Editorial Policies

IMR Press follow the following guidelines and standards for its journals:

ICMJE: Medically related IMR Press journals follow the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. The guidelines comprehensively cover all aspects of editing, from how the journal is managed to details about peer review and handling complaints. The majority of the recommendations are not specific to medical journals and are followed by all IMR Press journals.

CONSORT statement covers reporting of randomized, controlled trials. We encourage authors to verify their work against the checklist and flow diagram and upload them with their submission.

PRISMA covers systematic reviews and meta-analyses of interventional studies and MOOSE for systematic reviews and meta-analyses of observational studies. Authors are recommended to complete the checklist and flow diagram and include them with their submission.

ARRIVE contains guidelines for reporting in vivo experiments. Authors are recommended to verify their work against the checklist and include it with their submission.

STROBE guidelines cover reporting of observational studies. Also, for diagnostic studies, authors are encouraged to use STARD guideline.

CARE guideline (for CAse REports) was developed by an international group of experts to support an increase in the accuracy, transparency, and usefulness of case reports. View and download the CARE checklist.

For other related guidelines, please visit the Equator Network for clinical sciences and FAIRsharing for other fields, especially biomedicine.

Submission of a manuscript to a journal of IMR Press implies that all authors have read and agreed to its content and that the manuscript conforms to the journal’s policies.

The editors reserve the right to reject a submission or to retract a published article on ethical grounds even when it has received formal ethical approval.

2.1 Research Involving Humans

Research involving human participants, human material or human data must be performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

Prior to starting the study, ethical approval must have been obtained for all protocols from the local institutional review board (IRB) or other appropriate ethics committee to confirm the study meets national and international guidelines for research on humans. A statement detailing this, including the name of the ethics committee and the reference number where appropriate, must appear in all manuscripts reporting such research.

For non-interventional studies (e.g., surveys), where ethical approval is not required (e.g., because of national laws) or where a study has been granted an exemption by an ethics committee, this should be stated within the manuscript with a full explanation. Where a study has been granted exemption, the name of the ethics committee which provided this should also be included. However, if the researcher is in doubt, they should always seek advice from the relevant committee or their research governance office before conducting the study.

Authors reporting the use of a new procedure or tool in a clinical setting, must give a clear justification in the manuscript for why the new procedure or tool was deemed more appropriate than usual clinical practice to meet the patient’s clinical need, and should obtain ethics approval and informed patient consent for participation in the study.

In case of clinical trials, which are defined as "any research study that prospectively assigns human participants or groups of humans to one or more health-related interventions to evaluate the effects on health outcomes", the trial registration number (TRN) and date of registration should be included in the last line of the manuscript abstract. Suitable publicly available registries are those listed on the  ICMJE website and the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform. For clinical trials that have not been registered prospectively, IMR Press encourages retrospective registration to ensure the complete publication of all results. In such cases, the TRN, date of registration and the words ‘retrospectively registered’ should be included in the manuscript.

2.2 Privacy and Confidentiality

IMR Press follows the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), which emphasizes that patients and study participants have a right to privacy that should not be infringed without informed consent.

  2.2.1 Consent to Participate

Research that is performed on humans should follow international and national regulations in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki or any other relevant set of ethical principles. For patients or study participants who are not adults, or are considered to be vulnerable or unable to provide informed consent, this must then be obtained from their legal guardians, or next of kin if the participant is deceased. In the case of articles describing human transplantation studies, authors must include a statement declaring that no organs/tissues were obtained from prisoners and must also name the institution(s)/clinic(s)/department(s) via which organs/tissues were obtained.

  2.2.2 Consent for Publication

Patients have a right to privacy that should not be violated without informed consent. Identifying information, including names, initials, date of birth or hospital numbers, images or statements should not be included in a manuscript unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) has provided written informed consent for publication. A statement must be included in the manuscript declaring that the patient, or parent, guardian or next of kin (in case of deceased patients) provided written informed consent for the publication of any associated data and accompanying images. The consent form that will be treated confidentially must be made available to the Editor if requested.

