MSJ takes the responsibility to enforce a rigorous peer-review system together with strict ethical policies and standards to ensure high quality scientific works. Unfortunately, cases of plagiarism, data falsification, inappropriate authorship credit, are likely to arise. MSJ takes such publishing ethics issues very seriously. To verify the originality of content submitted to our journals, we may use an antiplagiarism software to check submissions against previous publications.

 

Copyright Notice and License Terms

All signing authors of works published on MSJ take responsibility for the conduct and validity of their research and for what is written in their contributions. Authors acknowledge that all contents are published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 international (CC-BY).

The author allows MSJ the right to publish for the first time / republish the work and the perpetual right to distribute the work free of charge by any means and in any parts of the world, including the communication to the public through the journal website.

The author retains the right to create derivative works and to reproduce, distribute, execute or publicly display their work at conferences and presentations, lectures, and in case of any other professional activity.

The Author retains the right to disseminate open access the work, through their website or through an institutional or disciplinary, from the publishing on MSJ.

The Author, according to the Publisher, renounces to any forms of compensation provided to authors and publishers.

 

Studies in humans and animals

MSJ aims to ensure that all articles published in MSJ report on work that is morally acceptable and expects authors to follow the World Medical Association's Declaration of Helsinki. Authors should include a statement in the manuscript that informed consent was obtained for experimentation with human subjects. The privacy rights of human subjects must always be observed. The manuscript should be in line with the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals and aim for the inclusion of representative human populations (sex, age and ethnicity) as per those recommendations. The terms sex and gender should be used correctly.

All material published in MSJ which reports experiments performed using animals must adhere to high ethical standards concerning animal welfare.

All animal experiments should comply with the ARRIVE guidelines and should be carried out in accordance with the U.K. Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act, 1986 and associated guidelines, EU Directive 2010/63/EU for animal experiments, or the National Research Council's Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals and the authors should clearly indicate in the manuscript that such guidelines have been followed. The sex of animals must be indicated and, where appropriate, the influence (or association) of sex on the results of the study.

The Author grants MSJ the right to publish for the first time / republish the work and the perpetual right to distribute the work free of charge by any means and in any parts of the world, including the communication to the public through the journal website.

The Author retains the right to create derivative works and to reproduce, distribute, execute or publicly display their Work at conferences and presentations, lectures, and in case of any other professional activity.

The Author retains the right to disseminate open access the work, through their website or through an institutional or disciplinary one, from the publishing on MSJ.

The Author, according to the Publisher, renounces to any forms of compensation provided to authors and publishers.

 

Accountability and responsibility for journal content

Journal's editors take responsibility for all works published on MSJ. They strive to grant both scientific and editorial quality by single-blind peer review and careful editing. The journal maintains the integrity of the published record and grants long time preservation of all published content by using a dedicated server.

Editorial independence and integrity

MSJ editors make their decisions about proposals submitted to the journal and published works on academic merit alone and take full responsibility for their decisions.

MSJ embraces an open access policy and has no commercial interest, so the journal’s editorial processes and editors’ decisions are independent of any commercial consideration.

MSJ editors do not attempt to influence the journal’s ranking by artificially increasing any journal metric. They strive to ensure that submitted papers are reviewed on purely scholarly grounds and that authors are not pressured to cite specific publications for non-scholarly reasons.

 

Editorial confidentiality

Authors’ material

MSJ selects papers to be published through single-blind peer review. Peer reviewers are chosen by editors, who strive to protect the confidentiality of authors’ material and remind reviewers to do so as well. Submitted papers are never shared with editors of other journals, unless with the authors’ agreement or in cases of alleged misconduct (see Responding to criticisms and concerns). Editors do not give any indication about the status of a manuscript within the journal to anyone other than the authors. MSJ web-based submission system prevents unauthorized access. In the case of a misconduct investigation, it may be necessary to disclose material to third parties (e.g., an institutional investigation committee or other editors).

Reviewers

MSJ selects papers to be published through single-blind peer review.

Therefore, reviewers’ identities are always protected, unless an alleged or suspected reviewer’s misconduct compels the journal to disclose the reviewer’s name to a third party.

MSJ works with Publons to provide reviewers with credit for their work.

 

General editorial policies

Transparency policy

MSJ aims to grant authors, readers, reviewers, and all other parties involved maximum transparency and complete and honest reporting about its editorial work.

Authorship and responsibility

All authors of works published on MSJ take responsibility for the conduct and validity of their research and for what is written in their contributions. Authors acknowledge that all contents are published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 international (CC-BY).

Should any authorship dispute arise, it will be resolved at the appropriate institutional level or through other appropriate independent bodies. MSJ editors will then act on the findings, for example by correcting authorship in published works.

Conflicts of interest and role of the funding source

Authors are required to declare any relevant financial or non-financial conflict of interest at the moment of submission. Declarations of conflicting interests are published alongside the paper so that readers are informed about them.

Authors’ publishing ethics

MSJ editors work to ensure that all published papers make a substantial new contribution to their field. They discourage ‘salami publications’ (i.e. publication of the minimum publishable unit of research), avoid duplicate or redundant publication unless it is fully declared and acceptable to all, and encourage authors to place their work in the context of previous work (i.e. to state why this work was necessary/done, what this work adds or why a replication of previous work was required, and what readers should take away from it).

 

Responding to criticisms and concerns

MSJ welcomes and encourages criticism and debate.

