Editorial Policies

EDITORIAL POLICIES

Authorship

B&P follows the recommendations from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors regarding defining authors and contributors. Specifically, all authors should fulfill the following four criteria:

• Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
• Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
• Final approval of the version to be published; AND
• 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.

As further recommended by ICMJE, if there is a disagreement over authorship "it is the collective responsibility of the authors, not the journal to which the work is submitted, to determine that all people named as authors meet all four criteria; it is not the role of journal editors to determine who qualifies or does not qualify for authorship or to arbitrate authorship conflicts."

Author contribution

The contributions of all authors must be described. B&P has adopted the CRediT Taxonomy to describe each author's individual contributions to the work. The submitting author is responsible for providing the contributions of all authors at submission. We expect that all authors will have reviewed, discussed, and agreed to their individual contributions ahead of this time. Contributions will be published with the final article, and they should accurately reflect contributions to the work.

Sample Author Contributions

Conceptualization, M.B. and E.T.; Methodology, E.T; A.B., S.C.P., and S.Y.W.; Investigation, E.T, M.E., A.N.V., N.A.V., S.C.P., and S.Y.W.; Writing - Original Draft, E.T and M.B..; Writing - Review & Editing, S.C.P. and S.Y.W.; Funding Acquisition, M.B.; Resources, M.E.V and C.K.B.; Supervision, MB.

See the table below for more details

Acknowledgments

Contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be mentioned in the Acknowledgments. It is expected that those being acknowledged have given their permission to be named.

Authorship Changes

Changing the author list after submission requires agreement from all authors. This includes additions, deletions, and changes in ordering. Requests must come from the corresponding author along with an explanation for the change. If the change is deemed to be appropriate, the corresponding author must receive and provide to B&P the consent to the change from all the authors, including any being added, deleted, or reordered.

Authorship issues identified after publication may result in a correction. In the case of an authorship dispute, the journal will not arbitrate. If the authors are unable to resolve the dispute themselves, we will raise the issue with the authors' institution(s) and abide by its guidelines.

Duplicate publication

When submitting a manuscript, the authors should affirm that no similar manuscript (including book chapters) is or will be under consideration for publication elsewhere (other than as an abstract that is less than 400 words in length and contains no figures). Any unpublished articles that are related to or could be perceived to overlap with the submitted manuscript must be included for evaluation by the editors and reviewers. Doctoral theses or dissertations are not regarded as prior publications.

Data integrity and plagiarism

All accepted manuscripts will go through a plagiarism and image screening check prior to publication. We use Turnitin to detect for textual similarity with other publications, including instances of self-plagiarism.

Images should be minimally processed and accurately reflect the original data. We understand that image processing may be necessary and is appropriate in most instances. Our screening process examines the following: whether any specific feature within an image has been enhanced, obscured, moved, removed, or introduced; whether dividing lines are added between juxtaposed images taken from different parts of the same gel or from different gels, fields, or exposures; whether adjustments of brightness, contrast, or color balance have been applied to the entire image and that adjustments do not enhance, erase, or misrepresent any information present in the original, including the background. We also look for duplicated images within the manuscript; any reuse of images, including control data, across multiple figures should be explicitly stated and justified in the legend. Nonlinear adjustments (e.g., changes to gamma settings) must be disclosed in the figure legend or Materials and methods section.

If figure resolution or quality is insufficient for proper image screening, we will request the original data. Failure to locate original data upon request during the editorial or production process will cause delays with your manuscript. In the event that inappropriate image processing is identified prior to publication, our editors will contact the authors to discuss further. In most instances, we can resolve the issue and move forward with publication. In more serious cases where inappropriate image processing obscures or changes the conclusions of the manuscript, we may be forced to revoke acceptance.

We investigate all instances of alleged scientific misconduct identified in our published papers (including, but not limited to, plagiarism, inappropriate data processing, and duplicate publication). Depending on the outcome of our investigation, we may publish a correction, ask authors to retract their paper, or publish an editorial statement of concern.