For case reports or other studies in which case details, personal information or images are included that may enable an individual to be identified, the participant (or parent or guardian), or next of kin must consent to its publication, and this consent should be declared in the manuscript. Authors should disclose to patients that personally identifiable material would be available via the Internet under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 as well as in print after publication.

For data sets containing clinical data, authors have an ethical and legal responsibility to respect participants’ rights to privacy and to protect their identity. Ideally, authors should gain informed consent for publication of the dataset obtained from participants at the point of recruitment to the trial. If this is not possible, authors must demonstrate that publication of such data does not compromise anonymity or confidentiality or breach local data protection laws, for the dataset to be considered for publication. Authors must consider whether the dataset contains any direct or indirect identifiers and consult their local ethics committee or other appropriate body before submission if there is any possibility that participants will not be fully anonymous. Authors must state in their manuscript on submission whether informed consent was obtained for publication of patient data.

2.3 Research Involving Animals

Experimental research on vertebrates or any regulated invertebrates such as cephalopods must comply with institutional, national or international guidelines, and where available should have been approved by an appropriate research ethics committee (REC), often known as an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). A statement detailing compliance with relevant guidelines (e.g., the revised Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 in the UK and Directive 2010/63/EU in Europe) and/or ethical approval (including the name of the ethics committee and the reference number where appropriate) must be included in the manuscript. This also applies to field studies and other non-experimental research on animals. If a study was granted an exemption from requiring ethics approval, this should also be detailed in the manuscript (including the name of the ethics committee that granted the exemption and the reasons for the exemption).

For experimental studies involving client-owned animals, authors must also document informed consent from the client or owner and adherence to a high standard (best practice) of veterinary care. If a study was granted an exemption from requiring ethics approval, this should also be detailed in the manuscript (including the name of the ethics committee that granted the exemption and the reasons for the exemption).

The Editor will take into consideration animal welfare issues and reserves the right to reject a manuscript, especially if the research involves protocols that are inconsistent with commonly accepted norms of animal research. When rodents are used as in vivo cancer models, the tumor burden should not exceed the recommendations of the University of Pennsylvania Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee guidelines.

Any euthanasia or anesthesia methods must be described in detail, including information about the agents used. These procedures must be carried out in accordance with applicable veterinary guidelines, such as the American Veterinary Medical Association.

2.4 Research Involving Plants

Experimental research on plants (either cultivated or wild), including collection of plant material, must comply with institutional, national or international guidelines (e.g., IUCN Policy Statement on Research Involving Species at Risk of Extinction and the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora). Field studies should be conducted in accordance with local legislation, and the manuscript should include a statement specifying the appropriate permissions and/or licenses.

Voucher specimens must be deposited in a public herbarium or other public collection providing access to deposited material. Information on the voucher specimen, and who identified it, must be included in the manuscript.

An example of an Ethical Statement:

Torenia fournieri plants were used in this study. White-flowered Crown White (CrW) and violet-flowered Crown Violet (CrV) cultivars selected from ‘Crown Mix’ (XXX Company, City, Country) were kindly provided by Dr. XXX (XXX Institute, City, Country).

Arabidopis mutant lines (SALKxxxx, SAILxxxx,…) were kindly provided by Dr. XXX , institute, city, country).

2.5 Research Involving Cell Lines

If cell lines are used, authors are encouraged include the following information:

For de novo (new) cell lines (including those given to the researchers as a gift, authors must follow our policies for human subjects research or animal research, as appropriate):

(1) Provide the details of the institutional review board or ethics committee approval.

(2) If the line is of human origin, please provide written informed consent.

For established cell lines: 

(1) Confirm that mycoplasma testing has been done for the cell lines used.

(2) Confirm that the cell lines used have been authenticated and state what method was used for the authentication.

