Publication Ethics Policies

ActaBiomed is committed to ensuring the autonomy of editorial decisions without influence from anyone. The journal provides the integrity and transparency of each published article, and ensure that all submissions get the same treatment by following ethical guidelines. ActaBiomed does not tolerate discrimination or bias based on, but not limited to, sex or gender, disability, age, nationality, race, sexual orientation, belief system, political or economic status. Journal ethical issues, author's guidelines and peer review process are periodically updated and critically verified to ensure criteria of impartiality and fairness, taking into consideration the primary objectives of the journal.

The editorial and publication process follow the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), Council of Science Editors (CSE), and COPE International Standards for Editors and Authors Guidelines (http://publicationethics.org).

Article Submission

The corresponding author should submit the manuscript online. Submitted paper should be well formatted in grammatically correct English. Papers must be submitted exclusively to Acta Biomedica, and are accepted on the understanding that they have not been, and won’t be, published elsewhere.

All authors should  be aware of editorial and publishing policies and have the responsibility for the entire manuscript as an accurate, verifiable report of the research.

The corresponding author is responsible for the integrity of the work as a whole. The Editor-in-Chief (EIC) checks that the paper is appropriate for the journal and is sufficiently original and interesting. If not, the paper may be rejected without being reviewed any further.

The manuscripts submitted by the Editorial Board Members will be treated with the utmost transparency and honesty following the guidelines of the: Council of Science Editors (CSE- https://www.council scienceeditors.org/resource-library/editorial-policies/publication-ethics/2-1-editor-roles-and-responsibilities), International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE- http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/author-responsibilities--conflicts-of-interest.html), and Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE- https://publicationethics.org/files/A_Short_Guide_to_Ethical_Editing.pdf).

The two independent reviewers will be selected based on the following criteria: They should preferably be from other countries and must not have co-authored publications with the author(s) for the last 3 years and should not be affiliated with the same institution of author(s).

Submission Checklist

Author(s) can use this list to carry out a final check of article submission before sending it to the journal for peer review process.

Cover Letter
The submission must also comprise a cover letter. In the cover letter, author should incorporate:

1.The affiliation and contact information of the corresponding author.
2. A brief explanation of why the work is appropriate for the journal.
3. The names and contact information of 2 reviewer’s considered suitable for the revision of manuscript (including full name, institution and e-mail address).

To facilitate this procedure, the Authors are requested to use the sample cover letter that can be downloaded by clicking here.

 

Policies on Conflict of Interest, Human rights, and Informed Consent

 

Research ethics policy

Research involving human subjects, human material, or human data, must have been performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and must have been approved by an Ethics Committee, sometimes referred to as an Institutional Review Board (IRB). A statement detailing this, including the name of the Ethics Committee, the reference number and date of approval. The statement on ethics committee permission and ethical practices must be included in all research articles under the ‘Materials and Methods’ section. If a retrospective (“non-interventional”) study has been granted an exemption from requiring ethics approval, this should also be detailed in the manuscript. In such cases the acceptance of paper submission is at the Editor’s discretion. Manuscripts may be rejected if the Editor considers that the research has not been carried out within an appropriate ethical framework. From May 2023, ActaBiomed  does not accept research papers in animals.

 

Informed consent policy

For all research involving human subjects, informed consent to participate in the study should be obtained from participants (or their parent or guardian in the case of children under 18 years) and a statement to this effect should appear in the manuscript. Details that might disclose the identity of the subjects under the study should be omitted. Every precaution must be taken to protect the privacy of patients. The names, initials, hospital or social security numbers, dates of birth, or other personal or identifying information of patients and research subjects should not be used.

Photographs of patients or research subjects should not be used unless the information is required for scientific purposes. To reduce the risk of images being used inappropriately, only images of children dressed appropriately should be used. Individuals or Parents should also be informed that individual images from such works or products may be discoverable through search engines. In cases where images are entirely unidentifiable and there are no details on individuals reported within the manuscript, consent for publication of images may not be required. The final decision lies to the Editor-in-Chief.

Formal consents are not required for the use of completely anonymized images from which the individual cannot be identified, such as x-rays, ultrasound images, pathology slides, or laparoscopic images, as long as they do not contain any identifying marks and are not accompanied by text that could identify the individual in question. Although formal consent is not required, the author should inform the patient that their images will be used in a scientific publication as a matter of good practice and courtesy.

