Publication Ethics

Publication Ethics & Malpractice Statement

1. Overview & General Governance

2. Duties & Ethical Responsibilities of Authors

2.1 Authorship Criteria & Contributorship

• ICMJE Alignment: Authorship credit must be based on: (a) substantial contributions to conception, design, data acquisition, or analysis; (b) drafting or revising the work critically; (c) final approval of the manuscript version to be published; and (d) agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work.
• CRediT Taxonomy: Submissions must explicitly detail individual contributions using the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT).
• Non-Author Contributors: Contributors who do not meet all four authorship criteria (such as technical assistants, translation assistants, or financial sponsors) must be acknowledged in the Acknowledgments section with their written consent.
• Authorship Changes: Any addition, deletion, or rearrangement of author names following submission requires written consent from all listed authors. Name changes related to gender transition or marital status are handled confidentially without requiring legal documentation.

2.2 Generative AI & Technology Policy

• Prohibition of AI Authorship: Generative AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude, Large Language Models) do not meet authorship criteria and cannot be listed as authors or co-authors.
• Disclosure Requirements: Authors using AI tools for language refinement, formatting, or code generation must disclose their usage in an explicit AI Disclosure Statement within the Methods or Acknowledgments section, detailing the tool, version, and specific application.
• Data Integrity: AI tools must never be used to fabricate, manipulate, or distort scientific data, figures, or diagnostic images.

2.3 Originality, Plagiarism & Prior Publication

• Plagiarism Screening: All manuscripts are screened via Crossref’s iThenticate upon submission. Unattributed reuse of text, data, or ideas, as well as self-plagiarism (text recycling without citation), constitutes misconduct and will result in rejection or retraction.
• Redundant & Concurrent Submissions: Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently is unethical and strictly prohibited.
• Preprints: Disclosure of preprint server deposits (e.g., arXiv, bioRxiv) is mandatory upon submission; preprints are permitted and do not constitute prior publication.

2.4 Research Ethics & Safety

• Human and Animal Rights: Studies involving human subjects must state adherence to the Declaration of Helsinki, include Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval details, and confirm informed consent. Animal studies must document adherence to national/international welfare standards (e.g., ARRIVE guidelines) and ethics committee approval.
• Safety & Hazard Disclosures: Authors must explicitly disclose any novel, unexpected, or significant biohazard, chemical, or operational risks associated with their reported experiments in the Methods/Experimental section.

2.5 Open Data & Reproducibility

• Data Availability: Authors must include a mandatory Data Availability Statement (DAS) specifying where underlying research data and source code can be accessed. Raw datasets and code should be deposited in open-access repositories (e.g., Zenodo, OSF, GitHub) under open licenses.

3. Duties & Ethical Responsibilities of Peer Reviewers

3.1 Objectivity & Constructive Feedback

• Reviewers must evaluate manuscripts objectively, impartially, and purely on scholarly merit, methodological validity, and ethical compliance.
• Feedback should be clear, evidence-based, and constructive, avoiding personal comments or ad hominem criticism.

3.2 Confidentiality & AI Restrictions

• Manuscripts, datasets, and editorial communications received for review are strictly confidential documents.
• Reviewers are strictly prohibited from uploading manuscripts or peer-review reports into public AI systems or third-party tools, preserving author privacy and intellectual property.

3.3 Conflicts of Interest & Recusal

• Reviewers must disclose any potential financial, institutional, personal, or collaborative competing interests before accepting a review assignment and must recuse themselves if a conflict exists.

4. Duties & Ethical Responsibilities of Editors

4.1 Editorial Independence & Fair Play

• Editors evaluate submissions without regard to the authors' race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy.
• Editorial decisions (Accept, Revise, Reject) are guided solely by scientific merit, relevance to journal scope, methodological rigor, and ethical compliance.
• Commercial considerations, advertising revenue, and Article Processing Charges (APCs) have no bearing on editorial decisions.

4.2 Confidentiality & Peer Review Integrity

• Editors and editorial staff must not disclose information about submitted manuscripts to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, and potential reviewers.
• Editors manage peer review through the Public Knowledge Project (PKP) Open Journal Systems (OJS) platform to ensure systematic, transparent record-keeping.

4.3 Disclosure & Conflicts of Interest

• Editors will not use unpublished material disclosed in a submitted manuscript for their own research without explicit written consent from the authors.
• Editors recuse themselves from handling manuscripts in which they have competing financial, personal, or institutional interests.

5. Handling Misconduct, Corrections & Retractions

5.1 Misconduct Investigations

• Allegations of misconduct (e.g., plagiarism, data fabrication/falsification, peer review manipulation, or ethics violations) are investigated.
• Authors will be given an opportunity to respond to allegations. If misconduct is established, JoSEP may issue formal corrections, retractions, or inform author institutions.

5.2 Post-Publication Amendments & Crossmark

• Corrections (Errata/Corrigenda): Minor honest errors that do not compromise scientific conclusions are corrected via linked amendment notices.
• Retractions: Published papers found to have invalid, fabricated, or unethically derived data will be retracted. Retraction notices state the explicit reason and are linked permanently to the original document.
• Crossmark Registration: All structural updates, corrections, and retractions are registered with Crossref Crossmark within 14 days to maintain permanent metadata integrity.

6. Commercial Integrity & Licensing Framework