Innovations Journals adheres to the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE, https://www.icmje.org/) and the Committee for Publication Ethics (COPE, https://publicationethics.org/) to ensure best practices and ethical standards in the conduct and reporting of research and published material. The Journal of Immunotherapy and Precision Oncology is an official member of COPE.

Complaints and Appeals

Innovations Journals is dedicated to upholding the integrity of the scientific record. As such, the editorial team follows the appropriate guidance from COPE and ICMJE for handling complaints and appeals, which may include publishing a formal correction notice, retraction, or other expressions of concern. Post-publication discussions should be initiated via email to the editorial office at the address above.

Misconduct

The Editorial Team screens all manuscript submissions for potential concerns including plagiarism, citation manipulation, data falsification/fabrication, duplicate submission of a manuscript to multiple journals, and other forms of author misconduct. Ithenticate software is used to screen for plagiarism. Authors are required to confirm: (a) the manuscript is not under consideration for publication elsewhere; (b) no portions of the manuscript have been published before or posted on a preprint server; (c) the manuscript does not infringe on the rights of any third parties; (d) the manuscript does not contain any falsified or fabricated material; (e) the manuscript does not include any artificial intelligence (AI)-generated ideas; (f) raw data, samples, and other supplemental material will be provided if requested by the editors or reviewers; (g) the study was done according to regulations for ethical research; and (h) all sources of support and potential conflicts of interest are disclosed in the manuscript.

If concerns are identified at any point in the process, even after an article has been published, the editorial team follows applicable COPE guidelines to address the concerns with the authors and any others who may be involved. Consequences of misconduct may include but are not limited to rejection or retraction of a manuscript.

Ethical Clearance

The Journal will not consider publication of a study that is ethically unacceptable. Studies involving humans or animals must include an appropriate statement in the beginning of the method section regarding ethical research requirements, e.g., ethical committee oversight and informed consent. If the study was exempt from ethical oversight for any reason, the authors must state this in the manuscript.

Protection of Research Participants

Identifying information should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, sonograms, CT scans, etc., and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian, wherever applicable) gives informed consent for publication. Authors should remove patients' names from figures unless they have obtained informed consent from the patients.

Authors may also refer to ICMJE guidance at http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/protection-of-research-participants.html.

Clinical Trial Data

Reports of clinical trials and substudies of trials must follow ICMJE guidelines in terms of registration and data sharing. For example, clinical trials must be prospectively registered in a publicly accessible database, the trial registry identification number must be included in the abstract and main text of the manuscript, and authors must state if de-identified participant data are available for sharing.

For additional guidance, authors may refer to the ICMJE guidelines on clinical trial registration and data sharing statements.

Use of Third-Party Material

It is the responsibility of authors/contributors to obtain permissions for reproducing any copyrighted material. Third-party material includes tables, figures, or images that have been (a) published previously or (b) provided by someone who is not an author. Authors must identify copyrighted material with an appropriate attribution to the original source and documentation of permission to reprint and/or modify the material. Sufficient documentation of permission must be provided before the article can be published. If permission is not received, the copyrighted material will be removed from the manuscript.

AUTHORSHIP POLICY

Authors are encouraged to link their account to an existing orcid.org profile. Authors who do not have an orcid profile can create one for free at https://orcid.org.

All authors are required to independently verify their authorship according to ICMJE criteria at the time of submission. A questionnaire will be sent to all authors/coauthors via the manuscript submission portal. The criteria for full authorship are as follows:

1. Substantial contribution to the conception/design of the study OR the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; AND

2. Participate in drafting the manuscript OR critically reviewing the scientific content; AND

3. Read and approve the final version of the manuscript including the title page and all supporting data; AND

4. Agree to be accountable for the manuscript as a representation of accurate and honest work.

Contributors who do not meet the criteria for full authorship should be acknowledged within the manuscript but not listed as authors (see below, “Acknowledgements”).

The ICMJE guidelines on authorship are available at https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html

All authors will receive a copy of the decision letter(s) from the editorial team.

Upon acceptance, the corresponding author is required to sign the contributor agreement on behalf of all coauthors before the manuscript can be published (see license and copyright section below for details).

Acknowledgements

Contributors who meet fewer than all 4 of the above criteria for authorship should not be listed as authors, but they should be acknowledged. Examples of activities that alone (without other contributions) do not qualify a contributor for authorship are acquisition of funding; general supervision of a research group or general administrative support; and writing assistance, technical editing, language editing, and proofreading.

NOTE: The use of artificial intelligence (AI)-based technology for content creation, including text and images, does not qualify for authorship; however, authors are required to report the use of such technology in the manuscript. This should be mentioned in the acknowledgment section and, if appropriate, the methods section. Authors should describe the content that was created by the tool, the name of the tool, developer or manufacturer, and version number. AI-based technology does not include standard editing tools for spelling, grammar, and references.

