Publication Ethics
The Journal of Bioscience Studies (JBS) is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics, research integrity, editorial independence, transparency, and scholarly responsibility. JBS follows the core principles and guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and aligns its authorship and publication practices with relevant recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), where applicable. All authors, editors, reviewers, editorial board members, and the publisher are expected to uphold these principles throughout the publication process.
Authorship and Contributorship Authorship is limited to individuals who have made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; drafting or critical revision of the manuscript; approval of the final version; and accountability for the integrity of the work. Individuals who do not meet appropriate authorship criteria should not be listed as authors. The corresponding author is responsible for confirming that all eligible authors have approved the manuscript and agreed to its submission. All contributors who do not qualify for authorship should be appropriately acknowledged. Any addition, removal, or rearrangement of authors after submission requires a written explanation and documented approval from all authors and may require further verification by the Editorial Office.
Competing Interests Authors must disclose all financial and non-financial relationships or circumstances that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the research, interpretation of results, or publication decision. Editors and reviewers must disclose potential conflicts of interest and must not participate in decisions involving manuscripts where their impartiality could reasonably be questioned. Manuscripts submitted by editors, editorial board members, or close collaborators must be handled independently by an editor without a relevant conflict of interest. Relevant competing-interest statements are published with articles where applicable.
Originality and Duplicate Publication Manuscripts submitted to JBS must be original and must not have been published in substantially the same form elsewhere or be under simultaneous consideration by another journal. Authors must disclose closely related publications, preprints, conference abstracts, datasets, or manuscripts derived from the same study where these may create concerns regarding duplicate, redundant, or overlapping publication. Unacceptable text recycling, inappropriate self-plagiarism, redundant publication, and duplicate submission are not permitted.
Research Integrity and Misconduct JBS prohibits fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, inappropriate image manipulation, data manipulation, selective reporting, deliberate misrepresentation of findings, citation manipulation, peer-review manipulation, authorship misconduct, and other forms of research or publication malpractice. Manuscripts may be screened using appropriate similarity-detection and research-integrity tools. Similarity results are assessed by the Editorial Office and are not treated as an automatic determination of plagiarism. Where credible concerns arise, JBS may request original data, research records, ethics documentation, authorship information, image files, statistical outputs, or other supporting evidence.
Human Research Ethics Research involving human participants, human data, human tissue, or identifiable biological material must comply with applicable ethical and regulatory requirements. Where required, studies must receive approval from an appropriate institutional review board, research ethics committee, or equivalent authority before research begins. Research involving human participants should comply with the ethical principles of the Declaration of Helsinki, where applicable. Authors must provide the name of the approving ethics committee and approval or reference number when appropriate. Written informed consent must be obtained and documented where required.
Animal Research Ethics Research involving animals must comply with applicable institutional, national, and international standards for the humane treatment and use of animals. Authors should provide relevant ethical approval information and describe appropriate animal-welfare procedures where applicable. Studies involving laboratory animals should follow recognized reporting standards, including the ARRIVE guidelines where applicable.
Informed Consent and Privacy Authors are responsible for obtaining appropriate informed consent for participation and publication where required. Identifiable information must not be published unless necessary for legitimate scholarly purposes and appropriate consent has been obtained. For case reports, clinical photographs, videos, or other potentially identifiable material, authors must obtain appropriate written consent for publication. Identifying details should be removed wherever reasonably possible.
Clinical Trial Registration Clinical trials should be prospectively registered in an appropriate publicly accessible clinical trial registry where required by applicable standards, regulations, funders, or journal policy. Authors should provide the name of the registry and registration number in the manuscript where applicable.
Data Availability and Transparency JBS supports responsible sharing of research data, analytical code, protocols, and other materials necessary to understand or reproduce published findings, subject to ethical, legal, privacy, confidentiality, intellectual-property, and institutional restrictions. A Data Availability Statement is required for published research articles. Where data cannot be publicly shared, authors should state the applicable restrictions and, where appropriate, describe how qualified researchers may request access.
Peer Review Ethics JBS operates a double-blind peer-review process. Reviewers are selected based on relevant subject expertise and should be independent of the authors and their institutions wherever reasonably possible. Reviewers must treat manuscripts and associated information as confidential, provide objective and constructive evaluations, disclose competing interests, and decline assignments where their impartiality could reasonably be questioned. Reviewers must not use unpublished information obtained through peer review for personal, professional, or financial advantage.
