Publication Ethics

1. Publisher and editorial independence

JACR is published by HM Publisher in collaboration with CMHC Research Center. Editorial decisions rest with the journal’s editors and are based on scholarly merit, methodological quality, relevance to the Aims and Scope, originality, clarity, and ethical compliance. Commercial considerations, advertising, reprint income, and the identity, institution, nationality, gender, beliefs, or political views of authors do not influence acceptance. Governance arrangements are described under Publisher and Editorial Governance.

2. Duties of editors

• Maintain confidentiality of submissions and handle them fairly and promptly.
• Select qualified, independent reviewers and manage conflicts of interest, in accordance with the Peer Review Policy.
• Base decisions on the manuscript and the submission record, and document material editorial actions.
• Ensure that submissions by editors, board members, reviewers, or guest editors are handled independently, without the contributor’s access to reviewer selection or the decision.
• Investigate credible concerns, before and after publication, and issue corrections, retractions, or expressions of concern when warranted.
• Not use unpublished material from a submission in the editor’s own research without the author’s written consent.

3. Duties of reviewers

Reviewers provide a substantive, evidence-based assessment, keep the manuscript confidential, declare conflicts of interest, decline invitations where independence cannot be assured, and must not upload manuscripts or review reports to generative-AI services or other external platforms. The full requirements, including what a review report must contain, are set out in the Peer Review Policy.

4. Duties of authors

• Submit original work that is not under consideration elsewhere, and disclose related manuscripts, preprints, and prior presentations.
• Meet the authorship criteria on the Authorship page, and declare the contribution of every listed author.
• Provide accurate data and methods in sufficient detail to allow appraisal and, where feasible, replication.
• Cite sources accurately and avoid selective citation that misrepresents the state of the evidence.
• Declare funding, the role of funders, and all competing interests.
• Provide ethics approval, informed consent, trial or protocol registration, and data-availability information as applicable.
• Obtain written permission for copyrighted material and written informed consent for identifiable personal information.
• Notify the journal promptly of any material error or concern discovered after submission or publication.

5. Research involving humans or animals

Authors must identify the approving research ethics committee or institutional review board, state the approval number where available, and name the ethical standard followed (for example the Declaration of Helsinki). Research involving human participants requires documented informed consent unless an authorised ethics body has granted and documented a waiver. Research involving animals must comply with the applicable institutional and national welfare standards, and the manuscript must state the approving body. Clinical trials must state the registry and registration number. Manuscripts lacking the required ethical documentation are not sent for review.

6. Case reports and patient privacy

Case reports and case series require written informed consent for publication from the patient or, where the patient lacks capacity or is deceased, from the legally authorised representative. Consent must cover the clinical details and any images. Authors must remove identifiers that are not essential to the scientific message, state in the manuscript that consent was obtained, and follow the CARE guideline. Consent documentation is retained by the authors and supplied confidentially to the journal on request. Consent cannot be inferred from the absence of objection.

7. Competing interests and funding

All authors, editors, and reviewers must disclose financial and non-financial relationships that could be perceived to influence the work, and all funding must be declared together with the role of the funder in design, conduct, analysis, interpretation, and the decision to publish. A declaration of “none” is published as such. Disclosure does not by itself disqualify a submission; concealment is a breach of this policy. What must be declared, the period it covers, the obligations of each role, and the consequences of an undeclared interest are set out in Conflict of Interest.

8. Research and publication misconduct

JACR treats fabrication and falsification, plagiarism and undisclosed text reuse, duplicate and salami publication, image manipulation, citation and peer-review manipulation, undisclosed competing interests, authorship violations, and unethical research conduct as misconduct. Every credible concern is assessed fairly, confidentially, and without prejudgement, following the applicable COPE flowchart, and the authors are given the opportunity to respond before any finding is recorded. What each category covers, who may raise a concern, how it is investigated, the protections that apply, the possible outcomes, and the route of appeal are set out in Research Misconduct.

9. Generative artificial intelligence

AI tools cannot be listed as authors, because they cannot take responsibility for the work. Authors remain fully accountable for accuracy, originality, confidentiality, citation integrity, and for disclosing material AI-assisted use. Manuscripts, review reports, and confidential editorial material must not be uploaded to public generative-AI services. The full requirements are in the AI Tools Policy.

10. Data, complaints, and appeals

Expectations for data availability and reproducibility are set out in Data Availability and Reproducibility. Complaints about editorial conduct or process, and appeals against editorial decisions, are handled under Complaints and Appeals.

This policy is read together with the Authorship, Peer Review Policy, Similarity and Plagiarism, AI Tools, and Corrections and Retractions policies.