Individuals involved in the publication process, including authors, editorial staff, peer reviewers, and publishers, are expected to adhere to principles of publication ethics. A statement of publication ethics and academic misconduct is listed below for reference. For details of academic misconduct, please refer to the news and publishing industries standard of the People’s Republic of China, the Academic publishing specification-definition of academic misconduct for journals (CY/T 174-2019) issued by the National Press and Publication Administration.
Editor roles and responsibilities
Publishing editors are expected to strictly follow and implement relevant national laws, regulations, and academic publishing ethics, as well as comply with the legal requirements regarding libel, infringement of copyright, and plagiarism.
All manuscripts should be treated equally and fairly. The decision to accept or reject the given manuscript should be based solely on the originality, significance, clarity, and adherence to the purpose and research scope of the journal, without regard to the author(s)’race, gender, sexual orientation, religious ideologies, ethnicity, nationality or political views. Editors must respect author(s)’research contribution and opinions of the peer reviewers.
Editors are required to follow the principle of confidentiality. They should refrain from disclosing any information about the submitted manuscripts to others except for providing the necessary information to the corresponding authors, peer reviewers, and members of the Editorial Board as appropriate. Editors must not reveal any details about authors and peer reviewers and must not share the content of edited manuscripts with others outside of the editing process. Those who fail to securely store or properly destroy physical and electronic manuscript copies, leading to information leakage, will be held accountable.
Editors shall not use unpublished material disclosed in the author(s)’ manuscript for their own research without author(s)’ explicit written consent. They are not allowed to publicize unpublished manuscripts’ content and research results of unpublished manuscripts without author(s)’ permission.
Editors should provide editorial feedback in accordance with academic and ethical standards, avoiding any submissions detrimental to academic ethical standards in terms of commercial needs and exchange of interest. Editors must avoid selecting reviewers with conflicts of interest related to the author(s) and must disclose any personal or financial relationships with the authors. If a conflict of interest or prior collaboration with the author(s) is identified, the editor or reviewer must be replaced, and the editor-in-chief or other members of the editorial board shall take charge of the review of the work.
Editors are not allowed to interfere with the review process, influence reviewers’ opinions, or unreasonably deny or distort the opinions of the reviewers. They should promptly deliver reviewers’ comments to author(s) and facilitate academic discussion as needed.
Editors must not intentionally alter the content of a manuscript against the author(s)’ intentions. When major revisions are required, editors should promptly communicate with the author to obtain their consent. Editors should respect the author(s)’ opinion, encourage academic discussion, and be responsible for conveying and responding to any differing opinions the author may have regarding the reviewers' feedback.
Editors are responsible for all stages of the journal’s editorial process, ensuring the timely publication of a high-quality journal with innovative content and authentic data. Cutting-edge and hot-spot topics are prioritized for publication.
Editors must reject, investigate, and inform about academic misconduct such as plagiarism and duplication. When errors occur, editors must take timely and effective measures, such as corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies. Editors are obliged to hold authors and reviewers accountable for their academic misconduct.
For significant topics, editors must follow the required procedures for approval. They should not publish the work without the author(s)’ permission, add unrelated journal self-citations, or request unnecessary citations to specific references. For manuscripts requiring ethical review materials, editors must comply with relevant requirements and procedures.
Roles and responsibilities of peer reviewers
Reviewers should utilize their profession knowledge and ability to review the innovation, scientificity and practical relevance of the manuscripts. They should provide a fair and honest evaluation of the appropriateness of the research methods, the soundness of the scientific design, the accuracy of the results and conclusions, and potential confidentiality issues. They need to avoid ambiguous comments to help editors determine the manuscript’s suitability, along with detailed revision suggestions to help authors improve the quality of the work.
If reviewers feel unqualified to assess certain aspects of the research or cannot complete the review within the timeframe, they should promptly inform the editor-in-chief or the editorial office so that another reviewer can be assigned in a timely manner.
Reviewers must treat the manuscript with strict confidentiality. Unless authorized by the editor-in-chief, they should not share the manuscript or discuss its details with others. Reviewers must not use or publish any data, statements or conclusions from the reviewed manuscript without the author(s)’ consent.
Reviewers should not plagiarize content from the manuscripts they review, nor should they use confidential information in the review or the privileges as a reviewer for personal gain.
Reviewers should respect diverse academic perspectives and maintain objectivity in their evaluations, assessing manuscripts solely on academic value without making personal judgments and attacks. Decisions on manuscripts should not be influenced by the author(s)’ race, gender, religious ideologies, beliefs, status, qualifications and perceived authority. Reviewers must clearly articulate their opinions with sufficient arguments. If reviewers suspect any forms of academic misconduct including duplicate or fraudulent publications or plagiarism, they should report this to the editorial office.
