Allegations of Misconduct

All allegations of research or publication misconduct whether raised by anonymous or non-anonymous parties will be accurately investigated by the SBPReports personnel. We will protect the confidentiality of whistleblowers where possible. We reserve the right to contact authors’ institutions, funders, or regulatory bodies if needed, following COPE guidelines.

In cases of suspected or alleged misconduct, or when scientific concerns are raised, we will follow up on the concerns as per COPE guidance regardless of the article's publication date, and we may also seek advice at a COPE forum. For cases involving data or image concerns the original data underlying the result(s) in question may be requested. We will take steps to correct or clarify the scientific record if necessary, which may include issuing a correction, expression of concern, or retraction per COPE guidelines.

If you have any concerns about potential misconduct, please email the journal. Address correspondence to the journal’s Editor-in-Chief, Chief Editor, or Editorial Director via [email protected]. Concerned readers should contact the journal directly.

Ethical Publishing

SBPReports follows COPE guidelines and its Code of Conduct, and aim to adhere to its Best Practice Guidelines. Authors, editors, and reviewers are expected to be aware of and comply with, best practices in publication ethics. SBPR also follows, as far as possible, the recommendations outlined in the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, guidelines established by the ICMJE.

Conflict of Interest

ICMJE states that the “potential for conflict of interest and bias [competing interests] exists when professional judgment concerning a primary interest (such as patients' welfare or the validity of research) may be influenced by a secondary interest (such as financial gain)”. Authors, reviewers and editors are all required to declare any competing interests that might be perceived to interfere with the objectivity of the presentation or handling of the work. Any relevant patents, patent applications and products in development that relate to a submission must be disclosed in full, including patent numbers and titles. For further information on competing interests, see the recommendations of the ICMJE and the guidance provided by PLOS. Specifically, ICMJE requires disclosure of interactions with any entity that could be considered broadly relevant to the work, and that any such interactions over the 36 months before submission of the work, should be disclosed. Competing interests’ disclosures should be made by the submitting author on behalf of all authors in the body of the manuscript.

Copyrighted material

Copyrighted material (in full or in part) should not be included in a submission to SBPReports unless you have explicit permission from the copyright holder that it can be reproduced under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution license. Exceptions can be made under the specific circumstances upon arrangements with Editor-in-Chief. For details please contact [email protected].

Authorship

Everyone listed as an author should meet our criteria for authorship. Everyone who meets our criteria for authorship must be listed as an author. Each author's contribution should be highlighted in the corresponding section of the manuscript.

SBPReports follows the COPE guidelines for changes in authorship.

Changing the author list after submission requires agreement from all authors. This includes additions, deletions and changes in order. Requests must come from the corresponding author along with an explanation for the change. Authorship issues identified after publication may result in a correction. In the case of an authorship dispute, the journal will not arbitrate. If the authors are unable to resolve the dispute themselves, we will defer the issue to the authors’ institution(s) following COPE guidelines. The journal will abide by institutional recommendations following authorship investigations.

We allow the republication of published papers to change author names in special circumstances. This includes name changes for transgender or non-binary authors. Other name changes are possible in exceptional circumstances and at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief.

We support GPP2 Good Publication Practice for Communicating Company-Sponsored Medical Research. Each author must individually declare all sources of funding received for the research submitted to the journal. This information includes the name of granting agencies, grant numbers and a description of each funder’s role. If the funder has played no role in the research, this must be stated as well. A Funding Statement is included in the metadata of each published article. The Funding Statement includes the funding information declared by the authors. Inaccurate information about funding discovered after publication may require a correction.

For all articles published in SBPReports copyright is retained by the authors. Articles are licensed under an open access Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license, meaning that anyone may download and read the paper for free. Besides, the article may be reused and quoted provided that the original published version is cited. These conditions allow for maximum use and exposure of the work while ensuring that the authors receive proper credit.

In exceptional circumstances, articles may be licensed differently. If you have a specific condition (such as one linked to funding) that does not allow this license, please mention this to the editorial office of the journal at submission. Exceptions will be granted at the discretion of the publisher.

The ethical publishing policy has been developed in accordance with COPE guidelines and best practices, developed by eLife, PLOS and MDPI.