Author Guidelines

Introduction

TISJ is committed to upholding the highest standards of academic integrity in line with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines. As an author submitting to our journal, you are expected to adhere to these ethical standards, ensuring that your submission is original, accurately represented, and ethically sound. This document provides detailed guidelines for authors to follow during the submission, review, and publication process.

General Submission Requirements

Originality

All submissions must be original work and not under consideration elsewhere. Manuscripts that have been previously published, in part or full, or are simultaneously under review elsewhere will be rejected.

Plagiarism

The journal has a zero-tolerance policy towards plagiarism. Authors must ensure that all sources and references are appropriately cited. If plagiarism is detected, the manuscript will be rejected, and further action may be taken in accordance with COPE guidelines.

Multiple Submissions

Authors should not submit a manuscript to multiple journals simultaneously. Manuscripts that have been previously rejected by other journals should not be submitted to TISJ without proper revisions and disclosures.

Conflicts of Interest

Authors must disclose any potential conflicts of interest related to the research presented in the manuscript. This includes financial, personal, or professional relationships that could influence the work or its interpretation.

Authorship and Contributions

Authorship Criteria

Authors must meet the COPE authorship criteria. All individuals listed as authors must have contributed significantly to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the work. The corresponding author should ensure that all co-authors have approved the manuscript and agree with its content.

Acknowledgment of Contributions

All contributors who do not meet the authorship criteria but have provided significant support (e.g., technical assistance, administrative support) should be acknowledged in the acknowledgments section.

Order of Authors

The order of authorship should reflect the level of contribution. Disputes regarding authorship order should be resolved before submission. If such a dispute arises post-submission, the corresponding author should provide documentation explaining the contributions of each author.

Ethical Conduct of Research

Approval from Ethical Committees

Research involving humans, animals, or other sensitive groups must be conducted in accordance with the ethical guidelines of the relevant institutional or national ethical review boards. Authors must provide evidence of ethical approval for their studies.

Informed Consent

For studies involving human participants, authors must ensure that informed consent was obtained from all participants. Authors should provide a statement of informed consent in the manuscript, particularly for studies involving personal data.

Data Availability and Transparency

Authors must provide sufficient information to allow others to replicate the research. Authors are encouraged to share raw data, research materials, and supplementary information in public repositories when possible. Data sets, software, and protocols should be cited if relevant.

Research Integrity and Reporting

Accurate Reporting of Results

Authors must ensure that the results presented in the manuscript are accurate and free from fabrication, falsification, or manipulation. All statistical analyses must be correctly described and interpreted.

Redundant Publication

Authors should avoid redundant publication (also known as "salami slicing"), where portions of the same research are published in multiple places. Such practices violate ethical publishing standards and will lead to retraction of the article.

Erroneous or Misleading Information

Authors are responsible for ensuring that their manuscripts do not contain errors, misinterpretations, or misleading data. If errors are identified post-publication, authors must promptly notify the journal and cooperate with corrections, retractions, or clarifications.

Peer Review Process

Confidentiality

Authors must not engage in any attempts to influence the peer review process. All submitted manuscripts will undergo a single blind peer-review process. During this process the reviewers are kept confidential.

Revisions and Resubmission

Authors must be responsive to reviewers' comments and recommendations. Revisions should be made in a timely manner, and a response letter explaining how the revisions have been addressed should accompany the resubmission.

Ethical Responsibilities of Authors

Authors should not attempt to contact reviewers directly. Any concerns regarding the review process should be addressed to the journal’s editorial office.

Misconduct and Retractions

Handling of Misconduct

If a manuscript or published article is found to have involved misconduct such as data manipulation, plagiarism, or failure to disclose conflicts of interest, the journal will follow COPE’s guidelines for investigation and appropriate corrective action. This may include retracting the article or issuing corrections or retractions.

Retractions

If an article is retracted, the retraction notice will be issued with a clear explanation of the reasons for retraction. The retracted article will remain publicly accessible with a statement marking it as retracted.

Correction of Errors

In cases where minor errors are identified post-publication, authors may submit a correction to be published alongside the original article. All corrections should clearly state the nature of the error and the corrected information.

Copyright and License

Copyright Ownership

Authors must ensure they hold the copyright for all content submitted. If the manuscript includes material that is not original, proper permission for reproduction must be obtained.

License for Publication

Upon acceptance of the manuscript, authors must agree to grant the journal a license to publish the work. The manuscript is published under a Creative Commons license.

Declaration of Conflicts of Interest

Financial Conflicts

All authors must disclose any financial relationships or support that could be perceived as a conflict of interest. This includes funding from grants, research institutions, or commercial entities.

Non-financial Conflicts

Non-financial conflicts, such as personal relationships or academic rivalries, must also be disclosed if they could potentially influence the study or its results.

Handling of Plagiarism, Duplicate Publication, and Ethical Violations

Plagiarism

The journal currently does not use any plagiarism detection software to screen submitted manuscripts, therefore authors must ensure that their manuscripts do not contain plagiarism, and proper citations must be provided for all referenced work.

Duplicate Publication

Authors must avoid submitting manuscripts that contain work previously published or that substantially overlap with another manuscript that is under consideration elsewhere.

Ethical Violations

Any cases of ethical violations detected during submission, review, or post-publication will be investigated according to COPE guidelines. Appropriate actions will be taken, including retraction or correction.

Conclusion

By submitting a manuscript to TISJ, authors agree to comply with the ethical standards and submission guidelines outlined in this document. We adhere to the principles of COPE, and expect all authors to act in accordance with the highest standards of academic integrity and professionalism.

For further information or questions regarding our submission process, please contact the editorial office at: journal@topitalianscientists.org