Editorial Policies
The Editorial Policy of BCS (EPB) describes guidelines in the publication process of BCS that adopts and strives to adhere to the following standards and requirements:
COPE - Committee on Publication Ethics
ICMJE - International Committee of Medical Journal Editors
STM - International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers
WAME – World Association of Medical Editors
An author is an individual who has significantly contributed to the development of a manuscript. ICMJE recommends that authorship should be based on the following four criteria:
- Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work
- Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content
- Final approval of the version to be published
- Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved
Individuals who participated in the development of a manuscript but do not qualify as an author should be acknowledged. Organizations that provided support in terms of funding and/or other resources should also be acknowledged.
Whenever there is a need to make changes in the authorship of a manuscript or a published article, the changes will be implemented according to COPE specifications. Only corresponding authors can make the request for a change in authorship. The request should be made to the editor using the Changes in Authorship Form.
Further reading
ICMJE - Defining the Role of Authors and Contributors
COPE – flowcharts on Changes in Authorship
Authors must read the “Authors' Guidelines” on the journal’s page before making a submission. Manuscript should be prepared according to the style and specifications of the journal’s policy. Authors listed on the manuscript should have met the requirements for Authorship specified above. Where possible, specify the contribution of each of the authors. All authors should approve the final version of the manuscript prior to submission. Once a manuscript is submitted, it is therefore assumed that all authors have read and given their approval for the submission of the manuscript.
Contact information of all authors should be stated on the manuscript. Surname/Other names, affiliation, emails, and phone/fax numbers. Declaration of Conflicts of Interest should be stated in the manuscript. Submission should be made online https://journals.irapa.org/index.php/BCS/about/submissions
“Conflict of interest (COI) exists when there is a divergence between an individual’s private interests (competing interests) and his or her responsibilities to scientific and publishing activities such that a reasonable observer might wonder if the individual’s behaviour or judgment was motivated by considerations of his or her competing interests” WAME. Authors should disclose all financial/relevant interest that may have influenced the development of the manuscript. Reviewers should disclose any conflict of interest and if necessary, decline the review of any manuscript they perceive to have a conflict of interest. Editors should also decline from considering any manuscript that may have conflict of interest. Such manuscripts will be re-assigned to other editors.
Further reading
COPE - flowcharts on Conflict of Interest
ICMJE - Conflicts of Interest
STM – International Ethical Principles for Scholarly Publication
WAME - Conflict of Interest in Peer-Reviewed Medical Journals
Authors are required to declare all competing interests associated with their work while making submissions. The submitted manuscripts must include a section titled COMPETING INTERESTS at the end listing all competing interests, including financial and/or non-financial. Where authors have no competing interests, the statement should read as “The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.”
The editorial team may ask for further information associated with the competing interests. BCS requires editorial team members and reviewers to declare any competing interests. If a competing interest exists, the editorial team may exclude the reviewers from the peer review process.
Competing interests may be financial or non-financial. A competing interest exists when the authors’ interpretation of data or presentation of information may be influenced by their personal or financial relationships with other people or organizations. Authors should disclose any financial competing interests but also any non-financial competing interests that may cause them embarrassment if they were to become public after the publication of the article.
Authors from commercial organizations that sponsor clinical trials should declare these as competing interests on submission. They should also adhere to the Good Publication Practice guidelines for pharmaceutical companies, which are designed to ensure that publications are produced in a responsible and ethical manner. The guidelines also apply to any companies or individuals that work on industry-sponsored publications, such as freelance writers, contract research organizations and communications companies.
Research studies must be carried out within an appropriate ethical framework. If there is suspicion that a work has not taken place within an appropriate ethical framework, editorial team may reject the manuscript, and/or contact the author(s)’ ethics committee. On rare occasions, if the editorial team has serious concerns about the ethics of a study, the manuscript may be rejected on ethical grounds, even if approval from an ethics committee has been obtained.
Research involving human subjects, human material, or human data, must be performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and must be approved by an appropriate ethics committee. The submitted manuscript has to be supported by the ethics/bioethics committee approval.
Authors reporting the use of a new procedure or tool in a clinical setting, for example as a technical advance or case report, must give a clear justification in the manuscript for why the new procedure or tool was deemed more appropriate than usual clinical practice to meet the patient’s clinical need. Such justification is not required if the new procedure is already approved for clinical use at the authors’ institution. Authors will be expected to have obtained ethics committee approval and informed patient consent for any experimental use of a novel procedure or tool where a clear clinical advantage based on clinical need was not apparent before treatment.
Including of details, images related to individual participants are not allowed. Experimental research on vertebrates or any regulated invertebrates must comply with institutional, national, or international guidelines, and where available should have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee.
A statement detailing compliance with relevant guidelines (e.g. the revised Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 in the UK and Directive 2010/63/EU in Europe) and/or ethical approval (including the name of the ethics committee and the reference number where appropriate) must be included in the manuscript. If a study has been granted an exemption from requiring ethics approval, this should also be detailed in the manuscript (including the name of the ethics committee that granted the exemption and the reasons for the exemption). The editorial team will take into the account the animal welfare issues and reserves the right to reject a manuscript, especially if the research involves protocols that are inconsistent with commonly accepted norms of animal research. In rare cases, editorial team may contact the ethics committee for further information.
Field studies and other non-experimental research on animals must comply with institutional, national, or international guidelines, and where available should have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee. A statement detailing compliance with relevant guidelines and/or appropriate permissions or licences must be included in the manuscript. We recommend that authors comply with the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and the IUCN Policy Statement on Research Involving Species at Risk of Extinction.
For studies reporting livestock trials with production, health and food-safety outcomes, authors are encouraged to adhere to State Consumer Protection Service of Indonesia or appropriate National/International Establishments.
A submitted manuscript is a confidential material. BCS will not disclose submitted manuscript to anyone except individuals who partake in the processing and preparation of the manuscript for publication (if accepted). These individuals include editorial staff, corresponding authors, potential reviewers, actual reviewers, and editors. However, in suspected cases of misconduct, a manuscript may be revealed to members of Academic Journals’ ethics committee and institutions/organizations that may require it for the resolution of the misconduct. Academic Journals shall follow the appropriate COPE flowcharts wherever necessary.
Further reading
ICMJE - Responsibilities in the Submission and Peer-Review Process
STM - International Ethical Principles for Scholarly Publication
Misconduct constitutes violation of this editorial policy, journal policies, publication ethics, or any applicable guidelines/policies specified by COPE, WAME, ICMJE, and STM. Any other activities that threaten/compromise the integrity of the research/publication process are potential misconducts. Suspected cases of misconduct will be investigated according to COPE guidelines
Correction and Retraction of Articles
Corrections may be made to a published article with the authorization of the editor of the journal. Editors will decide the magnitude of the corrections. Minor corrections are made directly to the original article. However, in cases of major corrections, the original article will remain unchanged, while the corrected version will also be published. Both the original and corrected version will be linked to each other. A statement indicating the reason for the major change to the article will also be published. When necessary, retraction of articles will be done according to COPE retraction guidelines
Further reading
ICMJE - Scientific Misconduct, Expressions of Concern, and Retraction
COPE Guidelines
COPE Flowcharts
COPE retraction guidelines
WAME - Publication Ethics Policies for Medical Journals
STM - International Ethical Principles for Scholarly Publication