In instances where we are considering revoking acceptance, retracting a published article, or issuing an editorial statement of concern, we will contact the corresponding author's institution during the course of our investigation.

Materials and data sharing

As a condition of publication, authors must make protocols and unique materials (including, but not limited to, cloned DNAs; antibodies; bacterial, animal, or plant cells; and viruses) described in our published articles freely available upon request by researchers, who may use them in their own laboratory only. All materials must be made available on request and without undue delay. If researchers are having difficulty obtaining materials from the authors of a published article, they should contact the journal's editorial office.

We encourage all authors to plan for the long-term storage and sharing of all original data underlying their manuscript. All datasets included in the manuscript must be available from the date of online publication, and the source code for all custom computational methods, apart from commercial software programs, must be made available either in a publicly available database or as supplemental materials hosted on the journal website. Numerous resources exist for data storage and sharing, and authors should choose the most appropriate venue based on their data type and/or community standard. If no appropriate specific database exists, we encourage authors to deposit their data to an appropriate publicly available database.

Confidentiality

All manuscript details, reviewer identities, and comments to the editors are considered privileged information and will never be disclosed to third parties. Manuscripts will be transferred only with author approval.

Transfer policy

We are committed to limiting time spent in peer review and reducing the burden placed on reviewers. For authors that wish to do so, we allow submission of previous reviewer comments when uploading a new manuscript to B&P journal. We also facilitate the transfer of peer reviewer comments from our journals to any other journal upon request.

Access to accepted manuscripts by the public

B&P is an open access Journal.

Media policy

All accepted papers and manuscripts under consideration are strictly embargoed until the date of publication. Authors are free to talk with journalists one week prior to online publication, provided any information exchanged is embargoed until 9:00 AM US Eastern Time on the date of publication.

PEER REVIEW PROCESS

Following submission, the manuscript will undergo a preliminary in-house evaluation by the Editor in Chief and/or by the Academic Section Editors (ASE). ASE will first judge whether the written language and statistical analysis of the manuscripts are adequate. Manuscripts judged not to be adequate will undergo "Editorial Rejection" and sent back to the authors with a request of re-submission, prior revision, accordingly with Chief Editor and/or ASE suggestions.

The ASE decides whether reviews from additional experts are needed to evaluate the manuscript. After agreeing to review a manuscript, external reviewers are typically granted 10-15 days to complete the assignment. We will follow up with late reviewers and keep authors informed if there are any delays.

Reviewers' identities are not revealed to authors or to other reviewers unless reviewers specifically request to be identified by signing their name at the end of their comments

The ASE is anonymous to authors and reviewers unless and until a manuscript is accepted for publication. When a ASE have been assigned, authors may see the status "Editor assigned".

The names of the authors are not anonymous to reviewers or editors during review so that they can assess potential conflicts of interest.

Authors may enter the names of potential peer reviewers they wish to exclude from consideration in the peer review of their manuscript. The editorial team will respect these requests so long as this does not interfere with the objective and thorough assessment of the submission.

The majority of B&P submissions are evaluated by 2 external reviewers, but it is up to the Chief Editor and ASE to determine the number of reviews required. When reviewers are assigned, authors may see the status "Start peer review".

Editorial decisions

The final decision on a manuscript is made by the Chief Editor and ASE. The time to receive a decision depends on how long it takes for the editor to assess the reviews. When the decision is final, authors will receive the notification by email and see the decision term in the submission system. After evaluation, the Chief Editor along with the ASE will choose between the following decisions:

• Accept
• Minor Revisions
• Major Revisions
• Editorial Rejection
• Reject

Revisions

Authors who receive a decision of Minor Revision or Major Revision have 30 days to resubmit the revised manuscript.

In most cases, the revised manuscript will be re-assigned to the original ASE. The ASE will determine if additional input is needed from reviewers.

