiple journals and duplicate publication are prohibited.
- Post-submission authorship changes:Requests to add/remove/reorder authors after review begins are generally not permitted; exceptional cases require written justification and approval by the editor, with consent from all authors.