Ethics statement

• Where applicable, Veterinary Integrative Sciences requires that authors provide an Ethics statement which details the relevant ethical standards that were met when conducting the research.
• Ethics statements are required whenever research is conducted on animals or animal tissue; or whenever the approval of an institutional review board was required.
• In addition to providing an Ethics statement upon submission (for review purposes), this same statement should also be provided in the “Materials and Methods” section of the manuscript, detailing full information regarding the approval (including the name of the granting organization, and the approval reference number). If an approval reference number is not provided, written approval must be provided in the form of a confidential supplemental file.
• For research conducted on non-regulated animals, a statement should be made as to why ethical approval was not required.

Human Rights and Informed Consent

All individuals have rights that are not to be infringed upon. Individual participants in research studies have the right to decide how their personal identifiable information is used, as well as any interview materials or photographs. Identifying details such as personal names, dates of birth, biometrical characteristics (facial features, fingerprint, writing style, DNA or another distinguishing characteristic), geolocation information, and health status of research subjects should not be used without express permission by the subject in writing. Under some circumstances, consent is not required if information is anonymized and the submission does not include images that can identify any individual. However, masking of the eye region in photographs of participants is inadequate protection of anonymity. Exceptions to the need for consent may include anonymized radiographic images, ultrasound images, or pathology slides.  

 

Consent and already available data and/or biologic material

Regardless of whether material is collected from living or dead subjects, written permission must be obtained from either the subject, or the family or guardian of the subject if written pre-mortem consent has not been provided.

 

Data protection, confidentiality and privacy

When biological material is donated or data are generated as part of a research project, authors should ensure, as part of the informed consent procedure, that the participants are made fully aware of what kind of information will be used, how it will be used, and for what purpose it will be used. In case of data acquired via a biobank/biorepository, a blanket consent whereby research participants consent to a broad range of uses of their data and samples, and where the research is evaluated by a human ethics committee may be considered “informed”. It is the author’s responsibility to check the specific biobank/biorepository policies or other types of data provider policies (in case of non-bio research) verify compliance with informed consent.

 

Consent to participate

For all research involving human subjects, freely-given, informed consent to participate in the study must be obtained from participants (or their parent or legal guardian in the case of children under 18) and a statement to this effect should appear in any published paper. In the case of articles describing human transplantation studies, authors must include a statement declaring that no organs or tissues were obtained from prisoners and must also name the institution(s)/clinic(s)/department(s) via which organs or tissues were obtained.

 

Consent to publish

Individuals may consent to participate in a study, but object to having their data published in a journal article. Authors should make sure to also seek consent from individuals to publish their data prior to submitting their paper to a journal.

 

Summary of requirements

The above should be summarized in a statement and included in an appropriate section of a publication where data or information is used.

 

Copyright permissions

When an author publishes an article in Veterinary Integrative Sciences with open access, they retain the copyright. The article shall be made publicly accessible through the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC-BY 4.0), to which users are entitled for reading, copying, distributing and making derivative works from material provided that the authors of the original work have been cited. As an author publishing in Veterinary Integrative Sciences, you must consent to granting permission for others to use all or part of your articles for free, including for commercial purposes.

Authors are allowed to self-archive their papers in institutional repositories, among other permitted uses. As long as the author and original source are properly credited, anyone can copy, redistribute, reuse, or modify the content. This not only simplifies the process of reusing the material, but also ensures that the content of veterinary integrative science can be used freely for research purposes without any obstacles.

If your manuscript includes materials like images, videos, audio files, tables, proprietary protocols, code, or clipart that you and your co-authors did not create or own, you will need to provide proof that the material is either in the public domain or made available through Open Access licenses that align with CC-BY 4.0. Alternatively, you must show that you have received written permission from the owner of such material to use and publish it under the CC-BY 4.0 open access license.

In the event that you lack permission from the owner, we will request that you either delete the content or substitute it with content that you possess or have authorization to use. It is unwise to assume that any content discovered on the Internet can be used fairly just because its ownership or licensing is uncertain. It is your responsibility to determine if you have the rights to use such content.

If the author cannot provide proof that they have obtained the necessary permissions for publishing confidential or proprietary content under the CC-BY 4.0 license, Veterinary Integrative Sciences retains the right to remove such content from the article, both before and after publication.

 

Plagiarism

Plagiarized content will not be considered for publication. If plagiarism is detected during the peer review process, the manuscript may be rejected. If plagiarism is detected after publication, we may issue a correction or retract the paper, as appropriate. We reserve the right to inform authors' institutions about plagiarism detected either before or after publication.

Veterinary Integrative Sciences uses Turnitin which is supported by Chiang Mai University to screen submitted content for originality. Each journal screens a proportion of submitted manuscripts. We will do a follow-up investigation if the software raises any concerns. Plagiarism is suspected when the percentage of similarity is higher than 25%. In such cases, the Editor-in-Chief will be informed. However, clear indications of plagiarism will result in immediate rejection. We expect that editors and reviewers will be vigilant in their evaluation of journal submissions and will notify the journal about any plagiarism identified.

 

Publication Ethics

Duties of Authors

1. The author must ensure that the submitted paper or work has never been previously published.
2. The author must present accurate and true factual information derived from the research in the submitted paper without any manipulation or false presentation of the information.  
3. If the author uses the work and/or words of other authors or researchers, they must be appropriately cited or quoted.  
4. The author must comply with “Manuscript Preparations Instructions” when preparing the manuscript. 
5. The corresponding author, on behalf of all authors, confirms that all authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript before submission to the journal.
6. Authorship must be limited to those who made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported research or study.  
7. The author must provide the name of the institution or person(s) who provided research grants (If any).  
8. The author must detail vested interest (If any).