Appeals

Authors may submit a formal appeal for rejected submissions. Appeal requests must be made in writing to editorialboard@biomedicineandprevention.com with the word "appeal" in the subject line. Authors must provide detailed reasons for the appeal and point-by-point responses to the reviewers' and/or Academic Editor's comments.

Decisions on appeals are final without exception. Priority is given to new submissions, so the appeal process may take longer than the original submission process.

Accepted Manuscripts

If your manuscript has been accepted, this will be transferred to the Publisher and posted on B&P web site (http://www.biomedicineandprevention.com), upon receipt of payment of the publication fee, by the Publisher. For B&P publication fees, please see "authors guidelines" on B&P web page.

POLICIES ON CONFLICT OF INTEREST, HUMAN AND ANIMAL RIGHTS AND INFORMED CONSENT

Policies on Conflict of Interest

We take guidance from the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation in determining how to define a perceived conflict of interest. Reviewers and editors are asked to disclose any potential conflicts of interest prior to evaluating a manuscript. To avoid potential conflicts of interest, individuals should recuse themselves from evaluating a manuscript if any of the following points apply:

• The author is a recent collaborator or trainee (less than five years), family member, or a close personal friend
• The reviewer/editor, his/her immediate family, or a close professional associate has a financial or vested interest in the manuscript

Policies on Human Rights

Summary of Requirements

Researchers submitting studies involving human participants must meet the following requirements:

• Obtain prior approval for human subjects research by an institutional review board (IRB) or equivalent ethics committee(s)
• Declare compliance with ethical practices upon submission of a manuscript
• Report details on how informed consent for the research was obtained (or explain why consent was not obtained)
• Submit, upon request from the journal, documentation from the review board or ethics committee confirming approval of the research.
• For clinical trials, provide trial registration details, the study protocol, and CONSORT documentation (more information below)
• Confirm that an identified individual has provided written consent for the use of that information

Policy Enforcement

All submissions describing clinical research and/or research on human subjects will be checked by journal staff to ensure that the requirements above are met. Failure to meet requirements may be grounds for rejection. If issues are discovered after publication, we may issue a correction or retraction as appropriate. We also reserve the right to contact the author's institution.

Clinical Studies

Clinical investigations must be conducted according to the principles expressed in the Declaration of Helsinki.

Clinical Trials

Biomedicine&Prevention follows the World Health Organization's (WHO) definition of a clinical trial: A clinical trial is any research study that prospectively assigns human participants or groups of humans to one or more health-related interventions to evaluate the effects on health outcomes [...] Interventions include but are not restricted to drugs, cells and other biological products, surgical procedures, radiologic procedures, devices, behavioural treatments, process-of-care changes, preventive care, etc.

Our policies for clinical trial submissions are designed to promote transparency and reproducibility and to ensure the integrity of the reporting of patient-centered trials. Compliance with our policies is required at submission in order for a manuscript to proceed.

Editors and reviewers should carefully review trial protocols and registration details and assess manuscripts according to CONSORT or other relevant guidelines. Most clinical trial submissions will also be reviewed by a statistician.

Concerns about clinical trial submissions should be brought to the attention of the editorial office as quickly as possible.

Registering clinical trials

All trials submitted to B&P must be entered in a publicly accessible registry approved by the WHO or ICMJE. See the list of approved registries using the following link http://www.who.int/ictrp/network/primary/en/

B&P consider prospective trial registration (that is, registration before participant enrollment has begun) to be best publication practice, as recommended by the ICMJE. Clinical trials that began to enroll participants before ICMJE recommendations took effect on July 1, 2005 may be retrospectively registered.

Authors wishing to submit a clinical trial that was not publicly registered before participant enrollment began must register the trial retrospectively in a publicly accessible registry. They must also:

• Register all related clinical trials and confirm they have done so in the Methods section.
• Explain in the Methods the specific reasons for failing to register before participant enrollment
• Confirm that future trials will be registered prospectively

B&P editors may decline to further consider any clinical trial for which, in the editor's judgment, absence of prospective registration raises concerns of selective publication or selective reporting of research outcomes.

