Publication Ethics

Publication Ethics

Outbreak, Surveillance, Investigation & Response (OSIR) Journal places great importance on research and publication ethics and considers this issue a priority when evaluating manuscripts for publication. The publication ethics of OSIR are based on the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) for the conduct, reporting, editing, and publication of scholarly work in medical journals.

Regarding human and animal rights, research involving human participants, human material, or human data must have been conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration and approved by an appropriate ethics committee (if applicable). Similarly, research on animals requires Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees (IACUC) to review and approve the manuscript, and all manuscripts reporting such research must include a statement detailing this, including the name of the ethics committee and, if applicable, a reference number. If a study is exempt from requiring ethics approval, this should be noted in the manuscript (including the name of the ethics committee that granted the exemption). The Editor reserves the right to request additional information and documentation to support this, and to reject manuscripts that were not conducted within an appropriate ethical framework.

When submitting a manuscript to the OSIR journal, it is understood that all authors have read and agreed to its content and that the manuscript complies with the journal's policies.

Author(s)

The submitted manuscript must be an article that has not been previously submitted or published in any peer-reviewed journals in any language. Each co-author of the manuscript must have given their consent for publication. The text should comply with the stylistic and bibliographic requirements as specified in the OSIR Guideline.

Authorship

OSIR journal attribution policy follows guidance from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). All authors listed in the manuscript should have made significant contributions to the conception, design, acquisition, analysis, or interpretation, and drafted or revised the manuscript. If authors used the artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted technologies (i.e., chatbots, or image creators) in the manuscript, authors should state it in the manuscript and the comments for the Editor. Chatbots (i.e., ChatGPT) or other artificial intelligence technologies should not be listed as authors because they cannot be responsible for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of the manuscript.

Plagiarism

Author(s) must avoid presenting the work of others (data, words, or theories) as their own without proper acknowledgment. If plagiarism is detected during the reviewing process, all subsequent processes will be halted immediately.

Accuracy

Authors should commit to reporting accurately and based on evidence found in the study.

Conflict of Interest

Authors must disclose potential conflicts of interest when submitting an article. Potential conflicts could include employment, consultancy, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications or registrations, and grants or other funding. 

Acknowledgments

The author(s) must acknowledge any information and results from previous publications in the references. Persons who provided support to the manuscript, apart from the authorship criteria, should be acknowledged in the appropriate section.

Misconduct

Data fabrication, falsification, citation manipulation, multiple, duplicate, concurrent or simultaneous submissions to other journals will not be tolerated. Manuscript withdrawal from the OSIR following one of the stated actions is condemned and further articles from the authors will not be accepted.

Consent for publication

If the manuscripts contain details, images, or videos about a specific person, the author must obtain written informed consent from that person (or legal guardian) before submission. The manuscript must include a statement stating that written informed consent for publication was obtained. 

If author(s) use figures, or tables from others in their article they should ask for permission from the sources to prevent potential copyright infringement. If legal action related to such copyright infringement occurs, the responsibility solely lies with the author(s).

Reviewer(s)

  • The review should be based on the quality of the manuscript, which is based primarily on scientific rationale and judgment and free of bias and personal opinions. The decision to accept or reject a manuscript should be unbiased with regard to nationality, religious or political belief, gender, or any other characteristics of the authors, manuscript origins or commercial considerations. 

  • Reviewers shall possess necessary skills and expertise in the field related to the article under review and comments should be professional, objective, and constructive to help authors improve the manuscript. Reviewers can use the OSIR reviewer checklist as a guide.

  • Reviewers should respect the confidentiality of the peer-review process and the information in the manuscript until it is published and not for personal gain.

  • If a reviewer has identified that any parts of the article under review are similar to or an exact duplicate of another publication, they should promptly notify the editor.

  • Reviewers are required to disclose any potential competing or conflicting interests that may influence their assessment of scientific papers or articles, whether they are personal, intellectual, professional, political, or religious in nature. If reviewers suspect the identity of the author(s), they should notify the journal to assess the potential for competing or conflicting interests.

  • Reviewers must not derive any personal benefit from the papers they have reviewed, nor should they claim ownership of any of the content, either in part or in full. 

Editor(s)

  • Editors are responsible for maintaining the OSIR Journal's high-quality standards and guaranteeing ongoing improvement of the journal.      

  • Editors of the OSIR Journal are expected to evaluate submitted manuscripts for scientific importance, originality, validity, interest to readers, and relevance to the journal's scope. Decisions to accept or reject a manuscript should not be based solely on language or formatting issues and should not be influenced by factors such as the authors' race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy.

  • Editors must not have any vested interest or conflict of interest concerning the authors or the reviewers, nor derive any commercial benefit from published articles.

  • In the case plagiarized content is detected, the article review process shall be immediately suspended and the author(s) shall be promptly contacted for clarification.

  • Editors should respect the confidentiality of the peer-review process and the information in the manuscript until it is published.

  • Editors shall not make any changes or alterations to the review results provided by the reviewers. 

  • Editors are allowed to submit articles for publication in the OSIR journal. However, to maintain transparency and objectivity in the peer review process, the editors are not allowed to be involved in the peer review process of their own articles. Articles authored by editors are subject to the same peer review process as any other article submitted to the journal.