Ethical guidelines for journal publication

Duties of Editors

Publication decisions

The editor of a learned journal is solely and independently responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published, often working in conjunction with the relevant society (for society-owned or sponsored journals).
The validation of the work in question and its importance to researchers and readers must always underwrite such decisions. The editor may be guided by the policies of the journal's editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding issues such as libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism. The editor may confer with other editors or reviewers (or society officers) in making these decisions.

Peer review

The editor shall ensure the peer review process is fair, unbiased, and timely. Research articles must typically be reviewed by at least two external and independent reviewers, and where necessary, the editor should seek additional opinions.
The editor shall select reviewers with suitable expertise in the relevant field, taking account of the need for appropriate, inclusive, and diverse representation. The editor shall follow best practices to avoid selecting fraudulent peer reviewers8. The editor shall review all disclosures of potential conflicts of interest and suggestions for self-citation by reviewers to determine whether there is any potential for bias.

Fair play

The editor should evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to the author's race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy.
The journal's editorial policies should encourage transparency and complete, honest reporting. The editor should ensure that peer reviewers and authors understand what is expected of them. The editor shall use the journal's standard electronic submission system for all communications.
The editor shall establish, along with the publisher, a transparent mechanism for appeal against editorial decisions.

Confidentiality

The editor must protect the confidentiality of all material submitted to the journal and all communications with reviewers unless otherwise agreed with the relevant authors and reviewers. In exceptional circumstances and consultation with the publisher, the editor may share limited information with editors of other journals, institutions, and organizations investigating research misconduct cases where necessary to investigate suspected ethical breaches.
Unless the journal operates an open peer-review system and reviewers have agreed to disclose their names, the editor must protect reviewers' identities.
Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor's research without the author's written consent. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage.

The use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the journal editorial process

This policy has been triggered by the rise of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies* and aims to provide greater transparency and guidance to authors, editors, and reviewers.
A submitted manuscript must be treated as a confidential document. Editors should not upload a submitted manuscript or any part of it into a generative AI tool as this may violate the authors' confidentiality and proprietary rights and, where the paper contains personally identifiable information, may breach data privacy rights. 
This confidentiality requirement extends to all communication about the manuscript, including any notification or decision letters, as they may contain confidential information about the manuscript and the authors. For this reason, editors should not upload their letters to an AI tool, even if it is to improve language and readability.
Peer review is at the heart of the scientific ecosystem, and NHER abides by the highest standards of integrity in this process. Managing the editorial evaluation of a scientific manuscript implies responsibilities that can only be attributed to humans. Editors should not use Generative AI or AI-assisted technologies to assist in the evaluation or decision-making process of a manuscript as the critical thinking and original assessment needed for this work is outside of the scope of this technology, and there is a risk that the technology will generate incorrect, incomplete or biased conclusions about the manuscript. The editor is responsible and accountable for the editorial process, the final decision, and the communication thereof to the authors. 
Any potential editorial conflicts of interest should be declared to the publisher in writing before the editor's appointment and updated if and when new conflicts arise. The publisher may publish such declarations in the journal.
The editor must not be involved in decisions about papers which s/he has written him/herself or have been written by family members or colleagues or which relate to products or services in which the editor has an interest. Furthermore, any such submission must be subject to all of the journal's usual procedures, peer review must be handled independently of the relevant author/editor and their research groups, and there should be a clear statement to this effect on any published published.

Alertness to ethical issues
A reviewer should be alert to potential ethical issues in the paper and bring these to the editor's attention, including any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which the reviewer has personal knowledge. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation.

Standards of objectivity competing interests

Reviews should be conducted objectively. Reviewers should be aware of any personal bias and consider this when reviewing a paper. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.
Reviewers should consult the editor before agreeing to review a paper with potential conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.
Suppose a reviewer suggests that an author includes citations to the reviewer's (or their associates') work. In that case, this must be for genuine scientific reasons and not to increase the reviewer's citation count or enhance the visibility of their work (or that of their associates).

 

Duties of Authors

Reporting standards

Authors of reports of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed and an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraud or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.
Review and professional publication articles should also be accurate and objective, and editorial 'opinion' works should be identified as such.

Data access and retention

Authors may be asked to provide the research data supporting their paper for editorial review and comply with the journal's open data requirements.  If practicable, authors should be prepared to provide public access to such data and retain it for a reasonable number of years after publication. Authors may refer to their journal's Guide for Authors for further details.

