Publication ethics
The ethical standard for authors, editors, reviewers and the published record. Policy follows COPE and ICMJE principles; the journal is not listed as a member of organisations it has not joined.
The standard
The Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences is committed to publication ethics, research integrity, transparency and responsible scholarly communication. Authors, editors, reviewers and other participants in the publication process are expected to follow internationally recognised principles of ethical research and scholarly publishing.
JPBS follows the principles and guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and, where applicable, the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and relevant research-ethics and reporting standards. The journal is not listed here as a member of any organisation it has not joined; a membership will be named when one exists.
Research and publication misconduct are treated as serious matters. Allegations are investigated, and action may be taken before or after publication, including rejection, correction, expression of concern or retraction.
Responsibilities of authors
Authors are responsible for ensuring that submissions are original, scientifically rigorous, ethically conducted, accurately reported and appropriately referenced. By submitting a manuscript, authors confirm that:
- The manuscript is original work and has not been published previously, except where appropriately disclosed (including preprints).
- The manuscript is not under consideration by another journal.
- All listed authors have made appropriate contributions and have approved the final manuscript.
- Results, methods, data and conclusions are accurately reported.
- Relevant ethical approvals, informed consent, registrations and permissions have been obtained as applicable.
- Sources of funding and potential conflicts of interest have been disclosed.
- Appropriate credit is given to other researchers’ work.
- The manuscript does not contain plagiarism, fabrication, falsification or other research or publication misconduct.
Authorship and contributorship
JPBS follows the authorship principles recommended by ICMJE and COPE. An individual should be listed as an author only if they have made substantial contributions to conception or design, or to acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data; participated in drafting or critically revising the manuscript; approved the final version; and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work. All four conditions should be satisfied.
The corresponding author is responsible for communication with the Editorial Office throughout submission, review, revision and publication, and should ensure that all authors have approved the submitted manuscript.
Securing funding, general supervision, administrative support, language editing, proofreading or technical assistance do not, by themselves, justify authorship. Individuals who have made meaningful contributions but do not meet authorship criteria should be acknowledged. JPBS encourages a CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) statement.
Gift, honorary, guest and ghost authorship are unacceptable. Changes to the author list after submission require clear justification and written agreement from all affected authors. Authorship changes after publication are considered only in exceptional circumstances. If an author dies during processing, the remaining authors should notify the Editorial Office; if that person was the corresponding author, the remaining authors should nominate a replacement.
Originality, duplicate publication and plagiarism
Manuscripts must be original. Authors must not submit the same manuscript to more than one journal at the same time. Duplicate, redundant and inappropriate fragmentation of findings (“salami publication”) are unethical when they result in substantial overlap without disclosure or justification. Previously published material must be cited, and permission obtained where copyright or licence requires it. Preprints are allowed if disclosed.
Plagiarism is the use of another person’s ideas, words, data, figures or other intellectual material without proper acknowledgement. JPBS may use similarity-detection software during editorial screening. A similarity score alone does not determine plagiarism; editorial assessment considers nature, extent, location, attribution and context. Self-plagiarism or inappropriate reuse of an author’s previously published material must also be avoided; reused material must be cited and disclosed.
Data, images and the research record
JPBS has no tolerance for deliberate fabrication or falsification of research data. Fabrication is the invention of data, experiments, observations, participants, results or other research information. Falsification includes manipulating, altering, selectively omitting or misrepresenting data, procedures, results or images so as to produce a false or misleading record. Authors must retain original research records and should be able to provide them on reasonable request.
Images and figures must accurately reflect the underlying data. Processing is acceptable when it is appropriate to the scientific purpose, applied consistently, and does not obscure, remove, introduce or misrepresent information. Unacceptable practices include selective alteration to support a desired conclusion; removal or addition of relevant features; manipulation of bands, cells or experimental groups; duplication or inappropriate reuse of images; undisclosed splicing; and brightness, contrast or colour changes that alter interpretation.
Research involving humans
Research involving human participants, human tissues, human-derived materials or identifiable human data must comply with applicable ethical and regulatory requirements. Where required, approval from an appropriate research ethics committee or institutional review board must be obtained before the research begins. The manuscript should state the name of the approving committee, the approval or reference number, and confirmation that applicable ethical standards were followed. Research involving human participants should follow the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki where applicable.
Authors must protect participants’ privacy. Informed consent must be obtained when required by the nature of the research. Written consent for publication is required when manuscripts contain identifiable information, clinical details, photographs, videos or other material that could reasonably identify an individual. For minors or persons unable to consent, consent from a parent, legal guardian or authorised representative is required. Names, initials, hospital numbers and other unnecessary personal identifiers must not be disclosed.
Animals, plants and biological materials
Research involving animals must comply with applicable institutional, national and international requirements. Authors should follow the principles of Replacement, Reduction and Refinement (the 3Rs) and report the ethics or animal-care committee, the approval or protocol number where applicable, and relevant information on animal welfare and experimental procedures. JPBS encourages use of the ARRIVE guidelines for reporting animal research.
