Commenting on the published articles
Authorship
According to the guidelines for authorship established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), "All persons designated as authors should qualify for authorship, and all those who qualify should be listed."
Three basic criteria must collectively be met to be credited as an author[1,2]:
- Substantial contribution to the study conception and design, data acquisition, analysis, and interpretation.
- Drafting or revising the article for intellectual content.
- Approval of the final version.
Each author is responsible for the content of the article. If the work is produced by a team of scientists, authors must include a list of persons who meet the above criteria and add the name of the group.
Funding for the study or the general supervision of the work is not an authorship.
Replacing the authors. If in the period of time from the submission of the manuscript prior to its publication for any reason the list of authors should be changed, the author, who deposits the manuscript should contact the editorial office and indicate the reason for change.
[1] International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Ethical Considerations in the Conduct and Reporting of Research: Authorship and Contributorship. Available at:icmje.org/ethical_1author.html. Accessed on September 12, 2012.
[2]Publishing Ethics,
https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies/publishing-ethics
Conflict of interest
When an investigator, author, editor, or reviewer has a financial/personal interest or belief that could affect his/her objectivity, or inappropriately influence his/her actions, a potential conflict of interest exists. Such relationships are also known as dual commitments, competing interests,
or competing loyalties [1,2].
The most obvious conflicts of interest are financial relationships such as:
- Direct: employment, stock ownership, grants, patents.
- Indirect: honoraria, consultancies to sponsoring organizations, mutual fund ownership, paid expert testimony [2].
Conflicts can also exist as a result of personal relationships, academic competition, and intellectual passion [2].
All persons involved in the manuscript, including authors, editors, reviewers and readers who comment on or evaluate the material, should report any conflict of interest.
If, in the opinion of the editors, there are circumstances which may affect the impartial review of the material, the editors do not appeal to this reviewer.
Editorial Board reserves a right not to publish a manuscript, if the conflict of interests declaredby author puts objectivity and authenticity of research estimation under a threat.
If the editorial board will reveal a conflict of interest that has not been declared upon submission - a manuscript may be rejected. If undeclared conflict of interest is discovered after publication, if necessary, the article can be corrected or removed.
[1] Office of Research Integrity U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. A brief overview on Conflict of Interests. Available at: ori.hhs.gov/plagiarism-35. Accessed on September 3, 2012.
[2] International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Ethical Considerations in the Conduct and Reporting of Research: Conflicts of Interest. Available at:icmje.org/conflicts-of-interest/. Accessed on September 2, 2012
Plagiarism
One of the most common types of publication misconduct is plagiarism–when one author deliberately uses another's work without permission, credit, or acknowledgment. Plagiarism takes different
forms, from literal copying to paraphrasing some else's work and can include [1]:
- Data
- Words and Phrases
- Ideas and Concepts
Plagiarism has varying different levels of severity, such as:
- How much of someone's work was taken–a few lines, paragraphs, pages, the full article?
- What was copied–results, methods, or introduction section?
When it comes to your work, always remember that crediting the work of others (including your advisor’s or your own previous work) is a critical part of the process. You should always place your work in the context of the advancement of the field, and acknowledge the findings of others on which you have built your research.
All submitted manuscripts are checked by speciality software at the stage of initial review.
If plagiarism is detected - the Editors have the right to reject the submitted manuscript.
The authors are responsible for the accuracy of the information presented in the articles, the accuracy of the names, last names and citations.
In case of finding out plagiarism authors have the responsibility according to the current legislation of Ukraine (Law of Ukraine «On Copyright and Related Rights»).
[1]Publishing Ethics,
https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies/publishing-ethics
Simultaneous submission [1]
Authors have an obligation to make sure their paper is based on original–never before published–research. Intentionally submitting or re-submitting work for duplicate publication is considered a breach of publishing ethics.
- Simultaneous submission occurs when a person submits a paper to different publications at the same time, which can result in more than one journal publishing that particular paper.
- Duplicate/multiple publication occurs when two or more papers, without full cross-reference, share essentially the same hypotheses, data, discussion points, and/or conclusions.1 This can occur in varying degrees: literal duplication, partial but substantial duplication, or even duplication by paraphrasing [2].
One of the main reasons duplicate publication of original research is considered unethical, is that it can result in "inadvertent doublecounting or inappropriate weighting of the results of a single study, which distorts the available evidence" [3].
There are certain situations in which the publishers of two journals might agree in advance to use the "duplicate work" [3]. These include:
- Combined editorials (e.g. about a plagiarism case involving the two journals).
- (Clinical) guidelines, position statements.
- Translations of articles–provided that prior approval has been granted by the first Publisher, and that full and prominent disclosure of its original source is given at the time of submission [2].
The main rule of thumb: articles submitted for publication must be original and must not have been submitted to any other publication. At the time of submission, authors must disclose any details of related papers (also when in a different language), similar papers in press, and translations.
[1] Publishing Ethics,
https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies/publishing-ethics
[2] Elsevier. Publishing Ethics Resource Kit (PERK). Available at:elsevier.com/wps/find/editorshome.editors/Introduction. Accessed: June 15, 2012.
[3] International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Publishing and Editorial Issues Related to Publication in Biomedical Journals: Overlapping Publications. Available at: icmje.org/conflicts-of-interest/. Accessed: June 8, 2012.
Correction and text addition
If necessary, Editorial Board makes necessary changes and clarifications to the content, publish a retraction and apology.
Editors can make minor changes (fixing small errors) and clarifying the content of articles that improve its content, but does not significantly alter its structure as a whole. To do this, send a request to the editor.
Commenting on the published articles
On the pages of published articles capable of being comment users. Editorial Board encourages users to post as many reviews on the published material.
Editorial Board promptly reviews and responds to the justified criticism of the materials published in the journal, informs the authors of articles on the received feedback and requests to make a clarification.
Commenting must have the character of a civilized scientific discussion:
- may contain clarifications and additions to the contents and results gained of particular article;
- arguments must be accompanied by a reference to published resources or contain exhaustive scientific justification.
Comments otherwise (abusive and obscene language, ads and spam) will be deleted.
User accounts that violate the above will be removed.
