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Publishing Ethics

NOVAXIS

Publishing Ethics

Integrity is a condition of publication at NOVAXIS, not an aspiration. The journal follows the guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) in every case it handles, applies the same standards to its own editors as to authors and reviewers, and preserves the scholarly record rather than quietly amending it. This page states the rules; the peer review and governance policies state who enforces them.

Authorship

• An author is someone who made a substantial intellectual contribution to the work, took part in drafting or critically revising it, approved the submitted version, and accepts accountability for its accuracy and integrity. All four conditions apply; contribution alone is acknowledged, not authored.
• Everyone who meets the criteria must be listed, and no one who does not. Gift, guest and ghost authorship are misconduct.
• Changes to the author list after submission require the written consent of every author, including any being removed, together with the reason; the journal will not arbitrate authorship disputes and refers them to the authors' institutions.
• Artificial intelligence tools cannot be authors: authorship carries accountability, and accountability cannot be delegated to software. Each article states individual contributions using the CRediT taxonomy.

Originality and prior publication

Submissions must be original, not published previously and not under consideration elsewhere; parallel submission is grounds for rejection at any stage. Posting a preprint is not prior publication. Republication of substantially overlapping work, division of one study into minimal publishable fragments, and undeclared translation of published work are all forms of redundant publication. All submissions are screened for text similarity; plagiarism — of others' words, ideas, data or images, and unquoted reuse of the authors' own published text — leads to rejection or retraction whenever it is found.

Data, images and reporting

• Fabrication and falsification of data are the gravest forms of misconduct and lead to retraction and institutional referral.
• Image adjustments are acceptable only when applied to the entire image and disclosed; no feature may be added, removed, moved, obscured or selectively enhanced. Original unprocessed images and raw data must be retained and supplied on editorial request.
• Every article carries a data availability statement. Deposit in a public repository is expected wherever law and ethics allow; where data cannot be shared, the statement says why.
• Authors must follow the reporting standards of their field and declare all sources of funding and any financial or non-financial interests that could reasonably be seen to influence the work.

Research involving people and animals

Research involving human participants, their data or tissue requires approval by an appropriate ethics committee and informed consent, both named in the manuscript; identifiable individuals additionally require consent to publish. Animal research must comply with applicable regulations and institutional oversight, also stated in the manuscript. The journal declines work whose ethics cannot be evidenced, whatever its results.

Generative AI used by authors

Authors may use AI tools as instruments — for language editing, code assistance or analysis — provided the use is disclosed in the manuscript, naming the tool and the purpose. Authors remain fully accountable for everything the tool contributed, including errors and fabricated references. AI-generated images and figures are not permitted, except where generative output is itself the object of the research and is clearly labelled as such.

Handling allegations

1. Concerns about any article or submission may be sent to the editorial office by anyone; reports made in good faith are treated confidentially and bring no reprisal. Anonymous allegations are assessed on the strength of their evidence.
2. The journal first seeks an explanation from the authors, then proceeds under the relevant COPE flowchart; cases suggesting misconduct are referred to the authors' institutions, with which the journal cooperates while reaching its own editorial conclusion.
3. Editors with any conflict stand aside from the case. Outcomes range from correction to retraction to notifying institutions and funders; the journal does not impose bans on future submission beyond what a documented pattern of abuse justifies.

Correcting the record

Published articles are never silently altered or removed. These instruments apply to every article the journal has published, regardless of when it appeared or who wrote it — including work by the journal's own editors.