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Standards for Ethical Publishing
Standards for Ethical Publishing

SAFE Journal of One Health is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and is committed to upholding the highest standards of ethical publishing practice.

Authors, editors, and reviewers are expected to be familiar with and to follow best practice in publication ethics across all aspects of the submission, review, and publication process.

Please note: The policies described on this page apply to all submissions and publications in SAFE Journal of One Health.

Overview

The journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and operates in accordance with COPE guidance.

Authors, editors, and reviewers are expected to be familiar with and to follow best practice in publication ethics, including but not limited to matters relating to authorship, dual submission, attribution, plagiarism, image integrity, figure preparation, and competing interests.

Reviewers and editors are required to treat manuscripts fairly and in confidence, and to declare any competing interests. Editors should also abide by the code of conduct for editorial board members.

If you have concerns about potential errors, research or publication ethics, misconduct, or other issues relating to the integrity, validity, or reliability of a published article or submission, please email the Publication Ethics team and copy in the journal office. Provide the full citation and DOI of the article in question and details of your specific concerns.

The journal will investigate concerns about submissions or publications regardless of the time since publication or study completion. Steps will be taken to correct or clarify the scientific record if necessary, which may include issuing an editorial notice, correction, expression of concern, or retraction.

While the journal values transparency in scientific communications, it also protects the confidentiality of those who raise publication ethics or research integrity concerns, where possible. The journal cooperates with institutions investigating issues that pertain to published content, and shares information as needed to support institutional proceedings.

Publication Ethics Team

The journal has a dedicated Publication Ethics team comprising editors with both scientific and editorial expertise, as well as specialised knowledge of the policies, workflows, and industry-wide guidance pertaining to ethics and integrity issues. The team supports and collaborates with all journals and follows up on concerns that have implications for the integrity, validity, or reliability of submitted or published articles.

To contact the Publication Ethics team, email pub-ethics@thesafesociety.com.

Integrity of Peer Review

The journal is committed to maintaining the integrity of the peer review process in line with COPE guidelines.

Compliance with journal policies

Reviewers and editors must comply with all journal policies, including but not limited to this ethical peer review policy, the Code of Conduct for Editorial Board Members, and journal policies on Confidentiality and Competing Interests.

  • Editors are expected to decline invitations to handle submissions for which they may have a potential competing interest.
  • Reviewers should declare any potential competing interests on the review form and should decline invitations if competing interests may affect their ability to provide an objective and unbiased evaluation.
  • If a reviewer has declared a competing interest, the handling editor should consider the potential impact of the conflict when evaluating the reviewer's comments.

The peer review process

Reviewers and editors are responsible for the contents of their reviews and decision letter comments, respectively. Reviewer and editor comments should reflect their own personal assessment of the content.

Reviewers must declare on the review form if they obtained any third-party support for their review. Unpublished submissions must not be shared with anyone who is not declared as a contributor to peer review. Authors, editors, and reviewers must not attempt to influence others' contributions to peer review.

Artificial intelligence tools in peer review

Peer review feedback and decision letters should reflect reviewers' and editors' personal assessments of submitted content. AI tools cannot serve as reviewers or as decision-issuing editors.

Any use of AI tools in peer review must be clearly disclosed to authors in the review form (reviewers) or decision letter (editors). Editorial board members and reviewers must not upload submissions to web platforms, databases, generative AI tools, or other services.

Protection of reviewer identity

The journal gives reviewers the option of signing their names to reviews. Under no circumstances should editorial board members disclose a reviewer's identity to the authors or to other third parties. Reviewers must use their legal or professional names in their Editorial Manager accounts and must not impersonate others or use pseudonyms or false names.

How to report concerns about unethical practices in peer review

Please email the Publication Ethics team and copy the journal office if you have questions or concerns about compliance with this policy, or if you are aware of issues that may affect the integrity of a submission's peer review.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is not acceptable in journal submissions. Plagiarised content will not be considered for publication. If plagiarism is identified, the journal will follow COPE guidelines.

Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to:

  • Directly reproducing text from other sources without attribution.
  • Reproducing ideas, images, or data from other sources without attribution.
  • Reusing text from the author's own previous publications without attribution or editorial agreement.
  • Using an idea from another source with slightly modified language without attribution.

The journal uses Crossref Similarity Check (powered by iThenticate) to screen submitted content for originality. If plagiarism is detected during peer review, the manuscript may be rejected. If detected after publication, a correction or retraction may be issued.

Confidentiality

The journal supports options by which authors and reviewers can share research early and increase transparency of the peer review process, including opt-in opportunities to post unpublished work to preprint servers, publish peer review history, and sign names to reviews.

Where options for transparent peer review are not selected, the journal protects the confidentiality of unpublished content and the pre-publication peer review process.

Confidentiality of unpublished submissions

If authors have not elected to share their unpublished work on a public preprint server, the submitted material should be treated as strictly confidential until published.

  • Editors and reviewers will not make use of any material or take advantage of any information they gain through the peer review process.
  • Editors and reviewers must not share information about unpublished journal submissions with anyone not directly involved in the submission's peer review process without explicit permission from the journal.
  • Submission content may not be uploaded by handling editors or reviewers to generative AI platforms, websites, databases, or other tools.