Originality and acknowledgment of sources

The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works. If they have used the work and words of others, this should be appropriately cited or quoted, and permission should be obtained where necessary.
Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have influenced the reported work and that give the work appropriate context within the larger scholarly record. Information obtained privately, as in conversation, correspondence, or discussion with third parties, must not be used or reported without explicit, written permission from the source.
Plagiarism takes many forms, from 'passing off' another's paper as the author's paper to copying or paraphrasing substantial parts of another's paper (without attribution) to claiming results from research conducted by others.  In all its forms, plagiarism constitutes unethical behavior and is unacceptable.

Multiple, redundant, or concurrent publication

An author should not publish manuscripts describing the same research in more than one journal of primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical behavior and is unacceptable.
Generally, an author should not submit a paper published previously for consideration in another journal except as an abstract, as part of a published lecture or academic thesis, or as an electronic preprint.
Publication of some kinds of articles (e.g., clinical guidelines, translations) in multiple journals is sometimes justifiable, provided certain conditions are met. The authors and editors of the journals concerned must agree to the secondary publication, which must reflect the same data and interpretation of the primary document. The primary reference must be cited in the secondary publication.

Confidentiality

Information obtained during confidential services, such as refereeing manuscripts or grant applications, must be used with the author's explicit written permission of the work involved in these services.

Authorship of the paper

Authorship should be limited to those who have contributed significantly to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made substantial contributions should be listed as co-authors.
Where others have participated in certain substantive aspects of the paper (e.g., language editing or medical writing), they should be recognized in the acknowledgments section.
The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included in the paper and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.
Authors are expected to consider carefully the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the original submission. Only in exceptional circumstances will the editor consider (at their discretion) the addition, deletion, or rearrangement of authors after the manuscript has been submitted, and the author must flag any such request to the editor. All thors must agree with any such addition, removal, or rearrangement.
Authors take collective responsibility for the work. Each author is accountable for ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

The use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in scientific writing

This policy has been triggered by the rise of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies expected to be used by content creators increasingly. It aims to provide greater transparency and guidance to authors, readers, reviewers, editors, and contributors.
Where authors use generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process, these technologies should only improve the readability and language of the work. Applying the technology should be done with human oversight and control, and authors should carefully review and edit the result because AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that can be incorrect, incomplete, or biased. The authors are ultimately responsible and accountable for the contents of the work.
Authors should disclose the use of AI and AI-assisted technologies in their manuscript, and a statement will appear in the published work. Declaring the use of these technologies supports transparency and trust between authors, readers, reviewers, editors, and contributors. It facilitates compliance with the terms of use of the relevant tool or technology.
Authors should not list AI and AI-assisted technologies as authors or co-authors nor cite AI as authors. Authorship implies responsibilities and tasks that can only be attributed to and performed by humans. Each (co-) author is accountable for ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved, and authorship requires the ability to approve the final version of the work and agree to its submission. Authors are also responsible for ensuring that the work is original, that the stated authors qualify for authorship, and that the work does not infringe on third-party rights.

The use of generative AI and AI-assisted tools in figures, images, and artwork

We do not permit using Generative AI or AI-assisted tools to create or alter images in submitted manuscripts. This may include enhancing, obscuring, moving, removing, or introducing a specific feature within an image or figure. Image forensics tools or specialized software might be applied to submitted manuscripts to identify suspected image irregularities.
The only exception is if AI or AI-assisted tools are part of the research design or methods (such as in AI-assisted imaging approaches to generate or interpret the underlying research data, for example, in biomedical imaging). If this is done, such use must be described in a reproducible manner in the methods section. This includes an explanation of how the AI or AI-assisted tools were used in the image creation or alteration process, the name of the model or tool, version and extension numbers, and manufacturer. Authors should adhere to the AI software's specific usage policies and ensure correct content attribution. Where applicable, authors could be asked to provide pre-AI-adjusted versions of images and the composite raw images used to create the final submitted versions for editorial assessment.
Using generative AI or AI-assisted tools in producing artwork, such as graphical abstracts, is prohibited. The use of generative AI in the production of cover art may, in some cases, be allowed if the author obtains prior permission from the journal editor and publisher, can demonstrate that all necessary rights have been cleared for the use of the relevant material, and ensures that there is correct content attribution.