Research Ethics

Human Research

When reporting studies on human beings, indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with:

  • Ethical standards of the responsible committee (institutional or regional)
  • Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2013

View the Declaration: WMA Declaration of Helsinki

Animal Research

When reporting experiments on animals, indicate whether the institution's or national research council's guide for care and use of laboratory animals was followed.

Plagiarism Policy

Authors should avoid plagiarism, which includes:

  • Duplicate publication of author's own work without citation
  • Misrepresenting others' ideas, words, or creative expression as one's own

Warning: If plagiarism is detected after publication, the journal will investigate and may notify institutions/funding bodies and retract the article.

The journal adheres to principles recommended by:

  • Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)
  • International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE)
  • DOAJ Principles of Transparency

Authorship Guidelines

According to ICMJE guidelines, authorship credit should be based on ALL of the following 4 criteria:

1

Substantial contributions to conception/design, or acquisition/analysis/interpretation of data

2

Drafting or reviewing the work critically for important intellectual content

3

Final approval of the version to be published

4

Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work

Contributors who don't meet all 4 criteria should be acknowledged in the Acknowledgement section.

Author Contributions

Authors should describe contributions in these categories:

Concept Design Literature Search Clinical Studies Data Acquisition Data Analysis Statistical Analysis Manuscript Preparation Manuscript Editing Manuscript Review

Conflicts of Interest

A conflict of interest may exist when an author has financial or personal relationships that could influence their work.

Disclosure Requirements

Authors must disclose:

  • Employment and affiliations
  • Funding and grants (received or pending)
  • Consultancies and honoraria
  • Stock ownership or options
  • Expert testimony and royalties
  • Patents (planned, pending, or issued)

Authors without conflicts should include a statement of no such interests in the Acknowledgment section.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy

Important: AI, language models, machine learning, or similar technologies do NOT qualify for authorship.

Disclosure Requirements

If AI tools are used, authors must:

  • Take responsibility for integrity of AI-generated content
  • Report use in Acknowledgment or Methods section
  • Disclose which AI tool was used
  • Explain how the AI tool was used

This applies to AI used for:

Writing assistance Content creation Image generation Data collection Data analysis

Correction, Retraction & Withdrawal

The journal adheres to COPE Retraction Guidelines (2019) and ICMJE recommendations.

Corrections

Issued for minor errors that don't invalidate results. Correction notices include article title, author list, DOI, description, and date.

Retractions

Issued for major errors or ethical breaches:

  • Fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism
  • Unethical research
  • Duplicate publication
  • Undisclosed conflicts
  • Major methodological errors

Retracted articles remain online, watermarked as "Retracted."

Withdrawals

Applies to accepted but unpublished articles:

  • Ethical violations discovered
  • Valid author request before acceptance
  • Fraudulent submission

Have Questions About Our Policies?

Contact our editorial team for clarification on any ethical or policy matters.