Publication Ethics

In order to publish the research in this Publication  all the author(s) must follow principals for ethical professional practices. 

Authors must confirm and guarantee that their submitted paper adheres to all established submission criteria.

Ethical oversight

The publisher/journal is dedicated to maintaining the highest level of integrity in the work published. The journal and its publisher follow the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)’s Core Practices. It is expected of authors, reviewers, and editors that they follow the best-practice guidelines on ethical behaviour contained therein. In addition, some key points are listed below:

• Laboratory and clinical research should be driven by protocol; pilot studies should have a written rationale.
• Research protocols should seek to answer specific questions, rather than just collect data.
• Protocols must be carefully agreed by all contributors and collaborators, including, if appropriate, the participants.
• The final protocol should form part of the research record.
• Early agreement on the precise roles of the contributors and collaborators, and on matters of authorship and publication, is advised.
• Statistical issues should be considered early in study design, including power calculations, to ensure there are neither too few nor too many participants.

Plagiarism policy

The publisher and journals have a zero-tolerance plagiarism policy. We check the issue using two methods: a plagiarism prevention tool (Turnitin) and a reviewer check. All submissions will be checked by Turnitin before being sent to reviewers.

We insist a rigorous viewpoint on the self-plagiarism. The self-plagiarism is plagiarism, as it fails to contribute to the research and science..

Futurity Medicine maintains an anti-plagiarism policy that aims to guarantee that all the works evaluated and published are previously verified.

 Each manuscript is subjected to similarity verification through Turnitin Similary Check software to guarantee the originality of all manuscripts. This anti-plagiarism policy ensures compliance with high standards of originality in its published articles.

All details about plagiarism policy you can read here: Plagiarism policy

Citation

Authors should not engage in excessive self-citation of their own work.

Authors should not copy references from other publications if they have not read the cited work.

Authors should not cite advertisements or advertorial material.

Authorship

Authors should meet the criteria for authorship, as defined by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), and should accurately list all contributors which have made significant contributions to the study.

Authors’ Responsibility

Authors of each submitted manuscript must confirm the following:

1. The manuscript has neither been previously published nor submitted to another outlet for consideration;

2. They have made a substantial contribution to the research and have approved the final version of the manuscript;

3. Their work adheres to established ethical guidelines;

4. They are responsible for all facets of the work, ensuring that any concerns related to its accuracy or integrity are thoroughly investigated and appropriately addressed;

5. They have secured all required permissions for the publication of figures or tables within the manuscript, and they will cover Article Processing Charges (APC) if applicable.

Authorship Criteria

We ask that authors adhere to the authorship criteria outlined by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE):

1. Significant involvement in the conception or design of the study, or in the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; AND

2. Drafting the manuscript or critically revising it for key intellectual content; AND

3. Final approval of the version that will be published; AND

4. Agreement to take responsibility for all aspects of the work, ensuring any questions regarding accuracy or integrity are properly investigated and resolved.

Individuals who do not meet all four criteria should not be listed as authors, though their contributions should be acknowledged. Tasks such as securing funding, overseeing a research team, general administrative support, writing assistance, technical editing, language editing, and proofreading do not qualify for authorship if unaccompanied by other substantial contributions. Additionally, AI tools cannot be listed as authors, as they are unable to meet authorship requirements or assume responsibility for the content of a paper.

Authors must disclose the use of any AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Bing) in the writing process, the creation of images or graphics, or during data collection and analysis. This disclosure should be made in the Cover Letter, Methods section, and Acknowledgements, and must include all prompts used to generate content, convert text to tables or images, or produce research findings. The time, date, AI tool, and its version should also be disclosed. Authors remain fully responsible for the content of their manuscript, including any portions generated by AI tools, and will be held accountable for any ethical violations. For more detailed guidance, refer to the WAME Recommendations on Chatbots and Generative Artificial Intelligence in Scholarly Publications: https://wame.org/page3.php?id=106.

Data Integrity and Fabrication

Authors should accurately state the results of the authors' research should not contain fabrications, falsifications or manipulations of data. Any potential errors or inaccuracies should be immediately corrected or refuted.