B&P supports the public disclosure of all clinical trial results, as mandated, for example, by the 2007 FDA Amendments Act. Prior disclosure of results on a clinical trial registry site will not affect consideration.

Required documentation:

Clinical trial reports must adhere to the relevant reporting guidelines for their study design, such as CONSORT for randomized controlled trials, TREND for non-randomized trials, and other specialized guidelines as appropriate.

For all clinical trial submissions, authors must include the following:

• Registration details (reported in the Methods section and in the submission form)
• CONSORT checklist or relevant reporting guideline (uploaded as supporting information)
• CONSORT flow diagram (uploaded as Fig 1)
• Trial protocol (uploaded as supporting information)
• Details of prior approval for human subjects research by an institutional review board (IRB) or equivalent ethics committee(s)

The submission will not be considered if documentation is not provided. The checklist, flow diagram, and protocol will be published with the article if the manuscript is accepted.

The manuscript file must include the following information:

• An explanation of any deviation from the trial protocol
• Description of informed consent obtained from participants
• Any information on statistical methods or participants not indicated in the CONSORT documentation

B&P reserves the right to ask for a blank sample copy of any forms used in the trial.

Policies on Animal Research

Author Requirements

Studies involving animals must be conducted according to internationally-accepted standards.

• Authors must obtain prior approval from their Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) or equivalent ethics committee(s).
• The name of the IACUC or equivalent ethics committee, as well as relevant permit numbers, must be provided at submission.

This information should be reported in the manuscript. B&P requires additional information for studies in which death of a regulated animal (vertebrate, cephalopod) is a likely outcome or a planned experimental endpoint.

Non-Human Primates

Non-human primate studies must be performed in accordance with the recommendations of the Weatherall report, The use of non-human primates in research.

Manuscripts describing research involving non-human primates must include details of animal welfare, including information about housing, feeding, and environmental enrichment, and steps taken to minimize suffering, including use of anesthesia and method of sacrifice if appropriate.

Reporting Guidelines

We encourage authors to comply with the Animal Research: Reporting In Vivo Experiments (ARRIVE) guidelines, developed by the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement & Reduction of Animals in Research(NC3Rs).

The ARRIVE guidelines can be applied to any area of bioscience research using laboratory animals. They aim to improve standards of reporting to ensure that the data from animal experiments can be fully scrutinized, reproduced, and utilized.

Relevant information should be included in the appropriate section of the article (e.g. title, abstract, or methods, etc.), as outlined in the ARRIVE guidelines. Where research could be confused as pertaining to human clinical research, the animal model should also be noted in the article title.

Unregulated animal Research

Where unregulated animals are used or ethics approval is not required by a specific committee, authors should include a clear statement of this fact and the reasons why ethical approval is not required. The B&P journal staff and editors will assess these situations on a case-by-case basis.

Policy Enforcement

All submissions describing research involving animals will be checked by journal staff and editors to ensure that the requirements above are met. Failure to meet requirements may be grounds for rejection.

We reserve the right to reject work that the editors believe has not been conducted to a high ethical standard, even if authors have obtained formal approval or if approval is not required under local regulations.

If concerns are discovered after publication, the journal staff will investigate and, should substantial concerns arise regarding the handling of animals or oversight for the research, we may issue a correction or retraction as appropriate. We also reserve the right to contact the authors' institution, ethics committee or other appropriate body in relation to these concerns.

Privacy of patients and Informed Consent for publication

We uphold the right to anonymity and take all necessary steps to protect the privacy of those who participate in research.

Authors must avoid providing identifying information unless strictly necessary for the submission. If identifying information is necessary, authors must confirm that the individual has provided written consent for the use of that information as per the Consent Form for Publication in B&P Journal.

All submissions are checked for documentation of patient consent for publication and for any potentially identifying information. Submissions that include identifying patient information without appropriate patient consent will not be considered for publication.

