Plagiarism Policy

ScienceIngress maintains a zero-tolerance policy towards plagiarism in submissions. Any plagiarized content including the use of AI will be disqualified from publication, and appropriate actions will be taken in line with COPE guidelines.

Authors are required to ensure that their work is entirely original and to provide proper citations and attributions when using the ideas or words of others.

Allegations of Research or Publishing Misconduct

ScienceIngress adheres to COPE guidelines and flowcharts for addressing allegations of research and publishing ethics issues, including misconduct related to referees, citations, and data integrity. Our procedures for handling misconduct allegations are outlined below:

Ethics Panel:

1.  The Ethics Panel comprises the Managing Editor, Editor-in-Chief, and ad hoc experts as needed.

2. The Ethics Panel may seek guidance from senior members of the Editorial Board and other relevant parties during investigations.

3. Procedure for addressing misconduct allegations in submitted manuscripts:

   1. Submitted manuscripts may undergo checks for originality and integrity, including similarity with other published works and potential image manipulation.

   2. Allegations of ethics misconduct are reported to the Editor-in-Chief and Managing Editor by editorial staff, reviewers, or editors.

   3. The Editor-in-Chief and Managing Editor conduct a preliminary assessment of the allegations and may put the manuscript on hold if deemed credible.

   4. Additional analyses, such as similarity checks and forensic image analyses, may be conducted as necessary.

The corresponding author is notified of the allegations and requested to provide an explanation, along with any original data if required.

The Ethics Panel convenes to discuss the allegations, potential corrective actions, and sanctions, which may include warnings, increased scrutiny of future submissions, or prohibitions from publishing in the journal.

Authors are informed of the Ethics Panel's decision, and they have the right to appeal by contacting the Ethics Committee.

ScienceIngress places a strong emphasis on preserving the integrity of the scientific record and aims to educate authors on ethical misconduct issues. Manuscripts submitted by authors who have received warnings or sanctions due to ethical violations will undergo enhanced scrutiny, with repeated offenses potentially leading to more severe sanctions. In cases of alleged fraud or misconduct, the Ethics Panel will collaborate with the authors' institutions, comply with their investigations, and respect their decisions.

Additional procedures for handling allegations of misconduct in published manuscripts:

In alignment with established guidelines on research integrity, our journal diligently addresses allegations of misconduct in published works. Pursuant to regulatory standards, we investigate accusations of publishing misconduct within six years of the paper's publication date. In exceptional cases where older papers indicate a recurrent pattern of misconduct, we may extend our review to ensure the integrity of the scientific record.

To maintain professionalism and confidentiality, we refrain from engaging in discussions on allegations through public platforms such as social media or public websites. The Ethics Panel, comprising experts and journal leadership, convenes to determine appropriate actions in response to allegations of misconduct. If an author's explanation fails to sufficiently address the issue, leading to a loss of support for the manuscript's conclusions, retraction may be deemed necessary.

In the event of a dispute regarding an ethics decision, authors have the right to appeal within 30 days of receiving the initial ruling by contacting the Ethics Committee directly.

Complaints Process:

Authors seeking to lodge complaints concerning the publishing process or editorial conduct are encouraged to communicate directly with the journal or publisher.

Conflict of Interest

Authors. Every author of content submitted to a ScienceIngress‘s journal is required to disclose affiliations, funding sources, and competing interests that might be perceived as sources of bias related to the reported research and/or presented content. Specific details about the required disclosures are listed below, along with information about placement of these disclosures within the article. This policy applies to research, reviews, and opinion-type articles.

ScienceIngress Journals require disclosure of:

1. Institutional affiliations

The title page of every submission must include, for all authors, the academic, corporate, government, industry, and/or other relevant institutional affiliations where the work was performed.

2. Funding and contributions

All authors must disclose complete and correct information about any and all financial contributions to the work being reported. This information should be listed in the Funding statement in the Acknowledgments section of the manuscript to ensure transparency during the review process and will be included in the final published work. Non-monetary (in-kind) contribution of goods or services may, if appropriate, be cited in published acknowledgments in the paper.

