Publishing Ethics

Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice 

Archives of Surgical Research follows the COPE Core Practices and ICMJE’s Recommendations to conduct, report, edit and publish Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, and expected an ethical behavior from authors, reviewers, and editors to follow guidelines. We also follow the Principles of Transparency circulated through WAME.

Allegations of Misconduct

Archives of Surgical Research (ASR) defines research & publication misconduct as follows:

  • Plagiarism: the practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own.
  • Citation manipulation: a problem when references do not contribute to the scholarly content of the article and are included solely to increase citations.
  • Data falsification/fabrication: intentional misrepresentation of research results
  • Conflict of interest: a conflict of interest exists when a manuscript’s or journal’s author, editor, reviewer have a financial or personal relationship that may influence their intentions or bias.
  • Redundant publication: when a published work (or substantial sections from a published work) is/are published more than once (in the same or another language) without adequate acknowledgment of the source/cross-referencing/justification (https://publicationethics.org/category/keywords/redundant-publication)

Any allegations of misconduct brought to the journal’s attention will be dealt with immediately and seriously. ASR will not accept articles that violate research & publication ethics, any manuscript not in compliance will be rejected.

ASR utilizes Turnitin to assess all submitted manuscripts, a plagiarism percentage upwards of 24% is unacceptable, and articles not in accordance with this rule will be rejected.

In cases of citation manipulation, relevant COPE guidelines will be followed.

In case of suspected data falsification/fabrication, respective authors will be asked to clarify and explain their methods. Failure to do so will result in:

  1. rejection of their submitted manuscript
  2. communication of the authors’ misconduct will be made to relevant institutions and regulatory bodies
  3. black-listing of the authors from ASR for all future submissions

This is in accordance with COPE guidelines.

We follow the COPE Guidelines for sharing information regarding any misconduct with other journals. We also follow the COPE Retraction Guideline. We as a journal have a policy to refer such cases to COPE if required.

In case of suspicion of image manipulation in a manuscript, COPE flowchart will be followed.

In cases of redundant publications, COPE flowchart will be followed.

Disclosures

All authors are required to submit a Disclosure of Interest form, which can be found here: http://www.icmje.org/disclosure-of-interest/. In case of an undisclosed conflict of interest, COPE guidelines will be followed.

Authorship

Archives of Surgical Research (ASR) follows the COPE flowchart to recognize potential authorship problems. Ghost, guest, and gifted authorship will result in rejection of the submitted manuscript, in accordance with COPE guidelines.

ASR implements ICJME recommendations for what constitutes authorship of a manuscript.

ICMJE Authorship Criteria

As per ICMJE guidelines, the authorship should be based on the following criteria:

  1. Substantial contributions to conception & design, acquisition of data, or analysis & interpretation of data.
  2. We do not allow ghost, guest, and gift authorship, and if found so we follow COPE guidelines to handle such cases.
  3. Drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content.
  4. Final approval of the version to be published. All those who meet the above three conditions are eligible to be included as authors in the manuscript
  5. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
  6. When a large multicenter group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship defined above. Acquisition of funding, collection of data, general supervision of the research group does not qualify anyone to be an author. All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the acknowledgment section. Those who provide technical support, writing assistance or department chairs who provided just general support should also be mentioned in acknowledgment. It is also important that all those whose names appear in acknowledgment must have given permission to be acknowledged.

ICMJE http://www.icmje.org

If a contributor does not fulfill the authorship criteria, ASR encourages listing them in the acknowledgments section. All authors are required to submit a Disclosure of Interest form, which can be found here: http://www.icmje.org/disclosure-of-interest/. In addition to submitting a disclosure of interest form, the manuscript must outline the specific contribution of each author. ASR Authors are also encouraged to link their ORCiD profiles.

Authorship disputes should be brought to light via email to relevant editors. They are handled through COPE Guidelines.

Complaints and Appeals

Archives of Surgical Research (ASR) follows COPE guidelines in case of appeals to the journal’s editor’s decisions and complaints about ASR’s journal management of the peer-review process.

If authors wish to file a complaint or appeal against an editorial decision, they are encouraged to email: editorial@archivessr.com, with the subject heading mentioning “COMPLAINT” or “APPEAL”. We have a dedicated Ombudsperson for handling such appeals. 

Furthermore, Archives of Surgical Research (ASR) consults COPE guidelines if a reviewer is suspected of appropriating or mismanaging author material and may refer such cases to COPE if required.

Data and reproducibility

Archives of Surgical Research (ASR) follows ICMJE data sharing guidelines.

In case of suspected data falsification/fabrication, respective authors will be asked to clarify and explain their methods.

To Improve transparency, we encourage the use of and link to international standard reporting guidelines such as those listed in the EQUATOR Network. We encourage pre-registration of clinical trials (and other study designs) in an online clinical study database before data are collected (eg, ClinicalTrials.gov). We encourage journal pre-registration and peer review of study protocols before data are collected (eg, as promoted by the Center for Open Science).

We have system of scruitiny to find such data manipulations if found may result in:

  1. rejection of their submitted manuscript
  2. communication of the authors’ misconduct will be made to relevant institutions and regulatory bodies
  3. black-listing of the authors from ASR for all future submissions

This is in accordance with COPE guidelines.

In case of suspicion of image manipulation in a manuscript, COPE flowchart will be followed.

Ethical Oversight

Archives of Surgical Research (ASR) follows COPE guidelines for ethical oversight, wherever applicable. ASR has it’s own consent form for case reports, which is mandatory along with the submission of the manuscript. The consent form is adapted from BMJ Case Reports and is in line with COPE guidelines. To determine whether a study requires ethical approval or not, ASR looks to COPE guidelines.

Furthermore, ASR requires a transparency declaration from the lead author of an original study guaranteeing honesty and accuracy (as published & implemented by the BMJ and endorsed by the EQUATOR network).

Post-publication Review and Audit

If authors whose work has been accepted and/or published wish to retract/correct/revise their articles, please email:  editorial@archivessr.com, with the subject heading mentioning “RETRACTION” or “CORRECTION” or “REVISION”.