Misconduct Policy

Misconduct 

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics expects all authors, editors and reviewers to be aware of the best practice in publication ethics. Any form of misconduct is strictly prohibited. Authors should avoid ghost, guest, gift and other authorship issues. Authors should retain their original data and source files after submitting their articles, as the editor might request this material in the publication evaluation process, which otherwise will be suspended until any issue is resolved.

Reviewers and editors are required to treat manuscripts fairly and in confidence, and to declare any competing interests. We will vigorously investigate allegations of research or publication misconduct.

Any suspicion that authors, reviewers or editors have engaged in misconduct will result in action either before or after publication. When ethical questions are raised regarding a paper that has already been published—even years after publication—a preliminary investigation will be carried out, following COPE guidelines, in the course of which the party or parties involved will be called upon to present their case. The editor reserves the right to question a manuscript’s originality and integrity and to raise these concerns with the authors’ sponsoring institutions and other relevant bodies.

 

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is strictly not acceptable in any submissions to Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics. Authors must not directly use words, images, or ideas, of others or other sources, without attribution. All sources must be cited at the point they are used, and reuse of wordings must be limited, be attributed to, or quoted, in the text. It is the responsibility of the authors to ensure the originality of their work. Upon submission, all manuscripts are meticulously evaluated for similarity against previously submitted and published articles. Figures and images are examined for the presence of duplicative or anomalous data. Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics uses Crossref Similarity Check (iThenticate) to check for the originality of a submission. Manuscripts that are detected to have plagiarism will be rejected (if unpublished) or retracted (if published), as appropriate.

 

Submission of Duplicate and Redundant Manuscripts

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics considers for publication only original manuscripts, not published elsewhere in any form or language. It is assumed that, when a manuscript is submitted, no other manuscript that is substantially similar to it has been or will be submitted to any other journal before Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics has the opportunity to decide whether to publish it. In other words, it is considered unethical to submit the same manuscript to more than one journal at the same time.

If authors use their work, which was previously published or under review, in their new manuscripts, they should cite the work appropriately. The new manuscripts should indicate the differences from the previously published work.

Any forms of reuse of the authors’ own words in any parts of the submitted manuscript should be appropriately attributed. Reuse of the authors’ own figures, or substantial amounts of wording, may require copyright permission from the copyright holder, which the authors are responsible for obtaining.

Extension articles from published conference proceedings must be declared and have clear citation and discussion.

Publications that are duplicative or redundant (i.e., that present, in different wording, data that have already been published by the same authors) are not accepted. A single study should not be split up into several submissions with same/similar methods and questions, and submitted to various journals, or to one journal over time (i.e. ‘salami-slicing/publishing’).

 

Fabrication and Falsification

The authors of submitted manuscripts or published articles in which the results are found to have been fabricated, falsified, or subjected to image manipulation, will be sanctioned, and their published articles will be retracted immediately.

 

Investigations and Sanctions

Suspected breaches of the publication ethics policies, either before and after publication, as well as concerns about unethical research behavior, should be reported to MCB’s ethics group and undergo a thorough investigation. During the investigation process, the authors may be requested to provide the underlying data and images, and answer all editors’ queries.

Depending on the situation, this may result in the Journal’s and/or Publisher’s implementation of the following measures, including, but not limited to:

·        If the manuscript is still under consideration, it may be rejected and returned to the author.

·        If the article has already been published online, an erratum/correction may be published and linked with the article, or in severe cases, a retraction of the article may occur.

·        If the Publisher becomes aware of breaches of the publication ethics policies, the following sanctions may be applied across the Publisher's journals:

·        Rejection of the manuscript and any other manuscripts submitted by the author(s).

·        Not allowing submission for 1–3 years.

·        Prohibition from acting as an editor or reviewer.

Suspected breaches of the publication ethics policies, either before and after publication, as well as concerns about unethical research behavior, should be reported to MCB’s ethics group and undergo a thorough investigation. During the investigation process, the authors may be requested to provide the underlying data and images, answer editors’ queries, and etc.