Declaration of Competing Interests

Authors must disclose any potential competing interests that could influence or bias their study, whether they involve financial ties, personal relationships, rivalries, or even religious beliefs. Examples of such competing interests include financial arrangements or agreements with entities whose products or technologies were used or cited in the research, financial interests related to business dealings with a competitor, any compensation received directly by the author(s) for writing the manuscript, or other financial relationships or circumstances that could raise concerns about the objectivity of the research or opinions expressed. Authors may be asked to provide additional details about the nature of these disclosed interests. In some cases, the article’s publication may be delayed or withheld depending on the situation. If the manuscript is approved for publication, any competing interests will be disclosed in a statement before the references section.

Funding

Authors must supply all funding details, including grant numbers. Funding sources or sponsors can be individuals, businesses, or public entities like universities or research councils. If these funders or sponsors have any involvement, no matter how minor, in the design or execution of the research, this must be clearly detailed. This information should be added if available.

Informed Consent

Individual data and personal information (such as details gathered within a doctor-patient relationship) must be treated with the utmost care, maintaining strict confidentiality and discretion. Consequently, in most instances, authors are required to secure written informed consent from patients mentioned in case reports or from individuals featured in photographs. However, there are rare exceptions where a report may be published without explicit consent if it satisfies the following three criteria: it holds considerable importance for public health (or another critical reason); obtaining consent would pose significant challenges; and a reasonable person would likely not object to its publication.

Research Ethics: All research we publish must have Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval, and, where applicable, informed consent must also be obtained. Clinical trials must be registered in recognized clinical trial registries, complying with both local and international standards.

Authors’ Ethical Statement: Authors are responsible for all aspects of their research, including full access to data, data integrity, and accuracy of the analysis. They are expected to address and resolve any concerns related to the correctness or trustworthiness of any part of their work.

Animal Welfare

Authors must adhere to relevant institutional or national guidelines for the ethical treatment of animals in research, minimising any potential harm and ensuring their well-being.

Research on live subjects

Authors are responsible for ensuring that the submission adheres to all relevant rules and guidelines of the journal's associated organizations and regulatory frames, such as WMA Declaration of Helsinki – Ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects, “Guide for the care and use of laboratory animals”, ARRIVE (Animals in Research: Reporting In Vivo Experiments) guidelines, or any other relevant set of ethical principles. Authors must seek and record established ethics committee approvals, participant consents, and other documents necessary for the research if live subjects are involved. 

Funding

Authors must supply all funding details, including grant numbers. Funding sources or sponsors can be individuals, businesses, or public entities like universities or research councils. If these funders or sponsors have any involvement, no matter how minor, in the design or execution of the research, this must be clearly detailed. This information should be added if available.

Informed participant consent

To ensure compliance with relevant laws and guidelines, necessary consents and permissions must be received from the participants in order to obtain and use personal information. Signed consent forms should not be sent to the journal since they may contain sensitive participant data. Rather, authors should provide a declaration stating that informed consents were acquired from participants. Additionally, related documents and proofs are stored to be presented upon request from legal authorities. 

Clinical trials

 We adopt the clinical trial registration policy of ICMJE. If the study involves clinical trials, authors should register the clinical trials in a publicly accessible primary registry that participates in WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) or in https://clinicaltrials.gov/ before the enrollment of patients. Authors must provide the trial registration number and hyperlink of the registry at the time of manuscript submission. Studies involving clinical trials must include a data sharing statement as detailed by ICMJE. 

Reporting guidelines

Authors should follow applicable reporting guidelines and requirements, such as CONSORT (for randomized clinical trials and other comparative studies) or TREND (for non-randomized trials), SPIRIT (for trial protocols), PRISMA (for systematic reviews and meta-analyses), STARD (for diagnostic accuracy studies), STROBE (for observational studies), STREGA (for genetic association studies), CARE (for case reports), ARRIVE (for animal pre-clinical studies), MIAME (for microarray experiments).

Intellectual property

Authors should avoid using copyrighted material in the submitted manuscript. If such material must be included, in accordance with the applicable laws and regulations, authors should have received explicit permission from copyright holder that the material can be reproduced under the terms and conditions of Creative Commons Attribution License. 

The use of Artifical Intelligence(AI) in articles

Transparency

Authors utilising AI techniques should provide a clear description of the AI methods, algorithms, and models used in their research, ensuring transparency and reproducibility.

Data Source and Quality

Authors must clearly specify the sources of data used in their AI research, ensuring that the data are reliable, representative, and appropriately collected, adhering to privacy regulations and protection of personal information.

