Publication ethics

Authors & contributors

Report research accurately, acknowledge relevant work and list only qualifying authors who approve the manuscript. Disclose funding and competing interests. Do not submit the same manuscript to multiple journals at once. Obtain permissions and relevant ethics approval or justified exemptions.

Reviewers & editors

Assess the research fairly, maintain confidentiality and disclose conflicts. Editors should arrange independent handling of their own work or other conflicted submissions. Reviewers should decline work they cannot assess competently or within an agreed timeframe.

Originality & integrity

Plagiarism, fabricated or falsified evidence, misleading image manipulation and citation manipulation are unacceptable. Screening tools can support human assessment but do not replace it. The journal’s actual screening arrangements should be stated accurately; this page does not assert use of an unverified software subscription.

Data, AI & ethical oversight

Authors should document methods, funding, competing interests, author contributions and the availability of supporting data or materials. Explain justified restrictions on sharing. Research involving participants or identifiable information needs appropriate ethical approval or a justified exemption and relevant consent.

AI tools cannot be authors. Substantive AI assistance should be disclosed and verified by the human authors. Confidential submissions, review reports and identifiable information must not be uploaded to public AI services. Individual journals provide their applicable submission requirements.

Appeals, complaints & corrections

For an editorial appeal or a concern about a published article, contact the relevant journal’s editorial office with the manuscript ID or DOI, the grounds and supporting records. Identify any conflict involving the handling editor so the matter can be assessed independently.

Publisher-level complaints can be sent through the contact page. Corrections, expressions of concern and retractions should be reasoned, linked to the affected work and preserve the publication record except where exceptional legal, privacy or safety grounds require removal.

Ethical guidance

The publisher refers to COPE Core Practices and relevant guidance when developing and applying editorial policies. Reference to guidance does not establish membership, certification or external accreditation.