Publication Ethics
Research integrity, authorship standards, and the journal's response to scientific misconduct.
Author Obligations
Authors must ensure that submitted work is original, has not been published previously, is not under consideration elsewhere, contains accurate and truthful data, properly acknowledges all sources, includes only genuine authors, and complies with applicable ethical standards.
Scientific Misconduct
Scientific misconduct is not tolerated. Examples include data fabrication, data falsification, image manipulation, duplicate or redundant publication, plagiarism, citation manipulation, peer review manipulation, ghost authorship, and gift authorship. Confirmed misconduct may result in immediate rejection or retraction.
Research Integrity
Authors must retain original research data for a reasonable period after publication. The Editorial Office may request raw datasets, laboratory records, original images, statistical analyses, or experimental protocols. Failure to provide supporting data may result in rejection or retraction.
Authorship Policy
Authorship is limited to individuals who have made substantial contributions to study conception or design, data collection, data analysis or interpretation, drafting the manuscript, critical revision, and final approval of the manuscript. All authors must approve the submitted version. Changes in authorship after submission require written consent from all authors.
Image Integrity
Digital images must accurately represent original observations. Authors shall not remove data, add data, selectively enhance results, or misrepresent experimental findings. Acceptable adjustments are limited to brightness, contrast, and color balance, applied uniformly across the entire image. Editors may request original image files.