Publication Ethics Policy
Esculapio is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics and to supporting ethical research practices. We encourage journal editors to follow the COPE Code of Conduct for Journal Editors. Allegations of misconduct will be investigated in accordance with the COPE Best Practice Guidelines as far as is practicable. If notified of a potential breach of publication ethics, we encourage journal editors and staff to inform their ESCULAPIO contact as soon as possible.
Esculapio supports its editorial teams providing best practice guidelines in the following key areas:
- Authorship Criteria
- Copyright Policy
- Conflict of Interest
- Ethical Approval of Research
- Rejected Articles
- Reproduction of Previously Published Articles
- Scientific Misconduct
- Clinical Trial and systematic Reviews
- Withdrawal Policy
1. Authorship criteria:
Authors should meet all four criteria for authorship
- Substantial contributions to the conception or design of work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for work.
- Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content AND
- Final approval of version to be published.
- Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work area appropriately investigated and resolved.
Changes in Authorship
Requests for changes to authorship must be directed to the editor in chief. Requests should be dealt with fairly and in accordance with the relevant COPE guidelines link https://publicationethics.org/files/COPE_DD_A4_Authorship_SEPT19_SCREEN_AW.pdf Changes in authorship will only be permitted where valid reasons are provided and all authors are in agreement with the change. Post-publication changes to authorship will typically be made via a published correction.
Request for addition of extra author before publication
Request removal of author before publication
Ghost, Guest or Gift Authorship
Esculapio considers all forms of ghost, guest, and gift authorship to be unethical and works closely with editors to take a firm stance against such practices. Any allegation of ghost, guest, or gift authorship will be investigated in accordance with the cope guidelines Ref https://publicationethics.org/. Where such practices are identified the authors in question will be removed from an article through a post-publication correction or erratum. In addition, the journal may choose to notify the institutional or local ethics committee for the authors in question.
Ghost authorship refers to the practice of using a non-named author to write or prepare an article for publication. Ghost authors can be paid sponsors or external academic affiliates.
Guest or gift authorship refers to the practice of naming an individual that made little or no contribution to a study as an author on an article. Gift authors can be senior researchers, affiliated researchers, friends or colleagues of the principle author.
Acknowledgement criteria:
Those who do not meet the criteria of authorship but helped in study, included in acknowledgement section.
Alterations in the list of authors:
Esculapio does not prescribe to change in authors list with respect to additions and deletions after the initial submission.
Contributions Statement:
Statements describing detailed contributions made by each authors are required at the time of submission of the manuscripts. This has to be outlined in the covering letter form available on website.
Corresponding author:
The corresponding author should be available throughout the submission and peer review process and respond to editorial queries in a timely way.
2. Copyright Policy:
All authors are required to sign the copyright policy statement which is found on submission form and send it in with the manuscript.
3. Conflict of Interest
Any conflict of interest should be declared by all authors. All sources of grants received and its spending should be disclosed. This may include grants or honorarium, credits and promotions, memberships or any personal or professional relationships which may appear to influence the manuscript. Authors should state the conflict of interest clearly in the Disclosure of interest form available on website. This statement should also appear at the end of the text before the references. If there are no conflicts of interests, the authors should state, “none to declare.
4. Ethical Approval of Research:
Every Manuscript should have ethical approval by ethical review board of the institution and and as per WAME guidelines https://www.wame.org/
All case reports require an approval on the institutional letterhead from the head of the department. A statement should be included that participants gave informed consent before being included in the study or for publication of a case report.
5. Rejected Articles:
In case, article is rejected, authors have right to send a letter of appeal. This will be reviewed in house and then decided accordingly.
6. Reproduction of Previously Published Articles:
Reproducing material from other sources. It is the authors responsibility to secure all permission prior to submission of the manuscript. Any part of article assessed from another source, should be accompanied by a signed letter of consent from the copyright folder which may be the author, journal or the publisher.
Reproducing material published by Esculapio: Not part of the journal may be reproducing, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any other means.
7. Scientific Misconduct:
Esculapio follows the guidelines provided by the committee on publications ethics (COPE) https://publicationethics.org/, the World Association of medical editors (WAME) https://www.wame.org/ , International committee of medical journal editors (ICMJE) http://www.icmje.org/ and Higher Education Commission, Pakistan, (HEC) https://www.hec.gov.pk/english/pages/home.aspx for dealing with scientific misconduct.
All allegations of scientific misconduct are taken very seriously at Esculapio. We follow the guidelines prescribed by the previously mentioned organizations. The manuscript processing will be halted while the fact-finding investigation is being carried out.
8. Clinical Trial and Systematic reviews:
Result of all randomized control trials are only considering for publication, if they register with clinical trials registry eg .The Editor recommends the following guidelines for evidence-based reporting of randomized controlled trials, systematic reviews and meta-analyses. For reporting randomized controlled trials refer to the guidelines of The CONSORT Statement: For systematic reviews and meta-analyses refer to the guidelines of The PRISMA Statement
9. Withdrawal policy:
Without formal letter of withdrawal signed by all authors, a manuscript is not considered withdrawn.