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Resources → Editors → Publication ethics

The policies and guidelines provided on this page are put in place to protect the quality and integrity of all forms of scholarly practice and research, as well as the reputations of the publications produced by Maney Publishing and the learned societies that we represent.

Issues covered in this Publication Ethics page are:
1.    Redundant submission
2.    Article authorship
3.    Plagiarism – referencing, citation and acknowledgement
4.    Conflicts of interest and funding bodies
5.    Publishing ethics

Redundant submission
Redundant submission of papers to multiple publications is unethical. It wastes the time of the editors and peer reviewers that form research communities and contribute to the publication of scholarly journals. Any article found to have been submitted to more than one journal, published by Maney or another publisher, will be immediately rejected. Sanctions, such as a ban from submitting further publications for a specified period may also be considered. Authors must inform the editors of journals to which they submit their work about any related papers by any of the authors of the article that have been submitted to the same or other journals.

The practice of fragmenting research findings in order to increase the number of possible articles available for publication is to be discouraged in the strongest possible terms.

Authors should note that the submission of substantially similar articles to multiple journals, where perhaps some wording has been changed, but the outcome of the paper is substantially the same, also counts as redundant submission.

Article authorship
Papers should only be submitted for consideration once the authorisation of all contributing authors has been gathered. If an author is acting on behalf of a group (in order to sign the Assignment of Copyright form, to make proof corrections etc) the full authorisation of each contributing authors must be gathered.

Those submitting papers should carefully check that all those whose work (in research or writing) contributed to the paper are acknowledged as contributing authors. No one who made a meaningful contribution to the article should be left out. Similarly, individuals who did not make a meaningful contribution should not be included as contributing authors for the sake of prestige or their own referencing quota.

To clarify, the list of authors should include all those who can legitimately claim authorship. This is all those who
1.   have made a substantial contribution to the concept and design, acquisition of data or analysis and interpretation of data
2.   drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content;
3.   Approved the version to be published.
Authors should meet the conditions of all of the points above.  All persons designated as authors should qualify for authorship, and all those who qualify should be listed.

When a large, multicentre group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship. When submitting a manuscript authored by a group, the corresponding author should clearly indicate the preferred citation and identify all individual authors as well as the group name.
Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group, alone does not constitute authorship although all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an acknowledgments section

Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.

Plagiarism – referencing, citation and acknowledgement including use of copyrighted material
Plagiarism is the unauthorised and/or unacknowledged use or imitation of works, language, and ideas of another. Generally, in the context of article publication, plagiarism occurs when one researcher/author uses the words, language, or ideas of another researcher/author without making it clear within the narrative or referencing of the article that this has occurred; that is, passing off a piece of research or text as his or her own.

However, authors should also be aware of self plagiarism (redundant publication). This may occur where an author presents in an article items that he or she has previously published in his or her other works, and makes no reference to those other works.

Plagiarism can be committed through the literal copying of other authors’ work without making proper acknowledgement, but also through copying “substantial” elements of a work. Plagiarism may also take place through paraphrasing of another’s work without acknowledgement.

Use or paraphrasing of “substantial” amounts of work may mean making a decision about the quality or importance of what is being used, so it is always best to reference anything, however small or seemingly insignificant, that comes from the work of another person or that you have previously published yourself.

Authors should ensure that they clearly cite, reference and acknowledge all instances where they have used or been influenced by the work of others, including their own previously published articles and research material. Self plagiarism, especially where the copyright of the published article has been assigned to a publisher, learned society or other third party, is as serious as plagiarism of others, and must be avoided. All sources must be disclosed.

If an article reproduces research material, tables, images, or quotations of a substantial nature, the author must seek permission to use that material and fully acknowledge the owner and/or copyright owner of that material. More information about Maney’s copyright and permissions policy.

Authors should make full acknowledgement of colleagues and other researchers who have made a meaningful contribution to the item submitted for publication.

Authors should be aware that Maney may on occasion randomly check submissions to its journals to verify their originality. Submissions may be compared against the CrossCheck database and/or checked using automated software packages. Authors should not consider this in any way an indication of suspicion of guilt, rather a standard, random procedure implemented to uphold the integrity of our journals.

Where possible, Maney makes articles published in its journals available to CrossCheck, to help to protect authors’ priority and to guard against plagiarism.

Conflicts of interest and funding bodies
It is the policy of Maney Publishing to adhere to the Conflict of Interest policy recommended by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE, http://www.icmje.org/index.htm#conflict)

Relationships that could be viewed as presenting a potential conflict of interest must be disclosed to the Editor at submission stage, either within the appropriate field on the Journal’s Editorial Manager System where used or directly to the journal editor. If there are no conflicts of interest, authors should explicitly state that there are none.

Authors should identify individuals who have provided writing or other assistance, and disclose the funding source for the assistance. Any affiliation with any organisation with a financial interest, direct or indirect, in the subject matter of materials discussed in the manuscript, should be explicitly stated. Authors should make full disclosure.

The statement of conflict of interest will be published at the Editor’s discretion.

Publishing ethics

Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)

Maney Publishing is now a member of COPE which has a number of useful resources, such as guidelines, discussion papers and the COPE Code of Conduct. For more information, please visit the website.

It is important that authors of articles submitted to journals in Maney’s health and medical lists understand the need for the research undertaken to conform to the Helsinki declaration.

Protection of Human Subjects and Animals in Research Clinical Research
Papers reporting experiments on healthy volunteers, patients, or animals must conform to the guidelines approved by a named Research Ethical Committee (Institutional or National), and conform to the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. A statement to this effect should be included at submission stage. Authors should be aware that if their study required ethical approval but ethical approval was not obtained, then the paper will be rejected.

Informed Consent – patients have a right to privacy and therefore informed consent must be obtained before identifying information is published. Informed consent requires that (a) the identifiable patient be shown the manuscript to be published and, (b) the ‘Permission for the Publication of Personal Information’ form is completed by the patient. The form can be downloaded from a link which is available from the home page of each individual journal editorial manager site. Masking the eye region in photographs of patients is inadequate protection of anonymity and specific permission for facial photographs of patients is required.

Dishonesty – authors must use their best endeavours to ensure the material that they submit contains no fictitious data, reference omissions, or false statements.

Libel – authors should avoid the use of personal, critical, or disparaging remarks and accusations against fellow researchers, colleagues or other individuals. Critical analysis of the work of other researchers may be justified, but defamatory or actionable material must not be included.

Guidelines are available for editors and reviewers of journals published by Maney. Please click here for more information.