Author Responsibilities

Authors are responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, transparency, and ethical conduct of the work they submit to the journal. Submission of a manuscript confirms that all authors have read and approved the submitted version and accept responsibility for their contributions and for the integrity of the work.

Authors must:

• submit original work and appropriately acknowledge all sources, ideas, data, images, and materials derived from others;
• ensure that the manuscript is not simultaneously under consideration by another journal and does not constitute undisclosed duplicate, redundant, or substantially overlapping publication;
• report methods, analyses, results, and limitations accurately, completely, and without fabrication, falsification, selective manipulation, or misleading presentation;
• ensure that all listed authors meet the journal’s authorship criteria, that contributors are appropriately acknowledged, and that no guest, gift, honorary, or ghost authorship is used;
• disclose all relevant financial and non-financial relationships and activities, conflicts of interest, sources of funding, and the role of funders or sponsors;
• obtain all required ethics committee or institutional review approval, informed consent, parental or legal guardian permission, child assent, and consent for publication where applicable;
• register clinical trials in an appropriate publicly accessible registry when required and accurately report the registration information;
• protect the privacy and confidentiality of research participants and avoid publishing identifiable patient information without appropriate consent;
• maintain the integrity of research data and images and provide relevant underlying data, documentation, protocols, or ethical approvals when reasonably requested by the journal in connection with scientific or ethical verification;
• cite relevant literature accurately and refrain from citation manipulation, inappropriate self-citation, or the deliberate omission or distortion of relevant sources;
• disclose substantive use of artificial intelligence or AI-assisted technologies in accordance with the journal’s AI policy and remain fully responsible for all submitted content;
• promptly notify the journal if a significant error, inaccuracy, ethical concern, or potential misconduct is identified in a submitted or published article;
• cooperate in good faith with peer review, editorial enquiries, requests for clarification, corrections, investigations, and post-publication procedures.

Authors must not attempt to manipulate the peer-review, editorial, authorship, citation, or publication process. Providing false information, fabricated documentation, false reviewer identities, manipulated data, or deliberately misleading declarations may be treated as publication misconduct.

Responsibility continues after publication. Authors are expected to cooperate with the journal in correcting the scientific record when reliable evidence demonstrates that published information requires correction, clarification, expression of concern, or retraction.

Detailed requirements are provided in the journal’s policies on Authorship and Contributorship, Conflicts of Interest and Funding, Research Ethics, Research Data, Artificial Intelligence, Plagiarism and Duplicate Publication, and Corrections and Retractions.