Ethical Considerations

 Authors must address the ethical implications of using AI in their research, including considerations related to bias, fairness, accountability, and potential social or cultural impact.

Validation and Evaluation

Authors must provide appropriate validation and evaluation of their AI models, including performance metrics, comparisons with existing approaches, and potential limitations or weaknesses.

Clarity and explainability

Authors should attempt making their AI models interpretable and explainable, providing insights into how the AI system arrives at its conclusions or predictions, particularly in cases where the decisions may have significant consequences for patients or healthcare outcome.

Ethical Review

Authors must seek ethical review or approval for AI research involving human subjects, as per institutional or national guidelines, particularly if the research involves sensitive or personal data.

Authors must ensure that their submitted manuscripts meet the eligibility criteria for innovative scientific articles on the issues of future medicine.

Authors submitting manuscripts to "Futurity Medicine" are asked to carefully review and align their research with the updated publication provided ethics guidelines. Additionally, authors should follow the specific author instructions and ethics guidelines outlined by "Futurity Medicine" regarding publication ethics and the use of artificial intelligence, as stated on their website (https://futurity-medicine.com/index.php/fm/ethics).

The regular requirements review and comply will help ensuring the integrity, quality, and ethical conduct of research published in the journal and increase the likelihood of meeting the criteria for publications.

Roles and responsibilities

1. Author's responsibilities

2. Responsibility for the reviewers

Any researcher who has been invited to review the manuscript should notify the editor if they believe they are not able to evaluate the submission or have a competing interest. All data concerning the manuscript must be treated as privileged information and kept private. Reviews must be conducted fairly and within a reasonable timeframe.

Ethical responsibilities of reviewers

Peer reviewers are essential in upholding the highest ethical standards for manuscripts submitted to Futurity Medicine. Their ethical responsibilities include:

Subject Expertise: Reviewers should accept manuscripts only within their area of expertise, ensuring a timely and thorough evaluation.

Confidentiality: Reviewers must keep the peer review process confidential, not disclosing any details of the manuscript or its review, both during and after the process.

Conflict of Interest: If a conflict of interest exists, such as a personal or professional connection with the author that might bias the review, reviewers should return the manuscript, clearly indicating the conflict.

Professionalism: Reviewers must provide accurate personal and professional information reflecting their expertise and avoid impersonation during the review process.

Plagiarism and Falsification: Any allegations of plagiarism, authorship issues, or data falsification should be supported by reasoned explanations and relevant references.

Timeliness: Reviewers should complete their reviews promptly, respecting the author's work.

3. Editorial responsibilities

All editors are selected from among outstanding researchers in their respective scientific disciplines. They are responsible for managing the editorial processes of the incoming manuscripts. In order to get additional expert opinions and to assist in their decisions, editors invite external reviewers to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the article. Next, editors decide whether to accept the article for publication based on review reports and their own objective assessments. During editorial processes, editors are expected to treat all authors and manuscripts equally, without bias. All information about the text must be kept strictly secret. In the event of a competing interest, the editor must notify the managing editor to release him or her from responsibility for the work. Editors must take the appropriate steps and/or impose the appropriate consequences in the event of a malpractice. If errors are detected in published articles, the literature should be corrected by issuing appropriate correction or retraction notices. Editorial process for an article submitted by a member of the editorial board must be conducted by another editor to ensure the objectivity and transparency.

Ethical responsibilities of editors

Editors of the Futurity Medicine journal are responsible for maintaining the highest ethical standards throughout the publication process. Their ethical responsibilities include:

Confidentiality: Editors must protect the confidentiality of the peer-review process and avoid disclosing any manuscript details without the author's consent.

Conflict of Interest: Editors should require peer reviewers to disclose any potential conflicts of interest and consider this information carefully.

Citations: Editors should request authors to add citations only when there is a solid scholarly reason.

Reviewer Selection: Editors may ask authors for suggestions of potential peer reviewers or request exclusions of certain individuals from reviewing their paper.

Quality Control: Editors should oversee the performance of peer reviewers, avoiding those who provide substandard, delayed, abusive, or non-constructive reviews.

4. Publisher responsibilities

The publisher provides the journal with the required resources, such as submission and publication portal, plagiarism checking tools, DOI identifiers, hosting, and content preservation. The publisher should take reasonable steps to protect the editorial autonomy.