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Ethics and malpractice
For all parties involved in the act of publishing (the author(s), the journal editor(s), the peer reviewers and the publisher) it is necessary to agree upon standards of expected ethical behavior.
The ethics statements for this journal is based on the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Code of Conduct guidelines available at http://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines.
The full set of standards applicable for J. Exp. Molec. Biol. is presented in the
J. Exp. Molec. Biol. Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement
Editors' responsibilities
For new editors - the Journal of Experimental and Molecular Biology adheres to the COPE guidelines for peer reviewers and ethical editing which editors and their editorial boards can refer for guidance. Read the COPE guidelines on their webpage: https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.1.8 and https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.1.9
1. Publication Decisions
The editors of J. Exp. Molec. Biol. are responsible for deciding which of the manuscripts submitted to the journal should be published. The Editor in Chief ensures that each manuscript is initially evaluated by a Subject Editor, who may make use of appropriate means, to examine the originality of the contents of the manuscript. After the manuscript passes this test, it is forwarded to the reviewers for double-blind peer review, and each of whom will make a recommendation to publish the manuscript in its present form or to modify or to reject it. In evaluating the submitted works, the editors should limit themselves solely to the scientific quality, originality, clarity, and validity of the study. The editors will evaluate manuscripts without regard to the author's race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy. The editors can choose to ignore any material that breaks legal requirements regarding copyright infringement and plagiarism.
2. Confidentiality
The editors and any editorial staff must ensure the confidentiality of the submitted works until they are published. They must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.
3. Disclosure and conflicts of interest
In case the editors decide not to publish a material, the manuscript should not be used for other purposes without the express written consent of the author. The Editors of J. Exp. Molec. Biol. recommends the following article: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/342/6154/60.full.
Reviewers' responsibilities
1. Contribution to editorial decisions
The peer-reviewing process assists the Subject Editor and the editorial board in making editorial decisions regarding a submitted manuscript. Also, by formulating suggestions to the authors, the reviewers can contribute to the improvement of submitted works. In order to achieve these goals, the reviewers are to evaluate objectively the submitted manuscript and to clearly present their views regarding the manuscript.
2. Promptness
Any selected reviewer who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and withdraw from the review process.
3. Confidentiality
The reviewers are bound to treat the manuscript received for peer reviewing as a confidential document. They must not be disclosed to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor. As J. Exp. Molec. Biol. employs the double-blind peer review system, the communication regarding the submitted manuscript would be made exclusively between the reviewers and the editors of J. Exp. Molec. Biol.
4. Standards of objectivity
Reviewers should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate.
Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.
5. Disclosure and conflict of interest
Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions associated with the papers.
Journal of Experimental and Molecular Biology adheres to the COPE guidelines for peer reviewers to which editors and their editorial boards can refer for guidance. Read the COPE guidelines on their webpage: https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.1.9
Author's duties
The authors submitting articles to J. Exp. Molec. Biol. should draft their works in accordance with J. Exp. Molec. Biol. Author Guidelines.
Originality, plagiarism, and acknowledgment of sources
The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works. When the authors use other materials, sources should be appropriately cited. Any attempt at plagiarism should be followed by the rejection of the submitted manuscript.
Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication
Authors should not submit the same work or describe essentially the same research in more than one journal. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behavior.
Authorship of the paper
Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. The corresponding author ensures that all contributing co-authors and no uninvolved persons are included in the author list. The corresponding author will also verify that all co-authors have approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.
Statement on Human and Animal Rights
For research studies using human or animal subjects, the trial’s design, conduct, and reporting of results must conform to Good Clinical Practice guidelines (such as the Good Clinical Practice in Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-Regulated Clinical Trials (USA) or the Medical Research Council Guidelines for Good Clinical Practice in Clinical Trials (UK)) and/or to the World Medical Association (WMA) Declaration of Helsinki.
Any work describing a study that used human subjects must include a statement that affirms the experiments were performed with prior informed consent (written or verbal, as appropriate) from each participant.
Humans: When reporting experiments on human subjects, authors should indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the WMA Declaration of Helsinki. If doubt exists whether the research was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration, the author(s) must explain the rationale for their approach and demonstrate that the institutional review body explicitly approved the doubtful aspects of the study.
Animals: When reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate whether the institutional and national guide for the care and use of laboratory animals was followed. Moreover, all procedures must be in compliance with Directive 2010/63/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 September 2010 on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes. Experimental research on vertebrates or any regulated invertebrates must comply with institutional, national, or international guidelines, and where available should have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee.
Policies on voucher specimens
To be published, manuscripts must be in accordance with J. Exp. Molec. Biol. voucher specimens policy, as below. Voucher specimens are required for all studies highly dependent on accurate taxonomic identification and using biological material (microorganisms, seeds, plants, or animals) from unverified sources. The information here applies to all taxa, unless otherwise noted. Voucher specimens used in the study must be listed in Results. Voucher specimens must have been legally collected. Collecting permit numbers and the issuing agency, where applicable, should be included in Methods, and a statement that specimens were euthanized using approved/accepted/standard methods for the taxonomic group must be included in Methods. Voucher specimens must be deposited in scientific collections (natural history museums, herbaria, or other collections) open to the public. Vouchers must be deposited before submission and for most taxa, the institutional catalog number of the vouchers must be included in the manuscript.
For species threatened by extinction or legally protected, or when collecting of specimens is prohibited in the study area and specimens cannot be collected as vouchers, evidence may be provided other than voucher specimens, including photographs or call records if it allows unambiguous identification of the taxon.
Policies on generative AI in scientific writing
Authors must declare the use of generative AI in scientific writing upon submission of the paper. The following guidance refers only to the writing process, and not to the use of AI tools to analyze and draw insights from data as part of the research process:
- Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies should only be used in the writing process to improve the readability and language of the manuscript.
- The technology must be applied with human oversight and control and authors should carefully review and edit the result, as AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that can be incorrect, incomplete or biased. Authors are ultimately responsible and accountable for the contents of the work.
- Authors must not list or cite AI and AI-assisted technologies as an author or co-author on the manuscript since authorship implies responsibilities and tasks that can only be attributed to and performed by humans.
- The use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in scientific writing must be declared by adding a statement at the end of the manuscript when the paper is first submitted. The statement will appear in the published work and should be placed in a new section before the references list. An example:
Title of new section: Declaration of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process.
Statement: During the preparation of this work the author(s) used [NAME TOOL / SERVICE] in order to [REASON]. After using this tool/service, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take(s) full responsibility for the content of the published article.
The declaration does not apply to the use of basic tools, such as tools used to check grammar, spelling and references. If you have nothing to disclose, you do not need to add a statement.
Data and materials availability
Authors submitting to J. Exp. Molec. Biol. must agree to make available upon request, free of charge, any alignment data, strains, cell lines, or clones used in reported experiments, computer code essential to the analysis, and any other material or information necessary for the assessment and verification of findings or interpretations presented in the publication. Substantial computer software essential to the publication that has not previously been published must be provided as Supplementary Material or made available through a publicly accessible repository.
Disclosure and conflicts of interest
All authors should include a statement disclosing any financial or other substantive conflicts of interest that may be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.
Fundamental errors in published works
When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor in correcting the material.
References
Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). (2011, March 7). Code of Conduct and Best-Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors. Retrieved from
http://publicationethics.org/files/Code_of_conduct_for_journal_editors_Mar11.pdf