Editorial Independence Editorial decisions are based on the scientific quality, originality, methodological rigor, ethical conduct, relevance, clarity, and scholarly contribution of the manuscript. Decisions must not be influenced by nationality, ethnicity, gender, institutional affiliation, political beliefs, religion, personal characteristics, commercial relationships, or other irrelevant considerations. Commercial, advertising, sponsorship, or financial interests must not determine editorial decisions.
Generative Artificial Intelligence Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and accountability of manuscripts prepared with the assistance of generative artificial intelligence or other AI-assisted technologies. AI tools must not be listed as authors. Where AI-assisted technologies have been used substantially in manuscript preparation, authors should disclose the nature and extent of such use in accordance with the journal's applicable AI policy. Editors and reviewers must not upload confidential manuscripts, unpublished data, or protected editorial information into generative AI systems where such use could compromise confidentiality or intellectual property.
Intellectual Property and Permissions Authors are responsible for ensuring that submitted material does not infringe the copyright, intellectual-property rights, privacy rights, or other legal rights of third parties. Appropriate permission must be obtained for copyrighted figures, tables, photographs, questionnaires, instruments, or other third-party material where legally required. Authors must provide appropriate attribution and permission statements for material that is not covered by the applicable publication license.
Citation Ethics and Citation Manipulation Authors must cite relevant sources accurately and must not manipulate citations to artificially increase citation counts, journal metrics, author metrics, or perceived scholarly influence. Editors and reviewers must not require authors to add unnecessary citations solely to increase citations to the journal, editor, reviewer, or particular authors. References should be included because they are scientifically relevant to the work.
Confidentiality and Personal Information Manuscripts, reviewer reports, editorial correspondence, unpublished research information, and other materials obtained during the editorial process are treated as confidential. Personal information collected during submission, peer review, and publication is handled responsibly and in accordance with applicable privacy and data-protection requirements.
Handling Allegations of Misconduct Allegations of research or publication misconduct are assessed in accordance with applicable COPE principles and established scholarly publishing practices. Depending on the circumstances, JBS may request clarification or supporting evidence from authors, editors, reviewers, institutions, research organizations, ethics committees, funders, or other relevant parties. Where appropriate, the journal may notify the relevant institution or competent authority. Investigations are conducted with appropriate confidentiality and procedural fairness.
Corrections, Expressions of Concern and Retractions JBS is committed to maintaining an accurate and reliable scholarly record. When errors or integrity concerns are identified after publication, the journal may publish a correction, expression of concern, or retraction as appropriate. Post-publication notices will clearly identify the affected article and remain linked to the original publication wherever technically possible. Retractions are used to correct the scholarly record when published findings are unreliable or publication integrity has been compromised.
Complaints and Appeals Authors, reviewers, readers, and other relevant parties may submit complaints or appeals concerning editorial procedures, peer-review conduct, authorship matters, ethical issues, or editorial decisions. Complaints and appeals are assessed fairly, confidentially, and independently where appropriate. An appeal should provide clear grounds and relevant evidence. An appeal does not guarantee reversal of an editorial decision.
Post-Publication Discussion JBS welcomes responsible scholarly discussion concerning published articles. Readers who identify substantive errors, methodological concerns, ethical issues, or other matters affecting the integrity of a published article may contact the Editorial Office with supporting evidence. Where a credible concern is identified, the journal may investigate the matter and, where necessary, publish a correction, clarification, expression of concern, or retraction.
Editorial Board and Editor-Authored Articles Editors and editorial board members may publish in JBS only under the same scientific and ethical standards applicable to all authors. Manuscripts authored or co-authored by an editor or editorial board member must be handled independently by another qualified editor who has no relevant conflict of interest. The author-editor must not influence the peer-review or editorial decision concerning the manuscript.
Publisher Responsibilities The publisher supports JBS in maintaining editorial independence, publication integrity, appropriate publishing infrastructure, preservation of the scholarly record, and transparent publication practices. The publisher, advertisers, sponsors, or other commercial interests must not interfere with editorial decisions concerning the review, acceptance, rejection, or publication of manuscripts.
Author Declaration By submitting a manuscript to the Journal of Bioscience Studies (JBS), authors confirm that they have read and understood the journal's publication ethics requirements and agree to comply with applicable policies concerning authorship, originality, research ethics, competing interests, data transparency, peer review, intellectual property, research integrity, and correction of the scholarly record.
