Authors should observe high standards with respect to publication ethics as
set out by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).Falsification or fabrication of data, plagiarism, including duplicate
publication of the author's own work without proper citation, and
misappropriation of the work are all unacceptable practices.
If misconduct is
found or suspected after the manuscript is published, the journal will
investigate the matter and this may result in the article subsequently being
retracted.
Authorship
All authors listed on the manuscript should have contributed significantly to
the experimental design, its implementation, or analysis and interpretation of
the data. All authors should have been involved in the writing of the manuscript
at draft and any revision stages, and have read and approved the final version.
Anyone who made major contributions to the writing of the manuscript should be
listed as an author. Any other individuals who made less substantive
contributions to the experiment or the writing of the manuscript should be
listed in the Acknowledgement section. Any change in authorship (including
author order) after the initial manuscript submission must be approved in
writing by all authors.
Originality
By submitting your manuscript to the journal it is understood that this it is an
original manuscript and is unpublished work and is not under consideration
elsewhere. Plagiarism, including duplicate publication of the author’s own work,
in whole or in part without proper citation is not tolerated by the journal.
Manuscripts submitted to the journal will be checked for originality using
anti-plagiarism software.
Conflicts of interest
At the point of submission, each author should reveal any financial interests or
connections, direct or indirect, or other situations that might raise the
question of bias in the work reported or the conclusions, implications, or
opinions stated – including pertinent commercial or other sources of funding for
the individual author(s) or for the associated department(s) or organization(s),
personal relationships, or direct academic competition.
When considering whether
you should declare a conflicting interest or connection please consider the
conflict of interest test: Is there any arrangement that would embarrass you or
any of your co-authors if it was to emerge after publication and you had not
declared it?
As part of the online submission process, corresponding authors are required to
confirm whether they or their co-authors have any conflicts of interest to
declare, and in the case of an existing conflict of interest that this is fully
declared. Authors should also include a Conflict of Interest statement in their
submitted manuscript.