(3) Provide the source, supplier and, if available, catalogue number of all the cell lines used in the study.

(4) Furthermore, information regarding misidentified or cross-contaminated cell lines must be provided and cross-checked with the International Cell Line Authentication Committee (ICLAC) and ExPASy Cellosaurus databases in order to exclude known contamination with other cell lines or their incorrect identification.

(5) And please note that if a cell line has previously been reported to be contaminated or misidentified, an STR profile of the cell line used in the study must be available for evaluation by the journal’s editor.

Examples:

The cells of the human cervical adenocarcinoma line (HeLa) were provided by the XXX. The human colorectal adenocarcinoma line DLD-1 CCL-221™ cells, human monocytic THP-1 TIB-202™ cells, and human promyeloblast cell line HL-60 CCL-240 were received from XXX. The HeLa cell line was cultured in XXX. All cell lines were maintained at 37 ℃ in a XXX atmosphere and were mycoplasma-free (XXXX Mycoplasma Detection Kit). The study was carried out in accordance with the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Ethics Committee of XXX (Protocol No. xxxxxx). All cell lines were authenticated shortly before use by the XXXX technique, carried out by XXX.

2.6 Sex and Gender in Research

We encourage our authors to follow the ‘Sex and Gender Equity in Research – SAGER – guidelines’ and to include sex and gender considerations where relevant. Authors should use the terms sex (biological attribute) and gender (shaped by social and cultural circumstances) carefully in order to avoid confusing both terms. Article titles and/or abstracts should indicate clearly what sex(es) the study applies to. Authors should also describe in the background, whether sex and/or gender differences may be expected; report how sex and/or gender were accounted for in the design of the study; provide disaggregated data by sex and/or gender, where appropriate; and discuss respective results. If a sex and/or gender analysis was not conducted, the rationale should be given in the Discussion. We suggest that our authors consult the full guidelines before submission.

For IMR Press journals, it is strongly encouraged that all datasets on which the conclusions of a manuscript depend should be available to readers, unless they are already provided as part of the submitted article. Where datasets are included in the study, authors should include an “Availability of data and materials” section in the article, stating where the data supporting their findings may be found. If access needs to be controlled, this should be via a data access committee where possible. Authors who do not wish to share their data must state this fact, and also provide an explanation as to why the data are unavailable.

‘Availability of data and materials’ statements can take one of the following template forms (or a combination of more than one if required for multiple datasets):

• The data sets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available in the [NAME] repository, [PERSISTENT WEB LINK TO DATASETS].
• All data points generated or analyzed during this study are included in this article and there are no further underlying data necessary to reproduce the results.
• The data sets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to [REASON WHY DATA ARE NOT PUBLIC] but are available from the [corresponding author / data access committee] on reasonable request.
• The data that support the findings of this study are available from [THIRD PARTY NAME] but restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for the current study and so are not publicly available. Data are however available from the authors upon reasonable request and with permission of [THIRD PARTY NAME].
• The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
• Data sharing is not applicable as no data were generated or analyzed.

Authors are encouraged to deposit their datasets in publicly available repositories, where available and appropriate. Hosting data on institutional websites can lead to loss of access in the long term (known as link rot) and data hosted in supplementary materials is less accessible and interoperable than data in dedicated repositories. Publicly available datasets must be fully referenced in the reference list with an accession number or unique identifier such as a digital object identifier (DOI). We leave the selection of the repository is left entirely to the author’s discretion, although note that the data must be freely available to readers. A list of recommended repositories is featured below; consulting the Registry of Research Data Repositories may also be useful in this regard.

IMR Press supports the prospective registration of systematic reviews and encourages authors to register their systematic reviews in a suitable registry (such as PROSPERO), including the registration number as the last line of the manuscript abstract. Authors of systematic reviews should also provide a file describing all details of the search strategy. For an example of how a search strategy should be presented, see the Cochrane Reviewers’ Handbook.

