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Publication Ethics Statement

Health Sciences follows the Core Practices and the Best Practice Guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). It adheres to the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly work in Medical Journals of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

The Editorial Board is responsible for the form the peer review process will take; therefore, all authors in the biomedical field must adhere to the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals. Health Sciences also endorses the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) Policy Statement on Geopolitical Intrusion on Editorial Decisions.

Ethical responsibilities of authors

Health Sciences is committed to ensure integrity and ethically sound publishing. We therefore closely follow the suggestion of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), as laid out in the COPE guidelines (Promoting integrity in scholarly research and its publication | COPE: Committee on Publication Ethics).

Authors should prevent any publication that misrepresents research results and could erode the trust in Health Sciences. Moreover, submitted research papers should not in any way undermine the professionalism of scientific authorship. All authors are requested to maintain the highest integrity standards regarding their research and its presentation. The following points represent good scientific practice and should be respected by all authors:

  • Submitted manuscripts must be original work of the authors and their paper has not been submitted to other journals simultaneously. Moreover, identical or similar versions of the manuscript have not been published elsewhere before. This also applies to publications of the same manuscript in different languages.
  • Any conflict of interest must be declared upon submission to clarify upfront whether the paper can be transferred into the reviewing process. In this context, all authors of a manuscript have to disclose any financial or other substantive conflicts of interest that may have influenced the results of their studies.
  • Submitting manuscripts to Health Sciences implies that there is no infringement of existing copyright. With submission, all authors agree to acknowledge accurately and properly scientific sources and the work of others. Authors should be transparent if they want to re-use their own material in order to prevent self-plagiarism. If plagiarism is becoming apparent during the review process, the manuscript risks to be disqualified for further publication. If plagiarism is detected after publication of the manuscript, Health Sciences may publish a correction with the article; in severe cases, the editors will retract the paper.
  • May use software to screen manuscripts for plagiarism.
  • Authors should present results clearly and comprehensively and refrain from fabrication, falsification or data manipulation of any kind.
  • Upon submission of the manuscript, authors have received written permission to use any material in the paper that was provided or created by third parties.
  • Authors may be asked to provide the raw data in connection with manuscripts for editorial review, and should be prepared to provide public access to such data if possible.
  • Authors must ensure that all relevant authors to the article, the corresponding author as well as the order of authors are identified and defined upon submission. There will be no changes of authorship after the acceptance of a manuscript.

By submitting an article to this journal you agree to comply with the following Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement:

1. Originality and Plagiarism - All manuscripts must be the original work of authors and not evidence plagiarism.
2. Authorship of the Paper - Authorship of a manuscript should be limited to authors who have made significant contributions.
3. Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication - Authors must not submit the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently.
4. Acknowledgement of sources - Authors must properly and accurately acknowledge the work of others.
5. Disclosure and Conflicts of interest and financial support - authors should disclose any financial or other substantive conflicts of interest that might influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript and acknowledge individuals or organizations that have provided financial support for research.
6. Data access and retention - Authors may be asked to provide the raw data in connection with manuscripts for editorial review, and should be prepared to provide public access to such data if possible.

Duties / Responsibilities of Editors

1. Publication Decisions - Editors are responsible for deciding which of the manuscripts submitted to the journal should be reviewed or published.
2. Fair play - Editors should ensure the integrity of the publication review process. As such, editors should not reveal either the identity of authors of manuscripts to the reviewers or the identity of reviewers to authors.
3. Confidentiality - Editors must treat received manuscripts for review as confidential documents and must not disclose any information about submitted manuscripts to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher.
4. Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest - Editors and any editorial staff must not use materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript (published or unpublished) for their own research without the author’s written authorization.
5. Investigations – Editors shall conduct a proper and fair investigation into ethical complaints.

Responsibility of Reviewers

1. Confidentiality - Reviewers should keep all information regarding papers confidential and treat them as privileged information.
2. Standards of Objectivity - Reviews should be conducted objectively, with no personal criticism of the author.
3. Contribution to Editorial Decision - Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.
4. Promptness - Reviewers should complete their reviews within a specified timeframe.
5. Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest - Reviewers should not review 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 connected to the papers.