Publication Ethics

1. Purpose

Impaxon is committed to maintaining the integrity, transparency, reliability, and accountability of the scholarly record. This Publication Ethics Policy sets out the ethical standards that apply to all journals published by Impaxon and to all parties involved in the submission, review, editorial decision, production, publication, and post-publication management of scholarly content.

The purpose of this policy is to ensure that manuscripts submitted to Impaxon journals are handled fairly, evaluated on scholarly merit, reviewed with integrity, and published only when they meet appropriate academic, ethical, and editorial standards.

2. Scope

This policy applies to all Impaxon journals, all manuscript types, all published articles, and all individuals involved in the publishing process, including authors, co-authors, corresponding authors, reviewers, editors, editorial board members, guest editors, journal staff, and publisher representatives.

The policy applies before submission, during editorial assessment and peer review, after acceptance, during production, after publication, and in any post-publication investigation or correction of the scholarly record.

3. Ethical Framework

Impaxon’s publication ethics framework is informed by internationally recognized principles of responsible scholarly publishing, including guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics, the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing, the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors where applicable, and recognized practices for research integrity, peer review, editorial independence, data transparency, and correction of the scholarly record.

Impaxon expects all participants in the publishing process to act honestly, transparently, respectfully, and responsibly. Ethical concerns are assessed carefully and may involve consultation with editors, editorial board members, reviewers, authors, institutions, or other relevant parties where appropriate.

4. Core Principles

• Research findings must be reported honestly, accurately, and completely.
• Manuscripts must be original and must not contain plagiarism, fabricated data, falsified results, or misleading information.
• Authorship must reflect genuine scholarly contribution and accountability.
• Peer review must be fair, confidential, objective, and free from inappropriate influence.
• Editorial decisions must be based on scholarly merit, journal scope, methodological soundness, ethical compliance, and relevance to readers.
• Conflicts of interest must be disclosed and managed transparently.
• The publisher must protect editorial independence and must not interfere with academic decisions.
• The scholarly record must be corrected when significant errors or ethical concerns are identified.

5. Responsibilities of Authors

Authors are responsible for ensuring that their submitted work is original, accurate, complete, and ethically conducted. Authors must present their research honestly and must not misrepresent methods, data, results, authorship, funding, conflicts of interest, ethical approvals, or prior publication history.

Authors must ensure that all listed authors meet appropriate authorship criteria and that all individuals who made substantial contributions are properly acknowledged. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all co-authors have reviewed and approved the submitted manuscript and agree to its submission.

Authors must disclose all actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest, including financial, institutional, professional, personal, or funding-related interests that could influence or appear to influence the research or its interpretation.

Authors must obtain all required ethical approvals, permissions, informed consent, data access permissions, copyright permissions, and institutional clearances before submission. Where approval or consent is not required, authors must clearly state the reason in the manuscript.

Authors must not submit the same manuscript to more than one journal at the same time. Authors must not submit work that has already been published, except where permitted under transparent policies such as preprint posting, conference abstract publication, or properly declared translated or extended work.

6. Responsibilities of Reviewers

Reviewers play an essential role in maintaining the quality and integrity of Impaxon journals. Reviewers must provide objective, constructive, evidence-based, and timely assessments of manuscripts assigned to them.

Reviewers must treat manuscripts, supplementary files, data, reviewer comments, and editorial communications as confidential. Reviewers must not share manuscripts with others, use unpublished information for personal advantage, or disclose manuscript content without permission from the journal.

Reviewers must decline a review invitation if they lack the required expertise, cannot complete the review within the requested time, or have a conflict of interest with the authors, institutions, funders, topic, or manuscript content.

7. Responsibilities of Editors

Editors are responsible for handling manuscripts fairly, independently, and in accordance with the journal's scope, editorial standards, peer review policy, and publication ethics requirements. Editorial decisions must be based on the academic quality, originality, methodological soundness, clarity, relevance, and ethical compliance of the manuscript.

Editors must not allow personal relationships, financial interests, institutional pressure, commercial considerations, nationality, religion, gender, political views, or other irrelevant factors to influence editorial decisions.

Editors must protect the confidentiality of manuscripts and peer review communications. They must also manage conflicts of interest and ensure that manuscripts submitted by editors, editorial board members, guest editors, or publisher staff are handled by independent editors with no conflict of interest.

8. Responsibilities of the Publisher

Impaxon is responsible for maintaining transparent publishing policies, supporting editorial independence, protecting the integrity of the peer review process, preserving the scholarly record, and ensuring that ethical concerns are handled according to clear procedures.

The publisher does not make acceptance decisions on manuscripts. Acceptance, revision, or rejection decisions are made by the responsible editor or editorial board member according to the journal's editorial process.

Impaxon may take action when ethical concerns, legal concerns, conflicts of interest, misconduct, data issues, authorship disputes, or serious errors are identified before or after publication.

9. Research Misconduct

Research misconduct includes, but is not limited to, plagiarism, data fabrication, data falsification, image manipulation, duplicate submission, redundant publication, citation manipulation, inappropriate authorship, undisclosed conflicts of interest, peer review manipulation, and unethical research involving humans, animals, sensitive data, or regulated materials.