Statistical Methods:

Authors should provide information on the statistical methods and measures used in their research, including the name, version and supplier of the statistical software used, and the p-value considered to be significant.

Authors, reviewers, and editors must declare whether there are any competing interests with regard to the publication of a study. Authors will declare the COI in every published paper and the name of Academic Editors who make the final decision will be appeared in the published papers. Also the editors and reviewers should declare the COI to editorial office.

A competing interest exists when the authors’ interpretation of data or presentation of information may be influenced by, or may be perceived to be influenced by, their personal, political, academic relationships or financial relationship with other people or organizations, such as reimbursement for salaries, equipment or supplies, or a personal belief that may influence their objectivity and motivation, and consequently affect the data interpretation. This can include competing patents, grants, funding, employment, personal relationships and strong ethical beliefs, among other factors. Such conflicts must be declared, as they may affect the integrity or reliability of the science in the study, as well as that of otherwise unassociated studies in the same journal. The statements of competing interests for public funding sources, including government agencies, charitable or academic institutions, is best to be included.

Full disclosure of the competing interests is to be made in the cover letter and manuscript at the time of submission, even if the author judges that it has not influenced the work. If no conflict exists, this must also be stated clearly in the manuscript as follows: ‘Competing interests’: the authors declare that they have no competing interests’. And all authors should confirm its accuracy. If there is a conflict, please include it in a ‘Competing interest’ section. Examples of conflict-of-interest statements include ‘The present study was supported by Jones Pharmaceuticals, grant no. 12345, who manufacture the compound under investigation’, ‘XYZ, an NGO campaigning on ABC, provided a graduate scholarship to Dr. Jones’, ‘Dr. Jones has received payment as an expert witness in cases related to XYZ’. Authors may be asked to confirm, update, or provide further details regarding such disclosure statements following acceptance of the manuscript. Further details regarding requirements for conflict-of-interest statements are provided by the ICMJE. If after publication important undeclared COIs are discovered then the article and its peer review process will be reassessed, and the editors will correct or retract the article as appropriate.

External peer reviewers must disclose any conflicts of interest that could bias their opinions of the manuscript, and they should disqualify themselves from reviewing specific manuscripts if they believe it appropriate. Should any such competing interest be declared, the journal editor will judge whether the reviewer’s comments should be recognised or will interpret the reviewer’s comments in the context of any such declaration. IMR Press requires that editorial staff or editors not be involved in processing their own academic work. The Editor or members of the Editorial Board may occasionally submit their own manuscripts for possible publication in the journal. In these cases, the peer review process will be managed by alternative members of the Board. Submissions will be assigned to at least two reviewers. The submitting Editor/Board member will have no involvement in the decision-making process. Decisions will be made by other Editorial Board Members who do not have a conflict of interest with the author.

Guest Editors should not hold conflicts of interest with authors whose work they are assessing (e.g., from the same institution or collaborate closely). In this case, the Editor-in-Chief or a suitable Editorial Board member will make final acceptance decisions for submitted papers.

This section is required for all papers. If there are no interests to declare, please use the following wording: "Given his/her role as [Guest] Editor [in Chief], <NAME of Editor> had no involvement in the peer-review of this article and has no access to information regarding its peer-review. Full responsibility for the editorial process for this article was delegated to <NAME of delegated editor>".

Other than research articles, for any non-research articles such as commentaries or Editorials written by editors or members of the Editorial Boards, an impartial editor will be responsible to evaluate the piece and decide whether it should be peer reviewed or not. In case of peer review a process similar to reviweing for original articles will be considered.

5.1 Author Contributions

An ‘author’ is generally considered to be someone who has made substantive intellectual contributions to a published study. According to the ICMJE guidelines, to qualify as an author one should have (i) made substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; and (ii) been involved in drafting the manuscript or reviewing it critically for important intellectual content; and (iii) given final approval of the version to be published. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content; and (iv) agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. Acquisition of funding, collection of data or general supervision of the research group alone; does not usually justify authorship.