Reviewers should identify any uncredited citations of published works. Statements regarding observations, deductions, or arguments should include relevant citations. If reviewers notice significant similarity or overlap between the submitted manuscript and any another published data, they should promptly notify editors.
Privileged information or opinions obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal gain. Reviewers should avoid reviewing manuscripts where there is a conflict of interest due to competition or collaboration with author(s) and their affiliated institutions. Reviewers must disclose any conflicts of interest with author(s) of the manuscript under review.
Academic Misconduct by Authors
Plagiarism: It includes uncredited use of other’s ideas, data, figures, research methods, text, which are used without citation and published it under one’s own name. Over citation, as another part of plagiarism, refers to extensive or excessive citation of other’s published work in main part of the paper without original contribution, while unpublished plagiarism refers to using other’s unpublished ideas, research methods, data, figures that are original to others, or using them with permission but not explained in the work. This journal does not tolerate any kind of plagiarism.
Fabrication and Falsification: Author(s) must ensure the authenticity and accuracy of all data in their submissions. The fabrication of false data or manipulation of other’s research data and content is strictly prohibited.
Originality: Author(s) must ensure their work is entirely original, with appropriate and reasonable references to other literature. Published data should not resubmitted as original material except when explicitly informed and moderately cited by the authors.
Duplicate submission/Multiple submission: Author(s) need to confirm that their submitted work has not been published elsewhere. Submitting the same manuscript or a manuscript with minor differences (e.g., with a minor addition of data or information) to multiple journals at the same time is prohibited. Additionally, resubmitting own (or co-authored) published paper, either in its entirety or with minor modification without any explanation is also not allowed.
Overlapping publication: Author(s) cannot reuse content from their own (or co-authored) previously published works without appropriate citation or explanation. They are not allowed to compile sections from their (or co-authored) previous publications into a new manuscript without any clarification, nor reuse data from one specific survey or experiment in multiple works without proper citation or explanation.
Authorship: Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made substantial contributions to the research involved in the manuscript. Individuals who have not made substantial contributions should not be listed as authors. The corresponding author must obtain authorization and consent from all co-authors before submission. The publication of the paper should have the approval of all authors, with agreement on the author order. Any individuals or institutions contributing to the research project should be clearly indicated in the acknowledgment section.
Others: The references should not include literature that has not actually been cited in the work. Author(s) must cite properly any copyrighted material used with permission and provide complete citation information. Indirect citations from secondary sources cannot be cited as direct citations. Manuscripts should disclose any funding sources, support, or assistance received for publication. Author(s) should not disclose key information about the manuscript to anyone else or the public, infringe on the journal’s right of first release, or use copyrighted material requiring permission without authorization. Author(s) needs to avoid any interference with the editorial or peer review process, including recommending peer reviewers with conflicts of interest. The manuscript is not allowed to be written, submitted, or revised on behalf of the author(s) by a third-party organization or unrelated individuals to the study. Compliance with the confidentiality rules is mandatory for all author(s).
Ethical Statement
For manuscripts involving biomedical research on human or animal subjects or participants, author(s) needs to include proof that the experimental procedures have consulted and received approval from the ethics committee where the research is being done, with the ethical approval number stated. If there is any doubt that the study was conducted following ethical standards, author(s) must explain the rationale for their methods and provide evidence that the institution’s ethics committee specifically approved any potentially doubtful aspects of the study. Additionally, in accordance with informed consent principles, author(s) must obtain informed consent from research participants or child participants’ guardians.
Animals in Research: Author(s) must declare that experiments were conducted under the Principles of Laboratory Animal Care (NIH Publication No. 85-23, 1985 Revision). They may also need to refer to and follow the standards and procedures of relevant legal guidelines, like the Animal Protection Act (TierSchG) currently in force in Germany.
Human Subjects in Research: For a study involving human subjects, author(s) must include a statement confirming the procedure complied with ethical standards created by the Human Research Ethics Committees (institutional, regional, or national). Approval documentation must be submitted, and the approval number must be cited in the manuscript. The experiment needs to be conducted in accordance with the ethical guidelines established in the 1964 Helsinki Declaration, with signed informed consent obtained from participants or their family members. Author(s) must declare that the experiments reported in the submission followed the above ethical guidelines. New and innovative treatments or surgical techniques also require approval according to the relevant regulations. Author(s) should protect patient privacy, ensuring facial features are covered in specimens or imaging data and personal identifiers such as names or identification card numbers are not displayed.