Duties and Responsibilities of Authors
- Accurate and complete reporting. Authors must present research honestly, accurately and with sufficient methodological detail. Fabrication, falsification, selective reporting, deceptive image manipulation and knowingly false statements are unacceptable.
- Originality and attribution. Authors must submit original work, quote and cite sources appropriately, disclose reused material and avoid plagiarism, duplicate publication and inappropriate text recycling.
- Exclusive submission. A manuscript must not be submitted simultaneously to more than one journal. Related submissions and prior dissemination must be disclosed.
- Authorship and contributorship. Only persons who meet the authorship criteria may be listed. All authors must approve the work and contributor statement. Gift, guest, ghost and purchased authorship are prohibited.
- Corresponding-author responsibility. The corresponding author coordinates communication, verifies author approval and declarations, and remains contactable during review and after publication. Academic rank is not an eligibility requirement.
- Ethical oversight. Authors must obtain and disclose applicable ethics approval, consent, permissions and safeguards, and protect the dignity, rights, safety and privacy of participants and communities.
- Data and records. Authors must preserve accurate underlying records, provide a Data Availability Statement and make data/materials available where ethically and legally possible.
- Funding and conflicts. All funding, sponsor roles and relevant financial or non-financial interests must be disclosed fully and updated if circumstances change.
- Responsible citation. Authors must cite relevant literature fairly and accurately and must not participate in citation manipulation or agree to irrelevant citations as a condition of publication.
- Responsible AI use. Authors must disclose substantive AI use, protect confidential information, verify outputs and accept full responsibility. AI tools cannot be authors.
- Cooperation with peer review. Authors must respond to reviewer/editor comments respectfully and point by point, distinguish agreed and disagreed changes, and support disagreements with evidence.
- Correction of the record. Authors must promptly report material errors or integrity concerns and cooperate with inquiries, corrections, expressions of concern or retractions.
- No interference. Authors must not fabricate reviewer identities, submit reviews, contact reviewers, offer inducements, threaten editors or otherwise manipulate the editorial process.
