Publication Ethics & COPE

This journal follows the Core Practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). An application for COPE membership has been submitted. The journal applies COPE's Core Practices in all matters relating to publication ethics.

Authorship

Authorship must meet all four ICMJE criteria: (1) substantial contribution to conception or design, or acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; (2) drafting or critically revising the manuscript; (3) approval of the final version; (4) accountability for all aspects of the work. Meeting only one or two criteria justifies acknowledgement, not authorship.

Conflicts of Interest

All authors must disclose any financial or non-financial conflicts of interest that could be perceived as influencing the research, including funding sources, employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, and expert testimony. Disclosures are published with the article. Editors recuse themselves from decisions where they have a conflict of interest.

Research Ethics

Studies involving human participants must have received approval from an appropriate ethics committee and must have been conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Patient consent must be described.

Data Fabrication, Falsification & Image Manipulation

Allegations of data fabrication, falsification, and image manipulation are taken seriously and investigated according to COPE guidelines.

Plagiarism

All submissions are screened for plagiarism prior to peer review. Manuscripts with similarity indices indicating unacknowledged copying are rejected without review. Self-plagiarism is treated with the same seriousness as plagiarism of others' work.

Retractions and Corrections

Corrections, expressions of concern, and retractions are published in accordance with COPE guidelines. All published content is permanently archived.

AI-Assisted Writing

Authors who use AI language tools in manuscript preparation must disclose this in the Methods or Acknowledgements section. AI tools may not be listed as authors.

Trial Registration

Studies reporting the results of clinical trials must have been prospectively registered in a WHO ICTRP–approved registry (e.g. ClinicalTrials.gov), and the registration number must be stated in the manuscript.

Consent to Publish

For any potentially identifiable patient information or images, written informed consent for publication must be obtained and documented, and a statement to this effect included in the manuscript.

Changes to Authorship

Any change to the author list after submission — addition, removal, or reordering — requires the written agreement of all authors and the approval of the editor.