Ensuring integrity of the published record - corrections

When genuine errors in works published on MSJ are pointed out by readers, authors, or editors, which do not render the work invalid, a correction (or erratum) will be published as soon as possible. The paper will be corrected with a date of correction. If the error renders the work or substantial parts of it invalid, the paper will be retracted with an explanation as to the reason for retraction (i.e., honest error). Retracted papers will be retained online, and they will be prominently marked as a retraction in all online versions, including the PDF, for the benefit of future readers.

Correction papers

There are two types of corrections to previously published articles and corrected proofs with errors:

• Corrigendum – indicates an error made by the authors that was not identified before publication of the corrected proof.
• Erratum – indicates an error was made by the editorial office or production team

Authors who would like to request a corrigendum or erratum to a published paper should contact at [email protected] with an explanation for the error to be approved by the editors.

Ensuring the integrity of the published record – suspected research or publication misconduct

If serious concerns are raised by readers, reviewers, or others, about the conduct, validity, or reporting of works published on MSJ, the editors of the journal will initially contact the authors and allow them to respond to the concerns. If that response is unsatisfactory, editors will take the matter to the appropriate institutional level. The editors of MSJ will also do their best to respond to findings from research integrity organizations that indicate misconduct relating to works published on MSJ. Editors can themselves decide to retract a paper if they are convinced that serious misconduct has happened even if an investigation by an institution or national body does not recommend it. Editors will respond to all allegations or suspicions of research or publication misconduct raised by readers, reviewers, or other editors. In general, they acknowledge collective responsibility for the research record of the journal and will act whenever they become aware of potential misconduct, if possible.

Encourage scholarly debate

MSJ welcomes readers’ criticisms to works published by the journal and will consider publishing them to foster scientific debate, as long as they are proposed in a timely manner. The authors of the original works will be given the opportunity to reply, to further promote the debate. Any criticisms that raise the possibility of misconduct will be further investigated even if they are received a long time after publication.

 

Ensuring a fair and appropriate peer review process

MSJ editors organize and use peer review fairly and wisely. 

Decision whether to review

MSJ editors may reject a paper without undergoing peer reviewing when it is deemed unsuitable for the journal’s readers or for its poor quality. This decision is made in a fair and unbiased way and the criteria used to make this decision are made explicit to the author. The decision not to send a paper for peer review is only based on the academic content of the paper, and it is not influenced by the nature of the authors or their host institution.

Interaction with peer reviewers

MSJ editors use appropriate peer reviewers for papers that are considered for publication by selecting people with sufficient expertise and avoiding those with conflicts of interest. MSJ editors ensure that reviews are received in a timely manner. Peer reviewers are told what is expected from them and are informed about any changes in editorial policies. Peer reviewers are asked to assess research and publication ethics issues (i.e., whether they think the research was done and reported ethically, or if they have any suspicions of plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, or redundant publication). MSJ editors have a policy to request a formal conflict of interest declaration from peer reviewers and ask peer reviewers to inform them about any such conflict of interest at the earliest opportunity so that they can make a decision on whether an unbiased review is possible. Certain conflicts of interest may disqualify a peer reviewer. If for any reason authors wish to exclude one or more reviewers from the process, they must state it clearly at the time of submission.

MSJ editors stress confidentiality of the material to peer reviewers.

Reviewer misconduct

MSJ editors take reviewer misconduct seriously and pursue any allegation of breach of confidentiality, non-declaration of conflicts of interest (financial or non-financial), inappropriate use of confidential material, or delay of peer review for competitive advantage. Allegations of serious reviewer misconduct, such as plagiarism, are taken to the institutional level.

Interaction with authors

MSJ editors make it clear to authors that the role of the peer reviewer is to provide recommendations on acceptance or rejection. Correspondence from editors is usually with the corresponding author, who have the responsibility to involve co-authors at all stages. MSJ editors communicate with all authors at the first submission and at final acceptance stages to ensure all authors are aware of the submission and have approved the publication. Normally, MSJ editors pass on all peer reviewers’ comments in their entirety. However, in exceptional cases, it may be necessary to exclude parts of a review, if it, for example, contains libelous or offensive remarks.

MSJ editors guarantee that such editorial discretion is not inappropriately used to suppress inconvenient comments. Should there be good reasons to involve additional reviewers at a late stage in the process, it is clearly communicated to the authors. The final editorial decision and reasons for this are clearly communicated to authors and reviewers. If a paper is rejected, MSJ editors welcome appeals from authors. Editors, however, are not obliged to overturn their decision.

 

Editorial decision-making

MSJ editors guarantee that decisions on publications are as fair and unbiased as possible.

Editorial and journal processes

All editorial processes are made clear in the Author Guidelines on the journal's website, where it is stated what is expected from authors, which types of papers are published, and how papers are handled by the journal. All editors are fully familiar with the journal policies, vision, and scope. The final responsibility for all decisions rests with the managing editor.

Editorial conflicts of interest

MSJ Editors who make final decisions about manuscripts should recuse themselves from editorial decisions if they have relationships or activities that pose potential conflicts related to articles under consideration. Other editorial staff members who participate in editorial decisions must provide editors with a current description of their relationships or activities (as they might relate to editorial judgments) and recuse themselves from any decisions in which an interest that poses a potential conflict exists. Editorial staff must not use information gained through working with manuscripts for private gain. Editors should regularly update their own disclosure statements and those of their journal staff. Guest editors should follow these same procedures.

MSJ publisher has taken extra precautions and has implemented an internal policy for evaluation of manuscripts submitted by individuals involved in editorial decisions.