 

Conflicts of interests

The corresponding author, on behalf of all the other Authors, must declare the existence of all possible conflicts of interest (including financial, consultant, institutional, personal, ideology, academic and other relationships that might constitute a potential conflict of interest in relation to the subject matter of the article). In the case of existence of any such financial connections, the authors concerned must declare them in a brief but complete definition at the end of the article, before the references. If no conflict of interest exists the corresponding Author should type: "Each author declares that he or she has no commercial associations (e.g. consultancies, stock ownership, equity interest, patent/licensing arrangement etc.) that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted article.

 

Supplement

A supplement is a collection of papers that addresses specific issues or topics. Supplements can serve useful purposes: education, exchange of research information, ease of access to focused content, and improved cooperation between academic and corporate entities. A supplement may be published as a separate issue of the journal. From January 1st, 2024 no more than one supplements per year will be taken in consideration.

 

Statements related to publication process for supplement

If a Guest Editor is contemplating a special issue proposal, after the presentation to Editor-in-Chief and his approval, is responsible to identify papers and authors for possible inclusion in the special issue that will follow the same strict and rigorous ethical principles and review process of regular journal issues.

The Guest Editor should be an expert in the field and is responsible for the supplement contents. If poor adherence to the guidelines of ActaBiomed or unethical practices are detected by the Editor-in-Chief the supplement will be cancelled. The principles of authorship and disclosure of potential conflicts of interest are applied to supplements as regular journal issue.

The sources of funding for the research and publication, must be approved by the Editor-in-Chief and clearly reported in the supplement index of contents.

The title of the supplement will also be highlighted on the cover.

Personal remuneration from sponsors of supplements to the Guest Editor(s) of ActaBiomed are not permitted.

 

Corresponding authors

The corresponding author takes primary responsibility for communication with the journal and editorial office during the submission process, throughout peer review, and during publication. The corresponding author is also responsible for ensuring that the submission adheres to all journal requirements including, but not exclusive to, details of authorship, study ethics and ethics approval, clinical trial registration documents, and conflict of interest declaration. The corresponding author should also be available post-publication to respond to any queries or critiques.

 

Author Contributions Statement and Acknowledgement

It has to be placed after the conflict of interest.

To qualify for authorship, all contributors (please report only monograms for name and surname) must meet the following 4 criteria based on ICMJE recommendations:

  1. Have made a substantial contribution to the concept or design of the article; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the article; AND
  2. Drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content; AND
  3. Approved the version to be published; AND
  4. Agreed 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.

The acknowledgement section can be used to thank anyone important in the publication of the work who does not qualify for authorship and to declare relevant funding information.

Contributions will be published with the final article, and they should accurately reflect contributions to the work. The corresponding author is responsible for completing this information at full submission, and we expect that all authors will have reviewed, discussed, and agreed to their individual contributions ahead of this time.

The acknowledgement section can be used to thank anyone important in the publication of the work who does not qualify for authorship and to declare relevant funding information.

 

Unethical practices (Plagiarism, Misconduct, Falsification, Duplicate Publication, Redundant Publication)

The foundation of scientific publication is based on trust, honesty and credibility. We advise the authors to carefully go through the article contents by using plagiarism checking software prior to the submission. If the plagiarism is observed by the editor for individual similarity index between 10 and 15%, the corresponding author(s) is invited to rewrite the text or quote the text exactly and cite the original source. If major plagiarism is detected, manuscript is rejected and the authors are advised to revise and resubmit it as a fresh manuscript. Violation of copyright in the submission may lead to rejection if the problematic pieces cannot be removed. Replicating a table or figure from any copyrighted publication requires proper referencing of the original source and written permissions from the copyright holders.

In cases of alleged or proven scientific misconduct, fraudulent publication, redundant or duplicate publication, the publisher, in close collaboration with the Editor-in-Chief, will take all appropriate measures to clarify the situation and to amend the article in question following  the COPE flowchart guidelines (including evaluating a response from the author of the article in question).

 

Disclaimer

Although the editors and reviewers make every effort to ensure the validity of published manuscripts, the final responsibility rests with the authors, not with the Journal, its Editors, or Publisher.

 


 

(Last update version: 6 March 2024)