Publication Ethics

The journal follows the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Authors

• The work must be original and not published or under review elsewhere.
• All co-authors must have contributed to the work and approved the final text.
• Sources of data and funding must be disclosed.
• Plagiarism, fabrication and duplicate publication are grounds for rejection or retraction.

Reviewers

• Reviews must be objective and evidence-based.
• Manuscripts are confidential and must not be used for personal advantage.
• A conflict of interest must be declared and the review declined.

Editors

• Decisions rest on the scientific merit of the work alone.
• The editorial board does not disclose information about a manuscript to anyone other than the author, reviewers and the publisher.
• Corrections and retractions are published openly.