Editorial Staff and Conflict of Interest Policy

Editorial staff or editors shall not be involved in processing their own submissions. Decisions will be made by other Editorial Board Members who do not have a conflict of interest with the author. Journal staff are not involved in the processing of their work.

Conflict of Interests

All authors are required to disclose any relationships or interests that may improperly influence or bias their work. Financial interests such as:

• Membership
• Employment
• Consultancies
• Stock/share ownership
• Honoraria
• Grants or other funding
• Paid expert testimony
• Patent-licensing arrangements

and non-financial interests such as:

• Personal or professional relationships
• Affiliations
• Personal beliefs

are considered potential conflicts of interest. Authors can disclose potential conflicts of interest through the online submission system.

The corresponding author must include a conflict of interest statement before the reference list. The statement should clearly include all potential conflict-of-interest disclosures.

If no conflicts exist, authors should state clearly:

Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Language Editing Policy

It is important that your manuscript is submitted in grammatically correct English to ensure proper peer-reviewing. Advice on specific linguistic issues can be found here.

If you are not a native English speaker, we recommend that you have your manuscript professionally edited or reviewed by a native English-speaking colleague before submitting it. Professional editing will make it easier for reviewers and future readers to read and assess the content of submitted manuscripts.

Note: All accepted manuscripts are subjected to language editing; however, authors will be charged an additional fee if the Editorial Office is required to make extensive English corrections.

Image Manipulation Policy

Image files must not be altered in any way that might cause the information provided by the original image to be misinterpreted. The following are examples of irregular manipulation:

• Adding, enhancing, moving, or removing features from the original image.
• Grouping images that should be presented separately (e.g., different regions of the same gel or from different gels).
• Altering contrast, brightness, or color balance to hide, cover up, or enhance specific information.

If questionable image manipulation is found and verified during peer review, the manuscript may be rejected. If discovered after publication, the article may be updated or retracted accordingly.

Citation Policy

Proper Attribution: Where material is taken from other sources (including the authors’ own published work), the original source must be clearly cited, and appropriate permission must be obtained.

• Authors should avoid excessive self-citation.
• Authors should only cite works they have personally read.
• Preferential citation of friends, peers, or institutions should be avoided.
• Advertisements or advertorial material should not be cited.

Self-Citation Policy

We are committed to maintaining the highest ethical standards in scholarly publishing. This policy ensures that self-citations are appropriate and ethical.

Author Self-Citation Guidelines

• Relevance and Necessity: Authors may cite their own previous work if it is directly relevant to the current manuscript and contributes meaningfully to the research discussion.
• Avoid Excessive Self-Citation: The proportion of self-citations should generally not exceed 20% of the total references unless justified by the nature of the research.
• No Artificial Citation Boosting: Authors should not cite their own work to increase citation metrics or journal impact factors artificially.
• Cite What You Have Read: Authors should only cite works they have personally reviewed. Copying references from other sources without verification is not permitted.

Reviewer and Editor Citation Ethics

• Fair Citation Recommendations: Reviewers should not pressure authors to cite their own work unless it significantly enhances the manuscript’s academic quality.
• Editorial Integrity: Editors should ensure that articles do not include unnecessary self-citations and that all suggested citations are relevant and unbiased.
• No Preferential Citations: Editors and reviewers must not require authors to cite specific journals, including Journal unless the citations are genuinely relevant to the research.

Citations in Peer Review and Copy Editing

• Authors should not cite the peer review or copy-editing process in their references.
• Acknowledgements of reviewers or editors can be included in a dedicated acknowledgement section if necessary.
• If referring to general best practices in peer review or academic editing, authors should cite relevant published literature on editorial standards, not specific peer review feedback.

Monitoring and Compliance

• Manuscripts with excessive self-citations may be flagged for editorial review.
• The editorial board reserves the right to request citation modifications during the peer review process.
• Repeated violations of this policy may result in manuscript rejection or further investigation into citation practices.

Ethical Oversight and Transparency

This citation and self-citation policy aligns with Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines. We promotes responsible and transparent citation practices to safeguard the integrity of research.

Policy and Process

Authors may file complaints or appeals regarding the following issues:

• Editorial decisions
• Failure of the process
• Long delay in handling papers
• Publication ethics
• Journal policies

In the first instance, all complaints will be handled by the Editor-in-Chief or Managing Editor. If they are unavailable, the author can contact the in-house publishing team via publications[at]icrp.org.uk.

The Editor-in-Chief or the in-house contact will investigate the matter and provide appropriate feedback.