The individual contributions of authors to the manuscript should be specified, and initials should be used to refer to each author’s contribution (e.g., GF, LH and PG designed the research study. LH and PG performed the research. GF and MM provided help and advice on the ELISA experiments. MM analyzed the data. All authors contributed to editorial changes in the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. All authors have participated sufficiently in the work and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work). IMR Press encourages the use of the roles defined in the Contributor Roles Taxonomy from CRediT(CRediT in no way changes the journal’s criteria to qualify for authorship).

All manuscripts must be submitted by an author and may not be submitted by a third party.

The corresponding author takes primary responsibility for communication with the journal and editorial office during the submission process, throughout peer review, and during publication. The corresponding author is also responsible for ensuring that the submission adheres to all journal requirements including, but not exclusive to, details of authorship, study ethics and ethics approval, clinical trial registration documents, and conflict of interest declaration. The corresponding author should also be available post-publication to respond to any queries or critiques. Although the corresponding author has primary responsibility for correspondence with the journal, the IMR Press editors should send copies of all correspondence to all listed authors.

5.2 Acknowledgment

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the ‘Acknowledgment’ section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help or writing assistance, or a department chair who provided only general support. The involvement of scientific (medical) writers or anyone else who assisted with the preparation of the manuscript content should be acknowledged, along with their source of funding, as described in the European Medical Writers Association (EMWA) guidelines. The potential conflicts of interest of those being acknowledged should be declared.

Authors have responsibility to get written approval by persons named in the acknowledgment section.

5.3 Authorship Change

It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to ensure that the list of authors is correct upon first submission. Requests to change authors (for example, adding or removing authors, author names, or contributing changes) must be accompanied by a letter (IMR Press Change of Authorship Form) signed by all authors stating that they agree to the changes. New authors must also confirm that they fully meet the journal authorship requirements. IMR Press will individually inform anyone who is added or removed from the author list.

5.4 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy

In accordance with COPE’s stated position on AI tools and ICMJE‘s authorship criteria, artificial intelligence chatbots, such as ChatGPT and similar AI tools based on large language models (LLMs), cannot be listed as an author of a paper.

If the author(s) have used AI tools in drafting of the manuscript, production of images or graphical elements of the paper, or in the collection and analysis of data, the authors must be transparent concerning the use of AI tools. Furthermore, AI tool use must be disclosed both in cover letters to editors and in either the Methods or Acknowledgements section of the manuscript. Authors are fully responsible for the content of their manuscript, even those portions produced by an AI tool, and are thus liable for any breach of publication ethics. Final decisions concerning whether the use of an AI tool is appropriate, or permissible, in a submitted manuscript lies with the journals’ editors. Specifically, the Editor-in-Chief is responsible for decisions concerning regular journal submissions, the Guest Editor is responsible for Special Issue submissions, or an Editorial Board member may be appointed by the Editor-in-Chief to make such judgements in the case of a conflict of interest or for other circumstances.

Research articles and non-research articles (e.g., Opinion, Review and Commentary articles) must cite appropriate and relevant literature in support of the claims made. Authors should consider the following guidelines when preparing their manuscript:

• Any statement in the manuscript that relies on external sources of information (i.e., not the authors’ own new ideas or findings) should use a citation.
• Authors should not copy references from other publications if they have not read the cited work.
• Authors should ensure that their citations are accurate (i.e., they should ensure the citation supports the statement made in their manuscript and should not misrepresent another work by citing it if it does not support the point the authors wish to make). Authors should not ask unvalidated AI tools to suggest references.
• Authors should not cite sources that they have not read.
• Citation manipulation to inappropriately increase the number of citations of the authors, their friends and family, colleagues, institutions, journals they are associated with, etc., is not acceptable. Coercive citation, i.e., inappropriate citation requests from the journal, editor, or reviewer, is not allowed or tolerated, and the journals will not engage in reciprocal citation.
• Authors should cite sources that have undergone peer review where possible, and indicate the nature of the non-peer-reviewed source, e.g., preprint, thesis, or blog post.
• Authors should not cite advertisements or advertorial material.