Sharing of unpublished content by the journal

The journal may share unpublished content and other information as outlined in the Privacy policy. For example, the journal may share submission contents with other trusted publishers, journals, databases, or tools as needed to support integrity checks and publication ethics investigations.

Reviewer Anonymity

Reviewers may identify themselves by signing their names at the time reviews are submitted, if they wish.

Author requirements

Upon submission of a manuscript, authors must indicate whether there are any related manuscripts under consideration or published elsewhere. If related work has been submitted or published elsewhere, authors must include a copy of it with their submission and describe its relation to the submitted work.

Prior publication of research as a thesis, presentation at medical or scientific conferences, or posting on preprint servers will not preclude consideration of your manuscript.

Editor and reviewer requirements

Reviewers and editors should evaluate any related content and notify the journal of overlap. Editors and reviewers should alert the journal if they identify duplicate submissions or publications during the review process.

Policy enforcement

If related content is found to be too similar to the journal submission, or if a duplicate submission is discovered, the manuscript will be rejected. Duplicate content discovered after publication will be addressed depending on the degree of overlap.

Manipulation of the Publication Process

Systematic manipulation of the publication process (sometimes referred to as "paper mill" activity) is defined by COPE as an individual or group using dishonest or fraudulent practices to prevent independent assessment, sell or misrepresent authorship, or publish fabricated or plagiarised research.

Authors must not use any third-party services that offer article content, authorship, or positive peer review outcomes.

The journal will reject or retract articles suspected of any manipulation of the publication process and may inform the relevant institution(s) of concerns.

Please email pub-ethics@thesafesociety.com if you have concerns about the integrity of a journal article's peer review process or potential paper mill activity.

Concerns About Data or Figures

When preparing figures, images must not be modified or adjusted in any way that could lead to misinterpretation of the information present in the original raw image data. Read more about the journal's guidelines on reporting blot and gel data and on preparing figures from image files.

When concerns are raised about reported results, the journal requests the original underlying data for the experiment(s) in question. If the original data are not available or are not provided in a timely manner, editorial action may be taken based on the review of the materials in hand.

Artificial Intelligence Tools and Technologies

The journal expects that articles should report the listed authors' own work and ideas. Contributions by artificial intelligence tools and technologies to a study or to an article's contents must be clearly reported in a dedicated section in the Methods, or in the Acknowledgements section for article types lacking a Methods section.

In cases where Large Language Model (LLM) AI tools contribute to generating text content for a submission, the article's authors are responsible for ensuring that:

  • The content is accurate and valid.
  • There are no concerns about potential plagiarism.
  • All relevant sources are cited.
  • All statements reporting hypotheses, interpretations, results, conclusions, and implications represent the authors' own ideas.

The use of AI tools and technologies to fabricate or otherwise misrepresent primary research data is unacceptable.

Non-compliance with any aspect of this policy will be considered misrepresentation of methods, contributions, and/or results. If concerns arise about non-compliance, the journal may notify the authors' institution(s) and may reject, retract, or publish an editorial notice on the article.

Biosecurity and Dual Use Research of Concern

The journal and its Editorial Boards are committed to the widespread dissemination of research while being sensitive to the issues of responsible publication standards. If the risks of publishing research outweigh the benefits, the journal will not publish it.

Author requirements

Authors are required to disclose whether the study is subject to consideration as dual use research of concern at the time of submission. Authors should also identify the Institutional Review Entity or equivalent committee(s) granting approval for the study.

Editor and reviewer requirements

Editors and reviewers are expected to evaluate potential risks and alert the journal with any concerns.

Policy enforcement

The journal follows standards set by national and public agencies, and may refer concerns to the Dual Use Committee for an assessment of the potential risks versus benefits of publication.

Standards for Professional Conduct

The journal is committed to open scientific communications and professional conduct. All interactions with the journal through any medium of communication are expected to be courteous, respectful, and to adhere to high standards of professionalism.

The journal will not tolerate any form of harassment or non-professional conduct directed to journal staff/contributors in the context of their work, such as:

  • Disparaging, insulting, or accusatory ad hominem remarks.
  • Abusive, discriminatory, or hostile language or behaviour.
  • Threats targeting an individual.
  • Repeated inquiries challenging an editorial outcome or excessive inquiries about an issue under investigation.
  • Making false or frivolous allegations about journal articles.

Comments posted on third-party sites

Where appropriate, the journal will apply this policy to interactions and comments on third-party platforms via its social media channels; however, the journal is not responsible for content posted on third-party platforms.

Complaints

The journal is committed to providing due process and fair consideration of concerns raised about its publications and editorial processes. Complaints about journal processes must be made in writing.

The journal will conduct only a single review for any complaint. If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of the internal complaint process, you may raise your concerns with COPE.

Research Conducted by the Journal

In efforts to improve the peer review system and scientific communication, the journal has an ongoing research programme on the processes used in the course of manuscript handling. If you are a reviewer, author, or editor and you wish to opt out of this research, please contact the relevant journal office.

Contact

For questions about publication ethics, peer review integrity, or professional conduct, please contact the Editorial Office.

Editorial Office — SAFE Journal of One Health
Published by The SAFE Society Publishing
Email: editor@thesafesociety.com
Publication Ethics: pub-ethics@thesafesociety.com
Website: https://journal.thesafesociety.com