Duties of Authors

Duties of Authors

Reporting standards

Authors of original research should present an accurate account of the work conducted and the results, accompanied by an objective discussion of the significance of the work. Sufficient detail and references should be contained in the manuscript to permit others to replicate the work. Review articles should be accurate, objective and comprehensive, while editorial 'opinion' or perspective pieces should be clearly identified as such. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behaviour and are unacceptable.

Data access and retention

Authors may be asked to provide the raw data of their study together with the manuscript for editorial review and should be prepared to make the data publicly available if practicable. Authors should ensure access to such data to other researchers for at least 10 years after publication (preferably via an institutional or subject-based data repository or other data centre), making sure that the participants’ confidentiality can be protected and legal rights concerning proprietary data do not prevent their release.

Originality and plagiarism

Only entirely original works can be submitted. If authors have used the work and/or words of others, this has to be cited appropriately, along with publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the work reported in the manuscript. Presenting another's paper as the author's own, copying or paraphrasing substantial parts of another's paper (without attribution), claiming results from research conducted by others are all considered to be forms of plagiarism, which constitutes unethical publishing behaviour and is unacceptable.

Multiple, duplicate, redundant or concurrent submission/publication

Papers describing essentially the same research should not be published in more than one journal or primary publication. Therefore, a manuscript that has already been published in another journal should not be submitted for consideration. Submission of a manuscript simultaneously to more than one journal is unethical publishing behaviour and unacceptable.

The publication of some kinds of articles (such as clinical guidelines, translations) in more than one journal is sometimes justifiable, provided that certain conditions are met. The authors and editors of the journals concerned must agree to the secondary publication, which must reflect the same data and interpretation of the primary document. The primary reference must be cited in the secondary publication.

Authorship of the manuscript

Only persons who meet the following authorship criteria should be listed as authors in the manuscript as they must be able to take public responsibility for the content: (i) made significant contributions to the conception, design, execution, data acquisition, or analysis/interpretation of the study; and (ii) drafted the manuscript or revised it critically for important intellectual content; and (iii) approved the final version of the paper and agreed to its submission for publication. All persons who made substantial contributions to the work reported in the manuscript (such as technical help, writing and editing assistance, general support) but who do not meet the criteria for authorship must not be listed as an author, but should be acknowledged in the "Acknowledgements" section, provided their written permission to be named has been obtained. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate coauthors (according to the above definition) and no inappropriate coauthors are included in the author list and verify that all coauthors have seen and approved the final version of the manuscript and agreed to its submission for publication.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest

Authors should disclose any conflicts of interest that might be construed to influence the results or their interpretation in the manuscript by submitting a disclosure form at the time of submission and including a statement in the manuscript. Examples of potential conflicts of interest that should be disclosed include financial ones such as honoraria, educational grants or other funding, participation in speakers’ bureaus, membership, employment, consultancies, stock ownership, or other equity interest, and paid expert testimony or patent-licensing arrangements, as well as non-financial ones such as personal or professional relationships, affiliations, knowledge or beliefs in the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. All sources of financial support for the work should be disclosed (including the grant number or other reference number if any).

Acknowledgement of sources

Authors should ensure that they have properly acknowledged the work of others and cited publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work. Information obtained privately (from conversation, correspondence or discussion with others) can be used or reported only with explicit written permission from the source. Authors should not use information obtained in the course of providing confidential services, such as refereeing manuscripts or grant applications, unless they have obtained the explicit written permission of the author(s) of the work involved in these services.

Hazards and human or animal subjects

If the work involves procedures or equipment that have any unusual hazards inherent in their use, the authors must clearly identify these in the manuscript. If the work involves the use of animals or human participants, the authors should ensure that all procedures were performed in compliance with relevant laws and institutional guidelines and that the appropriate institutional committee(s) has approved them; the manuscript should contain a statement to this effect. A statement that informed consent was obtained for experimentation with human participants should also be included in the manuscript. The privacy rights of human participants must always be observed.

Peer review

Authors are obliged to participate in the peer review process and cooperate fully by responding in a timely manner to editors’ requests for raw data, clarifications, and proof of ethics approval and copyright permissions. In the case the first decision is in the form of "revisions necessary", authors should promptly respond to the reviewers’ comments systematically and point by point, revising and re-submitting their manuscript to the journal by the deadline given.

Fundamental errors in published works

In case authors discover important errors or inaccuracies in their own published work, it is their obligation to promptly notify the journal’s editors or publisher and cooperate with them to either correct the paper in the form of an erratum or to retract the paper. If the editors or publisher learns from a third party that a published work contains an important error or inaccuracy, then it is the authors’ obligation to correct or retract the paper or provide evidence to the journal editors of the correctness of the paper in a timely manner. For guidelines on retracting or correcting articles, please click here: https://philologiamediana.com/index.php/phm/article_withdrawal.