CJIC trusts its editors, who in turn trust peer reviewers to provide fair assessments, and authors trust editors to select appropriate peer reviewers, and readers put their trust in the peer-review process. Academic publishing occurs in an environment of potential intellectual, financial, and sometimes political interests that may collide or compete.
Researchers and readers have a right to expect that submitted work is the author’s own, that it has not been plagiarised, i.e. taken from other authors without permission where required, and that copyright has not been breached.
Ethical obligations
CJIC expects authors to maintain the highest ethical standards when conducting research and in the publication process. The following principles, which are not an exhaustive list, must apply:
Soundness and reliability
The research being reported should:
- be conducted in an ethical and responsible manner and follow all relevant legislation;
- be sound and carefully executed; and
- use appropriate methods of data analysis and display.
The authors should:
- check their manuscripts carefully at all stages to ensure that methods and findings are reported accurately; and
- carefully check calculations, data presentations, typescripts/submissions and proofs.
Honesty
Authors should:
- present their results honestly and without fabrication, falsification or inappropriate data manipulation;
- present research images, e.g. micrographs, X-rays, pictures of microbial plates, without them being modified in a misleading way;
- provide sufficient detail and describe their methods clearly and unambiguously and with reference to public sources of information, in order to permit others to repeat the work and confirm the findings. Data should always be reported accurately and never be manipulated;
- present reports of complete research. They should not omit inconvenient, inconsistent or inexplicable findings or results that do not support the authors’ or sponsors’ hypothesis or interpretation;
- alert the editor promptly if they discover an error in any submitted, accepted or published work. Authors should cooperate with editors in issuing corrections or retractions when required;
- represent the work of others accurately in citations and quotations;
- not copy references from other publications if they have not read the cited work; and
- not enter agreements that permit the research sponsor to veto or control the publication of the findings (unless there are exceptional circumstances, such as research classified by governments because of security implications).
Balance
Authors should:
- present new findings in the context of previous research. The work of others should be fairly represented. Scholarly reviews and syntheses of existing research should be complete, balanced, and should include findings regardless of whether they support the hypothesis or interpretation being proposed;
- address study limitations in their manuscript; and
- avoid criticisms of a personal nature, although well-supported criticism of a piece of work is always welcomed.
Originality
Authors should:
- ensure the submitted work should be original and has not been published elsewhere in any language;
- adhere to and follow all applicable copyright laws and conventions. Copyright material, e.g. tables, figures or extensive quotations, should be reproduced only with appropriate permission and acknowledgement;
- properly acknowledge and reference relevant previous work and publications, both by other researchers and the authors’ own;
- properly acknowledge data, text, figures or ideas originated by other researchers, and these should not be presented as if they were the authors’ own work. Original wording taken directly from publications by other researchers should appear in quotation marks with the appropriate citations;
- not claim originality if others have already reported similar work in part or as a whole, and credit should always be given to the work and findings of others that have led to their findings or influenced them in some way.
Respecting confidentiality
CJIC will only consider publishing information and images from individual participants/subjects or patients where the authors have obtained the individuals’ explicit consent. Exceptional cases may arise where gaining the individuals’ explicit consent is not possible but where publishing such information or image can be demonstrated to have a genuine public health interest. In cases like this, before taking any action, CJIC shall seek legal counsel.