Research involving plants, particularly rare, protected or endangered species, must comply with applicable regulations on collection, access, conservation and use of biological resources. Authors should provide scientific identification, source and geographical origin where relevant, collection date and voucher-specimen information when appropriate, and evidence of collection permits where required.
Authors using established cell lines should provide source, authentication where appropriate, and relevant references, and should take reasonable measures against known contamination or misidentification. Newly established human-derived cell lines or biological materials require appropriate ethical approval and informed consent information.
Clinical trials, sex and gender, funding and conflicts
Clinical trials involving prospective assignment of human participants to interventions should be registered in an appropriate publicly accessible registry. The registration number should be included in the manuscript where applicable. Authors are encouraged to follow CONSORT for randomised trials and relevant EQUATOR Network guidelines for other designs.
When relevant to the research question, authors should consider sex and gender in study design, analysis, interpretation and reporting, and are encouraged to follow the SAGER guidelines. If sex or gender was not considered where it may reasonably affect the findings, a scientific justification should be given.
All sources of financial support must be disclosed, including the organisation, grant or project number, and the funder’s role in design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation or the decision to submit. If the funder was not involved, that should be stated.
Authors, editors and reviewers must disclose financial and non-financial interests that could reasonably be perceived as affecting their judgement, including employment, consultancy, funding, honoraria, patents, royalties, equity, personal or professional relationships, and academic competition. A conflict does not necessarily prevent publication or review, but it must be disclosed and managed.
Citation ethics and artificial intelligence
Citations must be selected for scientific relevance, not to manipulate metrics. Unacceptable practices include excessive self-citation without scholarly justification, coordinated citation manipulation, requiring authors to cite irrelevant articles, editors or reviewers requiring citations to their own work solely to increase counts, and adding journal self-citations to inflate metrics. Authors may cite their own work when it is genuinely relevant.
AI-assisted tools may support manuscript preparation, but AI tools cannot be listed as authors. Authors remain fully responsible for accuracy, originality, verification of references and claims, disclosure of substantial AI-assisted content, and compliance with copyright and publication ethics. AI must not be used to fabricate data, generate false references, manipulate results or misrepresent evidence. Authors should not upload confidential manuscript material, unpublished data, proprietary information or peer-review documents to external AI systems if doing so could compromise confidentiality or intellectual property.
Editors, reviewers and confidentiality
Editors are responsible for a fair, rigorous, confidential and ethical editorial process: evaluating manuscripts on scientific merit; ensuring appropriate peer review; managing conflicts; maintaining confidentiality; addressing credible allegations of misconduct; protecting the published record; and correcting or retracting work when necessary. The Editor-in-Chief and delegated editors make editorial decisions on scholarly and ethical grounds.
Reviewers must evaluate manuscripts objectively, maintain confidentiality, declare conflicts, decline when they cannot be impartial, identify serious ethical or methodological concerns, avoid personal criticism, and must not request irrelevant citations or use unpublished information for personal or professional advantage. If a reviewer wishes to involve another person, they should first seek permission from the Editorial Office.
Because submitted manuscripts may contain confidential, unpublished or proprietary information, editors and reviewers should not upload manuscript content to publicly accessible or third-party generative AI systems unless the journal has explicitly authorised such use and confidentiality safeguards are in place. AI tools must not replace independent scholarly judgement.
Misconduct, complaints and the published record
Serious ethical concerns include plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, image or data manipulation, duplicate or redundant publication, simultaneous submission, inappropriate authorship, undisclosed conflicts, peer-review manipulation, citation manipulation, unethical research involving humans or animals, misrepresentation of findings, and unauthorised use of confidential information.
Concerns may be submitted to the Editorial Office with sufficient information and supporting evidence. Complaints are handled as confidentially as reasonably possible. Depending on the outcome, the journal may request clarification, publish a correction or expression of concern, reject a manuscript, retract an article, or refer the matter to the relevant institution.
Errors after publication are assessed according to their nature and significance. A correction or erratum is used for errors that do not invalidate the main conclusions; a corrigendum where an author-related correction is required; an expression of concern where substantial concerns exist but investigation is incomplete; and retraction when reliability or integrity is seriously compromised. Retracted articles remain part of the scholarly record but are clearly marked. Once an article is published, it cannot ordinarily be treated as a simple withdrawal; post-publication concerns are addressed through correction, expression of concern or retraction.
Authors may request withdrawal of a manuscript before publication by written request from the corresponding author. Withdrawing after substantial editorial processing or after acceptance may require an explanation.
Commitment to publication integrity
The credibility of pharmaceutical and biomedical research depends on scientific quality, research integrity, transparency, ethical conduct and responsible publication practices. JPBS expects every author, reviewer, editor and member of the journal team to help maintain a trustworthy scientific record. When ethical concerns arise, the journal will assess them carefully, give relevant parties an opportunity to respond where appropriate, and take proportionate action consistent with recognised publication-ethics principles.