Publication ethics

What we expect of authors

Submitted work must be original, not under consideration elsewhere, and honestly reported. Authorship should reflect real contribution, and everyone listed should have agreed to be listed.

Sources of funding and any competing interests must be declared at submission. Research involving human participants or animals must state the approving ethics committee.

What we expect of reviewers and editors

Reviewers assess work in confidence, decline where they have a competing interest, and give reasons rather than verdicts. Manuscripts under review are confidential and must not be used for the reviewer’s own benefit.

Editors decide on the merits of the work. An editor with a competing interest in a submission — their own work, a close collaborator, a commercial interest — hands it to someone else.

When something goes wrong

Allegations of plagiarism, data fabrication, image manipulation, undisclosed competing interests or authorship disputes are investigated. We approach the authors first and give them a fair opportunity to respond.

Where a correction is needed we publish one, linked from the article. Where a finding is unsafe we publish a retraction that states the reason. The original article is not deleted — it remains available and clearly marked, because removing it would hide the record rather than correct it.

Raising a concern

Write to us with the article and the specific concern. We will acknowledge it and tell you the outcome once the process is complete.