If identifying information is discovered after publication, the article will be temporarily withdrawn while any content compromising participant privacy is removed.

Editor Responsibilities toward Authors

B&P follows the criteria established by the Council of Science Editors (https://www.councilscienceeditors.org/resource-library/editorial-policies/white-paper-on-publication-ethics/2-1-editor-roles-and-responsibilities/)

• Providing trough B&P web site, guidelines to authors for preparing and submitting manuscripts
• Treating all authors with fairness, courtesy, objectivity, honesty, and transparency
• Establishing and defining policies on conflicts of interest for all involved in the publication process, including editors, staff (e.g., editorial and sales), authors, and reviewers
• Protecting the confidentiality of every author’s work
• Establishing a system for effective and rapid peer review
• Making editorial decisions with reasonable speed and communicating them in a clear and constructive manner
• Being vigilant in avoiding the possibility of editors and/or referees delaying a manuscript for suspect reasons
• Describing, implementing, and regularly reviewing policies for handling ethical issues and allegations or findings of misconduct by authors and anyone involved in the peer review process
• Informing authors of solicited manuscripts that the submission will be evaluated according to the journal’s standard procedures or outlining the decision-making process if it differs from those procedures
• Developing mechanisms, in cooperation with the publisher, to ensure timely publication of accepted manuscripts
• Clearly communicating all other editorial policies and standards trough B&P web site
   

Advertising Policy

• All advertisements and commercially sponsored publications are independent from editorial decisions. B&P does not endorse any product or service marked as an advertisement or promoted by a sponsor in B&P publications. Editorial content is not compromised by commercial or financial interests, or by any specific arrangements with advertising clients or sponsors.
• B&P reserves the right to decline any type of advertising that is damaging to the brand of the Journal or is inappropriate.
• B&P will not accept advertising for products or services known to be harmful to health (e.g. tobacco and alcohol products).
• Advertisements may not be deceptive or misleading, and must be verifiable. Advertisements should clearly identify the advertiser and the product or service being offered. Exaggerated or extravagantly worded copy will not be allowed. Advertisements will not be accepted if they appear to be indecent or offensive in either text or artwork, or if they relate to content of a personal, racial, ethnic, sexual orientation, or religious nature.
• Once an advertisement has been deployed online, it will be withdrawn from the journal site at any time if the Editor(s)-in-Chief or Publisher request its removal.
• B&P will not allow any treatment-specific or drug-specific campaign to be targeted to a specific article(s) or on any page where content relates to the product(s) being advertised. (Advertisers may not link to articles using keywords; they may not target advertising for a specific product on the condition that it appear in the same location and at the same time as a specific article mentioning that product and they may not refer to an article published at the same time as the advertisement appears).
• All advertisements for drug-specific campaigns must comply with the relevant European and UK legislation that regulates advertising. Information about the latest legislation, as well as good practice guidelines, can be found on the MHRA website. Advertisers should make available to B&P the marketing authorization and summary of product characteristics when submitting their advertisement. In the case of drug advertisements, the full generic name of each active ingredient should appear. Each page of an advertisement for a prescription-only medicine should be clearly labeled as intended for health professionals.
• All advertisements for drug specific campaigns should encourage correct and rational use and must not be misleading.
• Advertisements and editorial content must be clearly distinguishable. B&P will not publish “advertorial” content, and sponsored supplements must be clearly indicated as such. If a supplement did not undergo peer review or underwent a peer review-process different from the rest of the journal that should be explicitly stated.
• Editorial decisions will not be influenced by current or potential sponsors and advertisers, and will not be influenced by marketing decisions. Advertisers and sponsors have no control or influence over the results of searches a user may conduct on the website by keyword or search topic.
• If any advert is requested outside of B&P standard advertising positions then a request should be made to editorial who will respond with a full and final decision within five business days.
• Information about complaints concerning advertisements will be included in the Advertisements page.