Authorship and contributions

Authors must have made a substantial scholarly contribution, participated in drafting or critical revision, approved the submitted version, and accepted accountability for their contribution and the integrity of the work. Contributors who do not meet authorship criteria should be acknowledged with their permission. The corresponding author must ensure that all authors agree to submission and that affiliations and contribution statements are accurate.

Authorship changes require an explanation and agreement from all affected authors. Unresolved disputes may be referred to the relevant institution, and processing may be paused while they are resolved.

Ethics approval and consent

Research involving humans, human samples, identifiable records, or animals must state the reviewing ethics committee, approval identifier where issued, and relevant consent or lawful waiver. Any exemption must identify its basis and the body responsible. Authors must not imply that approval or consent was obtained when it was not.

Case reports, photographs, forensic records, and other potentially identifiable material require appropriate written consent for publication from the individual or an authorized representative, unless a lawful and ethically justified exception applies and is explained to the editor. Identifiers must be removed where not essential. De-identification alone does not replace consent where the person could still be recognized. Consent documentation should be retained securely and provided for editorial verification when requested; it should not be published as a patient-identifying attachment.

Competing interests and funding

All authors must disclose financial and non-financial competing interests and all funding sources, including the funder’s role in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, and publication decisions. If none exist, this must be stated. Editors and reviewers must also disclose relevant interests and recuse themselves when required.

Originality and responsible reporting

Submissions must not be under consideration by another journal. Authors must disclose related publications, preprints, and material overlap. Fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, inappropriate image manipulation, duplicate publication, and citation manipulation are unacceptable. Reports must fairly represent limitations and negative findings.

Authors must include ethics, consent, funding, competing-interest, contribution, and data-availability statements as applicable. See Data and Reproducibility and Use of AI Tools.

Concerns and post-publication action

The journal assesses concerns on their evidence, seeks explanations from the parties concerned, and may consult institutions or other responsible bodies. Findings and remedies are proportionate to the circumstances. A concern does not by itself establish misconduct.

Published records are handled under the Corrections and Retractions Policy. Complaints and appeals may be submitted through the journal’s complaints procedure.