All manuscripts submitted to our journals must be original. Upon submission of a manuscript, it is assumed that no similar manuscript has been or will be submitted to any other journal for publication. Submitting an identical manuscript to more than one journal simultaneously is considered unethical. Multiple submissions of the same paper can damage the reputation of journals if published in more than one journal. Duplicate publications or redundant publications (repackaging the same data in different words by the same authors) will be rejected. Please refer to the COPE flowcharts on dealing with redundant publications and the ICMJE guidelines on overlapping publications for more information.

Under certain conditions and in accordance with ICMJE guidelines, IMR Press may sometimes accept secondary publications (such as guidelines written by government agencies and professional organizations in the same or different languages). However, the authors and editors of the relevant journal must agree to the secondary publication, which must reflect the same data and interpretation as the original document, and the primary references must be cited in the secondary publication. For more details on the acceptable forms of secondary publications, please refer to the ICMJE guidelines.

It is the responsibility of the authors to ensure that they pay particular attention to the originality of their work. Any reproduced wording from other authors must be clearly attributed and/or quoted, and the source must be cited. Exact wording should be reproduced, with any minor edits for clarity indicated by square brackets and ellipses as appropriate. Paraphrasing or the use of synonym software in an attempt to conceal copying is not appropriate. Upon submission, all manuscripts are rigorously evaluated to identify any previously published material. IMR Press utilizes a combination of iThenticate, and searching on titles in PubMed and Google, to screen submitted manuscripts against published studies and other relevant sources. Concerning the submitted figures, images are routinely examined for the presence of duplicated, or otherwise apparently anomalous, data. Authors should therefore retain their unprocessed data and metadata files, as the Editor may request them to aid in the evaluation of the manuscript. Authors should note that, if the unprocessed data are unavailable, this may lead to a delay in manuscript evaluation until the issue is resolved.

If the journal Editor has a reason to suspect that a manuscript is plagiarized or fraudulent, they reserve the right to raise their concerns to the authors’ sponsoring institution and any other relevant bodies. In cases where plagiarism is suspected, a preliminary investigation will be conducted following the guidance offered in the flowcharts of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the guidelines of ICMJE. Every suspected act of unethical publishing behaviour will be looked into. If plagiarism is detected, the manuscript containing the plagiarism will be obviously marked on each page of the PDF. Manuscripts in which plagiarism has been detected will not be considered for publication. In cases where the paper has already been published, depending on the extent of the plagiarism, the paper may also be formally retracted.

Image Manipulation:

IMR Press journals encourage the submission of the original uncropped and unadjusted image files for all figures, including all replicates, in the supplementary materials. This is required for blots and gels, such as Western Blots and electrophoresis gels, and may be required by the editors or peer reviewers on a case-by-case basis.

All digital images in manuscripts considered for publication will be scrutinized for any indication of manipulation that is inconsistent with the following guidelines. Manipulation that violates these guidelines may result in delays in manuscript processing or rejection, or retraction of a published article:

• No specific feature within an image may be enhanced, obscured, moved, removed, or introduced.
• The grouping of images from different parts of the same gel, or from different gels, fields or exposures, must be made explicit by the arrangement of the figure and in figure legend.
• Adjustments of brightness, contrast or color balance may be acceptable if they are applied to every pixel in the image and as long as they do not obscure, eliminate or misrepresent any information present in the original, including the background. Non-linear adjustments (e.g., changes to gamma settings) must be disclosed in the figure legend.
• Any questions raised during or after the peer review process will be referred to the Editor, who may request the original data from the author(s) for comparison with the prepared figures. If the original data cannot be produced, the manuscript may be rejected or, in the case of a published article, retracted. Any case in which the manipulation affects the interpretation of the data will result in rejection or retraction. Cases of suspected misconduct will be reported to the author(s)’ institution(s).