Duties of Editors

1. The editors are responsible for assessing the quality of all papers submitted for publication.
2. The editors must not reveal the identity of the author(s) and the reviewers to others during the assessment processes.  
3. The editors must arrive at a decision about which paper is to be published based on its intellectual contents in accordance with the policies of the journal.  
4. The editors must not publish any paper that has been previously published elsewhere.
5. The editors must not reject any paper simply because they have doubts or uncertainties about any part of the submitted paper. They must find concrete evidence to resolve doubts or uncertainties.  
6. The editors must not defend or act in their own interest or the interest of the author(s), reviewers, or administrative board.
7. The editors must ensure that no plagiarism has been committed, using reliable plagiarism detection programs/tools.  
8. In the event plagiarism is discovered, the editors must stop assessing the submitted paper and contact the corresponding author immediately seeking explanation for any part of the paper deemed plagiarized before deciding whether the paper is to be “accepted” or “rejected.”

Duties of the Reviewers

1. The reviewers must keep all the information of the submitted paper confidential and must not reveal any part of the submitted paper to anyone other than those involved in the review processes.
2. After receiving a paper, reviewers may discover that they have a vested interest in the submitted paper in that they are co-authors or know the author(s) personally. In such cases, they should inform the editors of this occurrence and should disqualify themselves from being reviewers.
3. Reviewers should evaluate submitted papers in disciplines in which they specialize, taking into account the intellectual content of the paper, data analysis, and the substantive content of the research article. They must refrain from using their own groundless, personal judgement to evaluate submitted papers.
4. In the evaluation processes, the reviewers must point out potential studies that are significantly related to the submitted paper but that the author has failed to include or mention in his or her submitted paper. The reviewers are encouraged to inform the editors of any similarities between the submitted paper and other papers/studies.  

Publication Decisions

The journal will not accept articles that have been published previously (except in the form of an abstract) or those that are being considered for publication by any other journal.

The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal is meet the aim and scope of the journal. If the article meets the submission criteria of the journal, it will be sent to an academic editor. The academic editor is responsible for deciding which of the articles should be published after considering comments of at least two reviewers.

Retraction Policy-Veterinary Integrative Sciences

A retraction is an official statement issued to alert readers that the findings presented in a published article are no longer considered reliable. Retractions may result from either research misconduct or honest errors that significantly undermine the integrity of the data and conclusions.

Who Can Request a Retraction?

A retraction may be initiated by:

• The authors or co-authors of the article.
• The editorial board, following a complaint or report by readers, academic institutions, the journal’s publisher or owner, or other concerned parties.

In most cases, retractions occur when authors identify substantial errors in their work post-publication. If the editorial office receives a concern from someone other than the authors, an independent investigation will be conducted. A decision to retract will be made based on the outcome of this investigation, and the authors will be notified accordingly.

Grounds for Retraction

Reasons for retraction may include (but are not limited to):

• Duplicate publication of the same data or findings without appropriate citation, permission, or justification.
• Plagiarism.
• Falsified or manipulated data.
• Honest errors (e.g., equipment malfunction, analytical mistakes) that invalidate results.
• Misconduct such as ethical violations, legal infractions, copyright infringement, or misrepresentation of results.
• Unauthorized reuse of previously published images or figures without proper permissions.

Retraction Process and Visibility

• According to COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) guidelines, the original article will not be removed from the journal's website but will remain accessible with a clear “Retracted Article” watermark on each page of the PDF.
• A banner or note will appear when accessing the article online, directing readers to the retraction notice.
• In extremely rare circumstances—such as legal violations, breaches of privacy, or public health risks—the full text of the article may be removed. In such cases, bibliographic information will remain, and the retraction notice will specify why the article was withdrawn.

Contents of a Retraction Notice

Each retraction notice will include the following:

• Date of retraction.
• Reason(s) for the retraction.
• The party initiating the retraction (e.g., authors, editorial board, external party).
• Source of information regarding the concern (identities disclosed only with consent).
• A factual summary of the issue that led to the retraction.

The retraction notice will also be sent to all relevant indexing and abstracting services where the article is listed, ensuring it appears in all searchable platforms linked to the publication.

 

Post-Acceptance Changes to Articles – Veterinary Integrative Sciences

All accepted and published articles in Veterinary Integrative Sciences are subject to editorial policies and review processes. Any changes or additions requested by authors after acceptance must be reviewed and approved by the editor.

Requests for changes fall into two main categories:

• Addition of New Material:
  If authors wish to add new content that is supplementary to the accepted article, this must be submitted as anew manuscript with a clear reference to the original publication. It will undergo the standard peer-review process.
• Correction of Existing Content:
  If the requested change involves correcting content already published, the editor will assess the nature of the correction and determine whether it warrants the publication of anErratum or a Corrigendum.

Erratum
An Erratum is issued when a significant error is introduced by the journal during the production process (e.g., typesetting, layout).
Authors are given the opportunity to review proofs prior to final publication and are expected to report any errors at that stage. If any publisher-introduced errors are discovered post-publication, authors should contact the Journal Manager promptly.

Corrigendum
A Corrigendum is issued when an author identifies an error or wishes to correct information after the article has been accepted or published.
Authors must contact the Editor-in-Chief with a clear explanation of the proposed change. The editorial team will evaluate the request and determine the appropriate course of action. A corrigendum will be published only with the editor’s formal approval.

For all post-publication corrections, please ensure timely communication with the editorial office to uphold the integrity and accuracy of the scientific record.