Publication Ethics

GAR applies publication-ethics procedures to authors, reviewers, editors and the publisher. The purpose is to protect people, animals and the reliability of the scholarly record.

Authors

Authors must report methods and results honestly, retain supporting records, disclose funding and conflicts, obtain required approvals and consent, credit contributors accurately and correct important errors. Fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, duplicate submission, citation manipulation and undisclosed competing interests are unacceptable.

Reviewers

Reviewers must assess work objectively, keep it confidential, disclose conflicts and report suspected ethical problems with evidence. They must not appropriate ideas or data from an unpublished manuscript.

Editors

Editors must make decisions on scope, scientific merit, ethics and evidence; protect confidentiality; manage conflicts; and give authors a fair opportunity to respond to material concerns. Commercial considerations must not determine acceptance.

Publisher

The publisher supports editorial independence, accurate policies, secure records, corrections and investigations. The publisher must not advertise an index, metric, membership or preservation service that has not been verified.

Concerns and investigations

GAR evaluates concerns on their evidence rather than the identity of the complainant. Relevant authors and editors may be asked to respond, and institutions or regulators may be contacted when they are better placed to investigate. Necessary corrections, expressions of concern or retractions remain part of the public record.