Corresponding Author Role

One author should be designated as the corresponding author, who will serve as the primary contact on behalf of all authors while the manuscript is under review and throughout the production process if the manuscript is accepted for publication. To ensure that all administrative requirements are properly completed, the corresponding author should be available throughout the submission and peer review process to respond to editorial queries in a timely way and should be available after publication to respond to critiques of the work and cooperate with any requests from the Journal for data or additional information should questions about the paper arise after publication.

The corresponding author should have an orcid.org profile linked to their account in the peer review site.

All correspondence about the manuscript is sent via email from [email protected].

Changes in Authorship

To avoid author disputes, Innovations Journals follows a strict process for handling authorship changes prior to acceptance or during proof corrections. Authorship changes are not possible after an article is published. To request a change in the author order or for removal or addition of authors, an explanation must be submitted to the editorial office as an error is noticed. All authors must provide written approval for the change before it can be finalized.

DISCLOSURE POLICY

All authors must disclose any and all conflicts of interest they may have with publication of the manuscript or an institution or product that is mentioned in the manuscript and/or is important to the outcome of the study presented. Authors should also disclose conflict of interests with products that compete with those mentioned in their manuscript.

All sources of study-related funding must be disclosed along with role of the funder or sponsor in the study (i.e., study design, data analysis, manuscript writing, and any other aspect of the study).

Authors should confirm if the funder(s) require any specific wording to be included in the published manuscript, usually as a disclaimer.

For additional guidance and a standard disclosure form, please go to the ICMJE Recommendations: https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/author-responsibilities--conflicts-of-interest.html

MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION & REVIEW POLICY

All manuscripts must be prepared according to journal instructions and submitted electronically for consideration of publication. You will find the link to the submission website from the “Instructions for Authors” page for the chosen journal.

Article Publication Charges (APCs)

To offset the costs of open access publication, manuscripts accepted for publication are subject to an article publication charge (APC) of $1800-$2400 USD. The APC amount varies by journal. The fees are specified in each journal’s author instructions.

Reduced APCs are available to authors in low- and middle-income countries as defined by Research4Life, which uses World Bank figures, WHO data, and other criteria. The corresponding authors' affiliation is used to determine eligibility. APCs are reduced by 40% for authors in Group A and 30% for authors in Group B. All other authors are required to pay the full APC upon acceptance.

Prior to submitting a manuscript, authors who are eligible for a discount must obtain a unique code from the editorial office. The code must be provided on the manuscript submission form for verification. Eligibility for a reduced APC shall not influence the Editor’s decision to accept the manuscript.

APCs must be paid in full within 7 days of acceptance of the manuscript. An invoice will be sent to the corresponding author, with a link to pay online via a secure portal.

Article production is contingent on payment of the APC in full.

Technical Check

Upon submission, all manuscripts are screened for quality, structure, and plagiarism as part of the technical check process. Manuscripts may be immediately returned or rejected without further consideration for the following reasons:

· Topic outside scope of journal

· Incorrect article type

· Incorrect format or structure

· Lack of ethical clearance/consent statement

· Extensive language or typographical errors

· Concerns about plagiarism, duplicate publication, or authorship

Peer Review

Following completion of the technical check, all manuscripts are assigned to an editor for handling. All submissions of new research and review articles are evaluated by at least two reviewers with subject matter expertise. To avoid any potential for bias towards the authors, manuscripts are reviewed in a double-blind fashion, wherein the reviewer and authors are unaware of each other’s identity. Non-research submissions (i.e., editorial content) are reviewed internally by the editors.

During submission, the submitting author may provide names of two qualified reviewers who have experience in the subject and are not affiliated with the same institutes as the authors. The selection of these reviewers is at the discretion of the editor.

The reviewers evaluate the manuscript on the basis of scientific merit/validity, novelty/originality, and timeliness/priority. Reviewers provide feedback on the objectives, study design, analysis, adherence to standard reporting guidelines, discussion, conclusions, and overall quality and clarity of the manuscript. After the review process is complete, the Editor(s) decide how to proceed based on the reviewers’ feedback, which is shared with the authors in the decision letter.

Reviewers are required to disclose if they used any AI-based technologies to conduct their review. For confidentiality and copyright reasons, reviewers are not permitted to upload a copy of the article to any external sites.

If a revision is invited, the author must respond to the reviewers’ feedback and revise the manuscript accordingly. The revised manuscript may be sent back to the original reviewers, who will determine if the response and revisions are satisfactory, noting any new or residual concerns. The Editor will make the final decision based on the reviewers’ feedback. This process may be repeated until the manuscript is accepted for publication. If the authors are unable to adequately address the concerns, then the revised manuscript may be rejected.

All invited contributions are also subjected to the usual double-blind peer review process.

Guest Editors

All contributions from Editors and those from the Editors' institutions are assigned to a Guest Editor to avoid a conflict of interest, then the paper is subjected to the same double-blind peer review process as described above. The Editor is blinded from viewing the manuscript in his/her Editor profile; the manuscript can only be seen from the Author profile.

A Guest Editor may also be assigned for manuscripts about special topics or issues outside the expertise of the editorial team.

