Publishing Ethics

Journal of Tongji University (Medical Science) adheres to internationally recognized publication ethics, formulated in accordance with the relevant guidelines published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and tailored to the journal's specific context. All authors, editors, and reviewers are required to strictly comply with the following ethical guidelines.

I. Medical Ethics

1. Human and Animal Rights: When reporting experiments involving human subjects, authors should indicate whether the procedures followed the ethical standards set by the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional, regional, or national), and provide approval documents from the committee (including the approval number) and declare whether informed consent was obtained from the subjects or their relatives. If there is no formal ethics committee, the study should be described as conforming to the revised 2013 Declaration of Helsinki. For experiments involving animals, authors should follow the "Guidelines for Ethical Review of Laboratory Animal Welfare (GB/T 35892-2018)" to standardize the implementation of laboratory animal welfare ethics. Approval document by from relevant committees should be submitted.

2. Informed Consent: The Declaration of Helsinki states that potential trial participants must be informed about the trial's purpose, potential benefits and risks, the right to refuse participation or withdraw consent at any time, the researchers' affiliations and potential conflicts of interest, and the source of trial funding. Participants must make an informed and voluntary decision to participate in clinical research, clinical investigations, and clinical trials.

II. Author Responsibilities

1. Originality: Authors must ensure that their manuscripts are original works, confirming that all referenced research has been appropriately cited and acknowledged. Manuscripts must be free of plagiarism, data fabrication, multiple submissions, duplicate publication, and confidential information.

2. Authorship Criteria: According to the 2023 updated recommendations by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), authorship should meet the following four criteria: 1) substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work, or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; 2) drafting the work or critically revising it for important intellectual content; 3) final approval of the version to be published; 4) agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work, ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. All individuals meeting these criteria should be listed as authors. Individuals not meeting all four criteria should not be listed as authors but may be acknowledged. Authors are responsible for the parts of the work they have completed and must be aware of the specific contributions of their co-authors. Authors must trust the integrity of their co-authors' contributions. Participation in funding acquisition, data collection, writing assistance, technical editing, and proofreading, as well as overall management support for the research group or administrative support, does not qualify for authorship.

3. Changes in Authorship: Any changes in authorship (addition, deletion, reordering of authors) or contributions after submission must be agreed upon by all authors. Authors must submit a signed statement detailing the changes and submit a new “Copyright Transfer Agreement and Declaration of Authors”. Editors may seek confirmation from any author/contributor about the changes.

4. Declaration of Contributions and Conflicts of Interest: Authors must declare their contributions and any conflicts of interest at the end of the manuscript. They must complete and submit the “Copyright Transfer Agreement and Declaration of Authors” as required，in order to ensure that each author has made a substantial contribution to the article, there are no honorary authors, and all potential conflicts of interest related to the research have been clearly disclosed. Financial, personal, or organizational relationships that might influence the work must be disclosed. If the manuscript mentions certain products, authors should disclose whether they have any conflicts of interest related to competing products.

5. Disputes over Authorship: In cases of disputes regarding authorship or contributions, the journal follows COPE guidelines. For more details, refer to: https://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines-new/how-handle-authorship-disputesa-guide-new-researchers.

III. Editors Responsibilities

1. Training: Editors must undergo at least 90 hours of training annually to stay updated with the latest industry trends and technical experiences, ensuring high-quality editorial work.

2. Fairness: Editors should handle each manuscript fairly and justly, make decisions on accept or reject only based on the journal's scope, the manuscript's novelty, and academic value.

3. Review Process: Editors must adhere to the journal's review system and maintain genuine review records. They must keep confidential information about authors, reviewers, research findings, and intermediate materials during manuscript handling.

4. Plagiarism Detection: Editors must avoid academic misconduct such as multiple submissions and duplicate publications by conducting plagiarism checks as required.

5. Detailed Feedback: Editors should provide authors with detailed revision suggestions or reasons for rejection and objectively present the review situation without personal attacks or criticisms.

6. Respect for Authors: While following publication norms, editors should respect authors' viewpoints and writing styles. Significant academic modifications should be made with the author's consent.

7. Independence in Review: Editors must ensure that editorial board members, editors, and their research groups adhere to the same review and editorial procedures. Editors must not participate in the review or editorial decisions of articles authored by themselves, their relatives, colleagues, or others with conflicts of interest. Peer reviews must be independent of the related editorial board members, editors, and their research groups.

IV. Reviewer Responsibilities

1. Integrity: Reviewers must maintain academic integrity and respect academic freedom, providing honest, objective, and fair evaluations of manuscripts. They must not discriminate based on the authors' nationality, institution, race, religion, political beliefs, gender, etc., and must not disclose the authors' research content.

2. Conflict of Interest: Reviewers with conflicts of interest (e.g., relationships as relatives, students, colleagues, competitors) to the manuscript authors must consult the editorial office for advice to ensure a fair review.

3. Objectivity: Reviewers must avoid including unsubstantiated or malicious criticism and ensure fair comments when evaluating research similar to their own.

4. Timeliness: Reviewers should complete reviews promptly. If unable to review within the agreed timeframe, they should inform the editorial office and decline the review and maybe recommend alternative reviewers. Without editorial office approval, reviewers must not delegate the review to students or colleagues.

5. Disclosure: Reviewers must disclose if they encounter a manuscript they have previously reviewed and provide feedback according to the journal's standards.

V. Author Appeals and Post-Publication Discussion

1. Appeals: Authors may appeal against review comments or decisions by submitting a written appeal to the editorial office via email. Authors must provide detailed explanations and justifications for each disputed review comment. The editorial office will investigate and process the appeal promptly and feedback the results to the authors.

2. Discussion: The journal welcomes discussions on published articles. Readers and authors can comment publicly on the journal's website, send messages to the journal's WeChat account, or send comments to the journal's email box. The editorial office will process and feedback the comments as appropriate. The journal encourages readers and authors to supervise on each other and actively provide feedback to create a positive academic atmosphere.

3. Reporting Misconduct: Anyone who discovers academic misconduct related to the journal's articles or staff can report it to the journal. Complaints about editorial board members, editors, reviewers, or other staff for dereliction of duty, violation of academic ethics, or illegal activities can also be reported. Reports and complaints can be sent via email or by calling the journal's contact number. The editorial office will handle the situation and, if necessary, submit it to the editorial board for discussion or report it to relevant national authorities.

VI. Commercial Model

Journal of Tongji University (Medical Science) is an open-access journal funded primarily through APCs, review fees, print journal subscription fees, and grants from the sponsoring organization.

The journal does not publish commercial advertisements, and all articles and online content are ad-free. The review and acceptance of manuscripts are not influenced by commercial considerations.