D&R is committed to meeting international ethical standards at all stages of the publication process. In accordance with the principles set forth by COPE, the World Association of Medical Editors, and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, we have formulated the key editorial policies (see Editorial Policies) and publication ethics that all authors, editors, and reviewers should strictly adhere to.
1. Responsibilities of Authors
1.1 Authors should ensure the originality of their manuscripts, and research results of others used in the manuscript should be indicated and cited as appropriate. Academic misconduct including plagiarism, fabricated data, multiple submission, and redundant publishing are strictly forbidden and confidential information should be avoided.
1.2 All signed authors should meet the authorship criteria of D&R. All authors must have made substantial contributions to the work related to the research or manuscript, such as conception and design of the study, acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation of data, drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content.
1.3 Authors should carefully consider the author list and order of authors before submitting manuscript and to provide the final list at the time of initial submission.
1.4 Authors should declare their individual contributions and disclose any conflicts of interest related to the research.
1.5 Authors should state the funding information related to the research in the manuscript, but not other funding information unrelated to the research.
2. Responsibility of Editors
The following responsibilities of editors are also applicable to all Editorial Board Members and Guest Editors.
2.1 Editors should handle all submitted manuscripts equally and objectively. Any decision to accept or reject a manuscript should be made on the basis of its research scope, novelty, and academic merit.
2.2 Editors should strictly follow the review process of the journal and keep an authentic review record. In addition, editors are obliged to maintain the confidentiality of authors' and reviewers' personal information, research results in manuscripts, and additional materials in the review process.
2.3 Editors are responsible for avoiding any academic misconduct, including multiple submissions and redundant publications, and conduct test on all submitted manuscripts for repetition rate as required by the editorial office.
2.4 Editors should provide authors with detailed revision comments or specified reasons for rejection. Review comments should be forwarded to authors in an objective manner without verbal attacks or judgments on reviewers or authors.
2.5 In the process of publishing, editors should follow publishing standards and respect authors' opinions and writing styles. Authors' permission should be obtained to revise critical information, such as scientific opinions.
3. Responsibilities of Reviewers
3.1 Reviewers should make an honest, objective, and impartial evaluation on all submitted manuscripts so as to uphold academic integrity and respect academic freedom. In addition, reviewers shall not discriminate against authors on the basis of nationality, institution, ethnicity, religious beliefs, political beliefs, gender, etc., and shall not divulge any research details in the manuscripts.
3.2 Reviewers must declare all conflicts of interest with the authors. In general, reviewers are not allowed to review manuscripts with conflicts of interest with their own research.
3.3 Reviewers are not allowed to review manuscripts that are similar to their own ongoing work.
3.4 In order to give authors quick feedback, reviewers are expected to respond and submit review reports in a timely manner. If a reviewer needs to extend the review time or does not have enough time or energy to review the manuscript, the reviewer should notify the editor in advance.
3.5 Reviewers have the right to recommend other reviewers to the editorial office. However, reviewers should not entrust their review work to their students, colleagues, or anyone else without the permission of the editorial office.
For more guidelines for reviewers, please see the Peer Review Guidelines.