Peer review is an integral part of scientific publishing that confirms the validity of the science reported. Peer reviewers are experts who volunteer their time to help improve the journal manuscripts they review. IMR Press follows COPE’s Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers and all journals employ ‘double anonymized’ reviewing, in which the referees remain anonymous to the author(s) throughout and following the refereeing process, whilst the identity of the author(s) is likewise unknown to the reviewers.

Through the peer-review process, manuscripts should become:

• More robust: Peer reviewers may point out gaps in your paper that require more explanation or additional experiments.
• Easier to read: If parts of your paper are difficult to understand, reviewers can tell you so that you can fix them. After all, if an expert cannot understand what you have done, it is unlikely that a reader in a different field will understand.
• More useful: Peer reviewers also consider the importance of your paper to others in your field and can make suggestions to improve or better highlight this to readers.

Of course, in addition to offering authors advice, another important purpose of peer review is to make sure that the manuscripts published in the journal are of the correct quality for the journal’s aims.

Please Note：

• Manuscripts with contents outside the scope will not be considered for review.
• Manuscripts usually will be refereed by 2 experts as suggested by the editorial board.
• Editors will have the option of seeking additional reviews when needed. Authors will be informed when Editors decide further review is required.
• All publication decisions are made by the journal’s Editors-in-Chief on the basis of the referees’ reports. Authors of papers that are not accepted are notified promptly.
• All submitted manuscripts are treated as confidential documents. Editors, reviewers and editorial stuff involved in the review process should disclose conflicts of interest resulting from direct competitive, collaborative, or other relationships with any of the authors, and remove oneself from cases in which such conflicts preclude an objective evaluation.
• Privileged information or ideas that are obtained through peer review must not be used for competitive gain.
• Our peer review process is confidential.

A reviewer should, therefore, treat a manuscript sent for review as a confidential document. It should neither be shown to nor discussed with others except, in special cases, to persons from whom specific advice may be sought; in that event, the identities of those consulted should be disclosed to the Editor. Also, if a reviewer uses software or other artificial intelligence techniques in the review process, he or she should disclose to the journal whether and how the artificial intelligence techniques were used to facilitate his or her review.  Reviewers should not use or disclose unpublished information, arguments or interpretations contained in a manuscript under consideration, except with the consent of the author. Reviewers should notify IMR Press if they have any conflict of interest regarding a specific manuscript, and should not review the article.

All IMR Press journals follow the ICMJE and COPE guidelines.

Whenever it is recognized that a significant inaccuracy, misleading statement, or distorted report has been published, it must be corrected promptly and with due prominence. Changes to published articles that affect the interpretation and conclusion of the article, but do not fully invalidate the article, will, at the Editors’ discretion be corrected via publication of an erratum, correction, or editorial expression of concern at the earliest possible date.

If the scientific information in an article is substantially undermined, it may be necessary for published articles to be retracted. Retraction articles are indexed and linked to the original article.

Click to see details: Policy regarding corrections and retractions.

IMR Press adheres to COPE guidelines regarding appeals to editorial decisions and complaints. Where an author believes that an editor has made an error in declining a paper, they may submit an appeal. The appeal letter should clearly state the reasons why the author considers the decision to be incorrect and provide detailed, specific responses to any comments relating to the rejection of the review. Further advice from members of the journal’s Editorial Advisory Panel and external experts will be sought regarding eligibility for re-review.

The Managing Editor of the journal will forward the manuscript and related information (including the identities of the reviewers) to the Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editor, or another relevant Editorial Board member for consultation. The consulted editor will then be asked to provide an advisory recommendation on the manuscript, which may include recommending acceptance, inviting a resubmission, sending it to another external reviewer for further peer-review, or upholding the original rejection decision. The Editor-in-Chief will make the final decision. A rejection decision at this stage is final and cannot be reversed.