Complaints related to publication ethics will be handled following the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Manuscript Withdrawal Policy

1. Withdrawal before submission: If an author wishes to withdraw a manuscript before submitting it to a journal, they can do so at any time. They should inform the journal within 5days of submission and provide a reason for their withdrawal.
2. Withdrawal during peer review: If an author wishes to withdraw a manuscript during the peer review process, they should contact the editor and provide a reason for their withdrawal. If the manuscript has already been sent out for review, the editor may ask the reviewers to complete their review, or they may choose to stop the review process. Manuscripts (articles), once processed for the peer review process or published online, shall be withdrawn with a penalty paid (100 GBP) to the Editorial Office. Withdrawing manuscripts may cause the amount of time wasted in processing the manuscripts by the editors, reviewers, and editorial board members. Authors are requested to decide before submitting the manuscript. Ideally, these should be decided even before beginning to write the manuscript.

3. Replacement: If an author wishes to replace an earlier version of their manuscript with a new version, they should contact the editor and provide the new version along with a detailed explanation of the changes made.

4. Retractions: Retractions are issued when a published manuscript is found to be erroneous or fraudulent. The retraction notice should be published in the journal that originally published the manuscript and clearly states the reason for the retraction.

5. Removal: In some cases, a published manuscript may need to be removed from a journal or publisher's website. This may occur if the manuscript contains confidential information, violates copyright laws, or is found to be defamatory. The journal or publisher will typically issue a notice of removal, which should clearly explain the reason for the removal.

6. Pre-publication withdrawal can occur during the editing process. If an author wishes to withdraw their manuscript at this stage, they should first contact the journal's editorial office and clearly explain their decision. It is important to note that withdrawing a manuscript at this stage can have implications for the journal and the review process. The manuscript may have already been reviewed and sent to the editing process, which has invested its time and effort in reviewing and editing the manuscript. In this case, the payment is not refundable.

7. Manuscript Withdrawal (After Acceptance): Withdrawing a manuscript after it has been accepted for publication can have serious consequences for both the author and the journal. If an author wishes to withdraw their manuscript at this stage, they should first contact the journal's editorial office and clearly explain their decision. If the manuscript has already been scheduled for publication or has been published online or in print, the journal may require the author to submit a formal request for withdrawal, which should be accompanied by a clear explanation of the decision. The journal will then consider the request and may consult with the authors, reviewers, and editors involved in the review and publication process. In some cases, the journal may allow the withdrawal but may still require the author to pay any costs (if not paid) that have been incurred up to that point, such as editorial or production expenses. If paid, then the payment is not refundable. 

Withdrawal Stages Summary

Withdrawal Email Template

CrossMark Policy

CrossMark is a multi-publisher initiative that aims to provide a standardized method for readers to find the most recent version of a piece of content. By using the CrossMark logo, the publisher commits to maintaining the content it publishes and notifying readers of changes as they occur. Clicking on the CrossMark logo will display the document's current status as well as additional publication record information.

Retraction Policy

The publisher, ICR Publications Ltd, UK, and we adhere strictly to the COPE Guidelines for Retractions. Any necessary retractions will follow these best practices to ensure integrity and transparency.

Correction Policy

To maintain trust with readers, the publisher replaces original articles with corrected versions whenever necessary. This ensures that the audience has access to the most recent and accurate version of a published paper, avoiding misunderstandings and misinformation.

Corrections and Retractions

If improper behaviour or fraud is suspected, the journal and/or publisher will investigate according to COPE guidelines. If an investigation reveals legitimate concerns, the authors will be contacted via their provided email address and given a chance to respond. Depending on the situation, the journal and/or publisher may implement the following measures:

• The manuscript may be rejected and returned if it is still under consideration.
• If the article is already online, depending on the infraction, an erratum or correction may be added.
• The article may include an editor's note or concern.
• In severe cases, retraction of the paper may occur.

The reason will be clearly stated in a correction, editor's note, editorial concern, or retraction notice. In cases of retraction, the article will be watermarked "retracted," and the explanation will be linked to the article.

Removal of Published Content

We may remove an article or other content from its online platforms under certain circumstances:

• Content that violates intellectual property rights, privacy rights, or any other legal right of a third party.
• Content deemed unlawful or illegal based on court or government orders.
• Discovery of conflict of interest during investigation.
• Evidence of unethical behaviour from the author.
• Content that poses an immediate and serious health risk if acted upon.
• Submitting falsified or fabricated data.
• Fake authorship or impersonation of individuals.
• Manuscripts submitted through unauthorized third parties.
• Manipulation of the peer review process.
• Use of forged or misleading acceptance letters.

If content is removed, the removal may be permanent. However, the bibliographic metadata will be preserved along with a statement explaining why the content was removed.

For full details, please refer to our Misconduct & Fraud Prevention Policy