Ethics

  1. Authorship should be limited to:
    • those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study.
    • those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors.
    • others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project should be acknowledged or listed as contributors.
  1. The corresponding author should:
    • ensure that all appropriate co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper.
    • have agreed to its submission for publication.
    • manage any requests to add, delete or rearrange author names in an article published in an online issue.
  1. The authors should:
    • ensure that they have written entirely original works and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others, that this has been appropriately cited or quoted.
    • secured the necessary reproduction rights with the rights holder for any third-party material (images, digital content, etc.) you have used prior to submission.
    • ensure that they have acknowledged any funding that has contributed to the publication.
    • provide the raw data in connection with a paper for editorial review, and should be prepared to provide public access and retain such data for a reasonable time after publication.
    • NOT, in general, publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication.
    • NOT submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.
    • include disclosure of all relationships that could be viewed as presenting a potential conflict of interest.
    • promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.
    • ensure that the manuscript contains a statement that all procedures were performed in compliance with relevant laws and institutional guidelines and that the appropriate institutional committee(s) has approved them.
    • include a statement in the manuscript that informed consent was obtained for experimentation with human subjects.
    • obtain appropriate consents, permissions, and releases where an author wishes to include case details or other personal information or images of patients and any other individuals.
  1. The Editors and/or Editorial Board should:
    • keep information pertaining to submitted manuscripts confidential.
    • disclose any conflicts of interest.
    • evaluate manuscripts only for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.
    • be responsible for making publication decisions for submitted manuscripts.
    • review suspected incidents of plagiarism.
  1. Reviewers should:
    • notify the journal of any conflicts of interest.
    • keep information pertaining to the manuscript confidential.
    • bring to the attention of the Editors any information that may be the reason to reject publication of a manuscript.
    • evaluate manuscripts only for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.