Publishing Ethics

Contents

I. Authors' Responsibilities

II. Reviewers' Responsibilities

III. Editors' Responsibilities

IV. Intellectual Property Protection
 

I. Authors' Responsibilities

Authorship Criteria: Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant or substantial contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of articles. They should be sorted according to their contributions. All signed authors should be responsible for the research results, including academic and moral obligations. Persons who offer laboratories or funds for research are not qualified to be authors. 

The duties of authors are as follows:

1. Authors should ensure the validity of the data in articles. Any fabrication of data or graphs is not allowed. Raw and unprocessed graphs should be used. If processed graphs are necessary for scientific research, clarification should be provided in the headings.

2. The authors should provide a concise and accurate research report, objectively discussing the significance of the study.

3. Authors may be asked to provide the raw data in connection with articles for editorial review and should be prepared to provide public access to such data in order to allow peers to repeat the research. If special materials or software are used in the research, we encourage authors to provide access to the materials or software.

4. Contributors other than authors should be listed in the acknowledgment and their permission should be obtained for publication.

5. The corresponding author should make sure that all major contributors are listed as co-authors without omission and also their permission should be obtained for publication. Individual contributions of authors should be stated. In order to discourage and prevent academic misconduct such as gift author, authors should fill up and submit the “Authors Contribution Form” in the file “Copyright Transfer Agreement & Declaration of Authors” provided by the journal to state their contributions to the article. 

6. Research results of others should only be used or referred to in an appropriate way.

7. Multiple submissions are strictly forbidden. Manuscripts that have been submitted to other journals may be resubmitted only after they have been rejected or withdrawn.

8. Duplicate publication is not allowed.

9. Salami-slicing, where multiple papers are produced from a complete article, is strictly forbidden.

10. Authorship should not be altered at will. For cases where a change in authorship is necessary, please refer to the document “Regulations on Changing Paper Authors” available in the “Download” page on the Chinese website of the journal. Non-Chinese authors can consult the editorial office directly.

11. All sources of funds should be indicated. Other funding information irrelevant to the research shall be ignored.

12. All submissions must include disclosure of all relationships that could be viewed as presenting a potential conflict of interest. Authors should fill up and submit the “Conflict of Interest Statement” in the document “Copyright Transfer Agreement & Declaration of Authors” provided by the journal to disclose all potential conflicts of interest involved in the research after the acceptance of their manuscripts. When the financing/personal status/affiliation of authors (or authors' organization/employer) may affect authors' decisions, work, or manuscript, an underlying conflict of interest might exist. When a product is involved, the author should also disclose whether there is a conflict of interest against competitive products.

13. Statements are required if the work involves chemicals, procedures, or equipment that have any unusual hazards inherent in their use.

14. Authors should make sure that discussions on manuscripts with editors and reviewers are professional. It is acceptable to criticize others' research in a suitable way with no insult or libel.

15. When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author's obligation to promptly notify the journal editors, and to cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the article.

II. Editors' Responsibilities

Editors could be full-timers or influential researchers in the research field, undertaking the editing role on behalf of the editorial office. The following duties and responsibilities of editors are also applicable to all Editorial Board Members.

1. Editors should make a decision to accept or reject the submitted manuscript based on its scientific value, originality, authenticity of the study, rather than the author's institution, nationality, ethnicity, gender, age or other personal information.

2. To comment on every manuscript objectively and timely.

3. To keep the information of the research’s content confidential strictly. Editors should not disclose detailed information about manuscripts to anyone without the author's permission except for reviewers unless it is part of the investigation of unethical behaviors.

4. Editors should report potential conflicts of interest to the editorial office in a timely manner.

5. Editors should select reviewers with careful consideration so as to ensure an impartial review process.

(1) Editors should be careful in using reviewers recommended by authors to avoid overly positive comments. For example, avoiding situation when the recommended reviewer is the co-author, supervisor, or student of the author.

(2) Editors should verify the information of the recommended reviewer to maintain equality of the peer review.

(3) If authors request to avoid certain reviewers, editors should avoid using them as much as possible.

(4) Editors shall not interfere with peer review for profit. They should strive to ensure independent review by peer experts.

(5) Editors should avoid choosing reviewers from the same organizations as authors.

6. To keep the information of reviewers confidential.

7. Any appeal against review results or process should be treated fairly and carefully.

8. Editors should comply with the regulations on data security.

9. A stringent investigation should be conducted for any academic misconduct. For articles suspected of academic misconduct, editors should initiate an investigation as soon as possible.

10. Editors have the responsibility to reject submissions from authors who have committed academic misconduct in the past 2 years, such as multiple submissions and duplicate publications, upon discovery.

III. Reviewer’s Responsibilities

Reviewers should be experts in related fields and they are accountable for assisting the editorial office in manuscript reviewing. The duties of reviewers are as follows:

1. Treat the manuscript as confidential:

(1) To ensure that all unpublished data, information, and discussion in a submitted article remain confidential. Reviewers should not disclose the content of manuscripts unless permission is granted from the editorial office.

(2) The identity of reviewers and details of their review process should not be disclosed to a third party.

(3) After review, reviewers should not keep manuscripts in whatever form and shall comply with the regulations in data security.

2. Reviewers shall not use confidential information of manuscripts under review in their own research, including research data and results of the manuscripts.

3. If manuscripts are below standards or unable to be reviewed in the reviewers' opinion, the editorial office should be notified in a timely manner.

4. To inform the editor if there is a conflict of interest. Conflict of interest includes, but is not limited to:

(1) Reviewers should not review manuscripts authored or co-authored by a person who has existing a close personal or professional relationship with the reviewer.

(2) Reviewer has a competitive relationship with the manuscript under review.

5. Review the manuscript in time according to the agreement, if cannot return the manuscript on time, the reviewer should inform the editorial office in a timely manner.

6. Review the manuscript in time. Where appropriate, reviewers could provide authors with published articles for reference.

7. Reviewers should not prejudice or discriminate against the author's research institution, geographical qualification, nationality, etc. Reviewers could discuss manuscripts in a polite and professional way, focusing on the contents of manuscripts rather than the authors.

8. To inform the editor of any similarity between the submitted manuscript and another article, either published or ready for publication.

9. Please notify the editorial office if any potential unethical behavior is found in manuscripts, which includes, but is not limited to:

(1) Academic misconduct, for example, plagiarism and falsification.

(2) Ethical issues involved with studies and experiments in human beings and animals.

IV. Intellectual Property Protection
The editorial office strives to respect the protection of intellectual property and requires editors, authors and reviewers to do so. Any potential infringement should be avoided. Third-party infringement to the intellectual property of the journal is prohibited.