All authors are expected to comply with good practice in regard to their research and the reporting of their research.
Authors’ responsibilities include the following issues:
- Plagiarism: The unattributed copying of another published or unpublished work, or the theft of the ideas of another researcher is considered a serious offence. If suspected, authors will be contacted and – if under review – the article will be held until the issue is resolved. Note that all articles are checked for plagiarism when submitted.
- Authorship: All persons who comply with the definition of authors (above) should be named as authors on the article. Similarly, persons who do not comply with the definition should not be included as authors. Authors’ names may not be added or deleted after submission without full explanation and written consent of all authors.
- Conflict of Interest: All authors must declare whether any conflict of interest exists that may have biased either their research or the article submitted.
- Misleading findings or misreporting of findings: Authors are required to ensure that they do not selectively or incorrectly report their findings, or use language to mislead the readers.
- In all cases, the publisher reserves the rights to contact the authors’ institutions if serious misconduct has been identified, and to retract any articles in which serious misconduct has been identified.