3. Competing interests

All authors must disclose complete and correct details of competing interests that have occurred within 5 years of inception of the research or clinical study under consideration. Interests outside of the 5-year time frame must also be declared if they could reasonably be perceived as competing. When in doubt, authors should disclose the relationship. This information should be summarized in a Competing interests statement in the acknowledgments section of the final published work. Authors can provide a URL to a list of an author’s affiliations/interests/relationships in addition to the Competing interests statement.

A competing interest exists when one’s professional judgment about the execution of the research and/or the presentation of the content is, or could reasonably be perceived to be, influenced by other interests. Review the examples below in the context of the 5-year time frame mentioned above when preparing your Competing interests statement.

Human subjects research

Informed consent must be obtained for studies on humans after the nature and possible consequences of the studies are explained. A statement that informed consent was obtained must also appear in the manuscript. All research on humans must have approval from the IRB (Institutional Review Board) or an equivalent body. The editors reserve the right to request IRB documents associated with a particular paper. Gender and age of all subjects should be provided in the main text or supplementary materials.

Wild, or temporarily captive animals. Researchers should speak to the ethics, humane treatment, and the 3Rs of animals used during the study. Methods and approaches should meet the requirements of the United States Animal Welfare Act or the equivalent. Researchers must state that the work has been approved by their institutional Animal Care and Use committee and should strive to meet all requirements recommended by scientific societies focused on the specifics of their study organism(s) (e.g., mammalogical, ornithological, herpetological, ichthyological, etc.). In addition, collection of samples and specimens must meet further requirements, as laid out below in Studies involving field collection of samples, specimens, or fossils.

Authorship

Authors in ScienceIngress journals must fulfill the criteria described below, which are informed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) definition of authorship. Specifically,

1. Each author is expected to have made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work;

2. OR the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data;

3. OR creation of new software used in the work;

4. OR have drafted the work or substantially revised it;

5. AND has approved the submitted version (and any substantially modified version that involves the author’s contribution to the study);

6. AND agrees to be personally accountable for the author’s own contributions and for ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work, even ones in which the author was not personally involved, are appropriately investigated, resolved, and documented in the literature.

Exclusion from authorship of individuals who have made author-level contributions is not permitted for papers published in ScienceIngress journals, nor is guest or honorary authorship. In addition, artificial intelligence tools cannot be authors. Other individuals who have participated in generation of the research paper but who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the acknowledgments section with a brief indication of the nature of their contribution. Any editing services used in preparation of the manuscript should be disclosed in the acknowledgments.

In addition, corresponding authors must:

1. Ensure that all listed authors have received and approved the manuscript prior to submission.

2. Receive all substantive correspondence with editors, as well as full reviews.

3. Verify that all data, materials (including reagents), and code, even those developed/provided by other authors, comply with the transparency and reproducibility standards of both the field and the journal.

4. Ensure that original data/materials/code upon which the submission is based are preserved and retrievable for reanalysis.

5. Confirm that the presentation in the paper of the data/materials/code accurately reflects the original sources.

6. Foresee and minimize obstacles to the sharing of data/materials/code.

7. Ensure the entire author group is fully aware of and in compliance with best practices.

When a new manuscript is submitted to a ScienceIngress journal, all listed authors will receive an email with a link to confirm authorship. Submission of a paper that has not been approved by all authors may result in immediate rejection without appeal. Any addition or removal of authors from a paper or change in their listed order must be approved in writing by all of the original authors.

For manuscripts that are accepted, all authors are required to explain their contribution to the manuscript; agree to the conditions of publication, including the availability of data, code, and materials; and declare any conflicts of interest. The senior author from each group is required to have examined the raw data that their group has produced. We encourage all authors to state their contribution to the study in the acknowledgments section following the CRediT model; this information will be published in the paper.

Acknowledgments and Authorship Changes:

Contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be acknowledged in the manuscript. Any proposed changes to authorship must be agreed upon by all authors and confirmed in writing.

Data and Material Release:

Authors are expected to make all relevant raw data and materials freely available both for commercial and non-commercial use.

Corrections and Retractions:

In the rare event of errors or misconduct, corrections, retractions, or expressions of concern will be promptly addressed in accordance with established guidelines to maintain the integrity of the academic record.

Appeals and Complaints:

Authors have the right to appeal manuscript rejections based on scientific merit. Appeals should be directed to the Editor-in-Chief for review. Any complaints can be addressed to the publisher for resolution.