Allegations of misconduct may be assessed by the journal editor, editorial board, publisher, or other appropriate parties. Authors may be asked to provide original data, ethics approval documents, consent records, authorship confirmations, image files, or other evidence required to assess the concern.

10. Authorship and Contributorship

Authorship must be limited to individuals who made a substantial scholarly contribution to the work and who accept responsibility for the content of the manuscript. All listed authors must approve the submitted version and the final version accepted for publication.

Individuals who contributed to the work but do not meet authorship criteria should be acknowledged with their permission. Gift authorship, guest authorship, honorary authorship, and ghost authorship are not acceptable.

Any request to add, remove, or rearrange authors after submission must be explained clearly and approved by all authors, including any author being added or removed. After publication, authorship changes may require a formal correction.

11. Conflicts of Interest

Authors, reviewers, editors, and editorial board members must disclose any actual, potential, or perceived conflict of interest that could affect, or appear to affect, the objectivity of the research, review, editorial decision, or publication process.

Conflicts of interest may be financial, professional, institutional, personal, academic, or funding-related. Disclosure does not automatically prevent publication, review, or editorial involvement, but undisclosed conflicts may lead to rejection, reassignment, correction, or other editorial action.

12. Artificial Intelligence and Generative AI

Authors are responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and legality of all content submitted to Impaxon journals, including any content developed with the assistance of artificial intelligence or generative AI tools.

AI tools must not be listed as authors because they cannot take responsibility for the work, approve the final manuscript, or be accountable for research integrity. Where AI tools are used beyond basic language editing, authors should disclose the tool used and describe its role in the preparation of the manuscript.

Reviewers and editors must not upload confidential manuscripts, figures, tables, data, reviewer comments, or editorial correspondence into external AI tools where confidentiality, privacy, or intellectual property may be compromised.

13. Plagiarism, Data Fabrication, and Image Manipulation

Manuscripts submitted to Impaxon journals must be original. Plagiarism, including unattributed copying of text, ideas, images, data, structure, or substantial parts of another work, is not acceptable. This includes self-plagiarism and redundant reuse of an author's own published work without proper citation and disclosure.

Data must not be fabricated, falsified, selectively reported, or manipulated in a way that misleads readers. Images must not be altered in a way that changes, hides, exaggerates, or misrepresents the original information.

Impaxon may use similarity checking tools, editorial assessment, reviewer feedback, and manual investigation to identify possible plagiarism or research integrity concerns.

14. Research Involving Human Participants and Animals

Research involving human participants, human data, human tissue, or animals must comply with applicable institutional, national, and international ethical requirements. Authors are responsible for obtaining all necessary ethics approvals before conducting the research.

Where required, manuscripts must clearly identify the approving ethics committee or institutional review board, approval number, approval date, and confirmation that informed consent was obtained where applicable.

Editors may request supporting documentation during editorial assessment. Failure to provide satisfactory ethical documentation may result in rejection of the manuscript.

15. Data Availability and Research Transparency

Authors are encouraged to make research data, source code, supplementary material, protocols, and other supporting information available whenever appropriate. Data availability improves transparency, reproducibility, and long-term research value.

Where data cannot be shared because of legal, ethical, contractual, privacy, or security restrictions, authors should clearly explain these limitations within the manuscript.

16. Confidentiality

All manuscripts submitted to Impaxon journals are treated as confidential documents. Editors, reviewers, editorial staff, and publisher personnel must not disclose manuscript content or use unpublished information for personal, academic, financial, or commercial benefit.

Confidentiality obligations continue after completion of peer review and after publication where appropriate.

17. Editorial Independence

Editorial decisions are made independently by the journal's editorial leadership without interference from the publisher, sponsors, advertisers, institutions, or commercial partners. Acceptance or rejection is based solely on scholarly merit, originality, methodological quality, relevance, and compliance with journal policies.

The publisher supports editorial independence by providing operational and publishing services while respecting the academic authority of editors.

18. Corrections, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern

When significant errors or ethical concerns are identified after publication, Impaxon may publish corrections, retractions, expressions of concern, editorial notes, or other updates necessary to maintain the integrity of the scholarly record.

Decisions regarding post-publication updates are made after appropriate editorial assessment and may involve consultation with authors, reviewers, institutions, or external experts where necessary.

19. Complaints and Appeals

Authors, reviewers, readers, and other stakeholders may raise concerns regarding editorial decisions, peer review, publication ethics, or published articles. Complaints and appeals are assessed fairly, confidentially, and without prejudice.

Appeals should provide a clear explanation supported by relevant evidence. Submission of an appeal does not guarantee reconsideration or reversal of an editorial decision.

20. Compliance and Policy Updates

Submission of a manuscript to an Impaxon journal indicates acceptance of the publisher's publication ethics policies and related editorial policies. Authors, reviewers, editors, and editorial board members are expected to comply with these policies throughout the publication process.

Impaxon may revise this policy periodically to reflect developments in scholarly publishing, international standards, research integrity practices, and publishing regulations. Updated versions become effective immediately upon publication on the Impaxon website.