Complaints about the peer review process, articles, editors, or journals should be directed to the IMR Press editorial office.

• Post-Publication Survey: We welcome every scholar who has published an article in IMR Press to use survey questionnaire to provide suggestions for help optimizing our current shortcomings, enhancing communication with scholars, and improving the author experience.
• Letter to the Editor: We welcome readers to submit 'letters to the editors' to IMR Press, providing a platform for constructive feedback, criticism, and discussion on published articles. The Editor-in-Chief will review these letters, and those approved along with important comments will be published of the journal, ensuring valuable insights are shared with the broader readership.
• Online Comments: Although we do not monitor the internet or social media, we do pay attention to and follow up on clearly documented concerns that are directly brought to our attention from other platforms (by authors or relevant readers, whether named or anonymous).
• Contact the Publisher or Journal: In addition to the above methods, you can also provide feedback and complaints directly through the contact page of the publisher and journal.

When our team members receive feedback, we further communicate with the relevant parties to seek verification. If an issue is identified, our editorial staff follows COPE's procedures for handling it, seeking resolution advice from the Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editor, or another relevant Editorial Board member. The Editor-in-Chief will make the final decision. Necessary measures and policy improvements are made based on the specific circumstances, and training on guidelines is provided. We prioritize achieving the most beneficial outcomes for the scientific community over the quickest results. We strive to provide a better experience for every scholar at IMR Press and continuously optimize our current processes and technical facilities.

The academic editor of a journal has complete responsibility and authority to accept a submitted paper for publication or to reject it. The academic editor may confer with Editorial Board Members or Guest Editor for an evaluation to use in making this decision. Peer reviewers’ reports are advisory.

An academic editor should give prompt and unbiased consideration to all manuscripts offered for publication, judging each on its merits without regard to race, gender, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship or political philosophy of the authors, and respecting the intellectual independence of the authors. Situations that may lead to real or perceived conflicts of interest should be avoided by the editor recusing from involvement as soon as the conflict becomes known.

The academic editor and the editorial staff should not disclose any information about a manuscript under consideration to anyone other than reviewers and potential reviewers. Unpublished information, arguments or interpretations disclosed in a submitted manuscript should not be used in an editor’s own research except with the consent of the author.

An editor presented with convincing evidence that the substance or conclusions of a published paper are erroneous should promote the publication of a correction or retraction.

Editorial independence dictates that decision to accept or reject a manuscript is based on the scientific merit of the article but not to any other relations for example pressure from the publisher to the journal editor. This means that Editor is independent in his/her decision and will not be under pressure of any influential body or organization.

Our editorial policy is consistent with the principles of editorial independence presented by the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME).

Journals may choose to publish supplements, special issues, or similar publications that are funded by a third party (for example, a company, society, or charity). Journals should present readers with the names of the organizations that provided funding, and any conflict of interest statements.

Journals should not permit funding organizations to make decisions beyond which publications they choose to fund.

The editorial oversight of all publications is independent of the sponsor or advertiser, including the selection and appointment of Guest Editors for these supplements. The sponsor or advertiser will be prominently disclosed in the publication, including the role of the sponsor or advertiser. For all supplements published by IMR Press, there will be transparent disclosure of the origin of the content and the role of editors, authors, sponsors and advertisers and any conflicts of interest in relation to the supplement.

IMR Press journals are online publication platform of scientific communication for global researchers, and publish original works without regard to gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, geographic/regional background, religion, or socio-economic status. Our publisher encourages the Editors-in-Chief to invite and appoint diverse experts to our journal’s Editorial Boards.

Potential disputes over borders and territories may have particular relevance for authors in describing their research or in an author or editor correspondence address, and such issues should be respected. Content decisions are an editorial matter and where there is a potential or perceived dispute or complaint, the editorial team will attempt to come to a resolution that satisfies all parties involved.

IMR Press stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Updated on 31 May 2024