The Editor in Chief nominates a Guest Editor based on their area of interest and expertise. Preference is given to members of the Editorial Board , but an external Guest Editor may be invited in special situations to avoid potential conflicts of interest or to provide expertise on topics outside the expertise of the current Editorial Board.

Guest Editors follow the same policies and processes as regular journal Editors, with guidance and oversight by the Editorial Office.

Editorial Fellows

For journals that have editorial fellows, these trainees assist with peer reviewing manuscripts under supervision of the Editor in Chief, who provides ongoing feedback to the Fellow as part of the learning process. Junior physicians who have completed a residency program and post-graduate researchers are eligible to serve as editorial fellows. In addition to learning best practices for peer review, editorial fellows are trained in publishing ethics, manuscript writing, and research promotion.

Student-Led Research

Students may submit manuscripts to be considered for publication; however, these manuscripts are subject to an extended review process beyond the standard peer review process. A detailed checklist is provided to the student, editors, and reviewers to ensure a rigorous learning and review process. If accepted, students are required to submit a video summary of their project.

PRODUCTION & PUBLICATION PROCESS

After the article is accepted, the corresponding author must pay the required APC within 7 days to start the production process and sign the contributor agreement to approve the publication

Contributor Agreement

Upon acceptance of an article, the corresponding author must sign a contributor agreement to grant exclusive publishing rights for the accepted manuscript to Innovations Journals / Innovative Healthcare Institute (IHCI). A blank copy of the contributor agreement may be requested by contacting the editorial office.

The authors retain partial copyrights. The work will be simultaneously licensed under a standard Creative Commons Non-Commercial, No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). This license permits sharing the article with an appropriate citation for non-commercial purposes; modifying the content and commercial reuse are not permitted.

If desired, authors may upgrade to a CC-BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) for a flat fee of $400. Under this license, anyone may reuse or adapt the material, including commercial reuse, as long as appropriate credit is given. This option can be selected when signing the contributor agreement and payment must be received before the article is published.

The Journal permits authors to self-archive final accepted version (unedited, not typeset version) of their articles on any OAI-compliant institutional/subject-based repository to satisfy any funder / sponsor requirements.

License/Copyright Exceptions

Authors who are college and university faculty or work for corporations should determine whether the author or institutions owns copyright for “work for hire”. If the institution owns copyright, a representative must sign the agreement in addition to the authors.
If the Contribution was prepared as part of the Contributor’s official duties under a government contract or grant for the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, or Australia, then this work is within the public domain and no copyrights may be owned by the author or publisher. The respective government may reproduce, without charge, all portions of the article, and may authorize others to do so for official government purposes. Copyright assignment applies only to the extent allowable by law.

Production

The production process includes assigning a DOI to the article, copyediting the word document, and typesetting the pdf document. The edited article is sent to the corresponding author via email. The corresponding author should return the corrected article within 5 business days. The final approved version is published online as soon as possible. Supplemental material, if included, is posted as-is alongside the article. The corresponding author will be notified when the article is published. Article metrics are available by viewing the article online.

Post-publication corrections may be subject to a $500 fee.

Indexing

Immediately upon publication, the article DOI and all accompanying metadata (title, author info, abstract, references) are deposited to Crossref. Articles are deposited in additional indexes, such as Directory of Open Access Journals, PubMed Central, Scopus, and/or Embase, in accordance with the indexer’s requirements. Please note that indexing varies by journal and by index, and some Innovations Journals are not included in all indexes.

Archiving

Innovations Journals content is archived using CLOCKSS. In case a journal website experiences a major outage or the journal closes, a back-up copy of every article is archived by CLOCKSS.

JOURNAL ACCESS & SUBSCRIPTION

All Innovations Journals titles are fully open access, meaning the content is freely available to all. Authors can register for an account by visiting the journal’s website and manuscript submission site. To receive email alerts for new content, please register for e-alerts on the respective journal website. To receive a quarterly email newsletter with the latest articles, please click the subscribe button on the journal's homepage.

ADVERTISING

Innovations Journals offers a variety of advertising options including digital banner ads, press releases, and sponsored videos. Digital banner ads will rotate sequentially each time someone visits the website (these are not linked to content or reader behavior). All advertisements are subject to the Editor in Chief's approval. The advertiser and/or advertising agency assume liability for all contents of advertising and any claims against the publisher as the result of the advertisement.

PERMISSION REQUESTS

Permission is required to reuse or modify material published in the Innovations Journals under the CC BY-NC-ND license.

Permission is also required for commercial reuse of the material. In general, commercial use is "primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or monetary compensation." Read more at https://creativecommons.org/faq/#does-my-use-violate-the-noncommercial-clause-of-the-licenses.

All permission requests should be directed to the editorial office: [email protected].

For non-commercial reuse - Permission is not required to reuse material published in the Innovations Journals under the CC BY-NC-ND license; however, an appropriate citation to the original source must be included. Permission is required to modify the material published in Innovations Journals.

For content published under a CC-BY license - Permission is not required to reuse or modify the final publication, but an appropriate citation to the original source must be included.

Last updated: January 14, 2024

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PUBLICATION ETHICS POLICY