Ethics and malpractice statements of the Asia Oceania Journal of Nuclear Medicine & Biology are based on COPE’s Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors and pertain to all parties involved in the publishing: the editor, the peer reviewer, and the author. If there is an allegation of plagiarism, scientific misconduct, or fraud, AOJNMB shall follow the recommendations of the COPE guideline and reserves the right to present the allegations to the author’s institution or any other agency. Submission of any manuscript to AOJNMB signifies that it is original and it has not been published anywhere before (except as a congress abstract of no more than 350 words) nor it is under consideration by another journal.

Transparency involves the author understanding and accepting certain publication policies:

i) Declaration of interests—it is important to declare the funding that made the research possible.

ii) Registering clinical trials—clinical trials should be registered in publicly accessible registries.

iii) Respecting confidentiality—protecting patients from being recognized if used in research and in publication.

iv) Protecting research subjects, patients, and experimental animals.

Authorship issues:

Each individual listed as an author on the title page of a submitted manuscript should have met the criteria for authorship as established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). Each author must contribute substantially to research design, or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data as well as contribute to the drafting of the paper or revising it critically. We think that more than 8 authors is unusal in each study, and AOJNMB strongly discourage inclusion of ghost authors. In exceptional cases of large international or national studies which number of authors might exceed the limit, the details of contribution of each author should be written for clarification. 

By virtue of the submitted manuscript, the corresponding author acknowledges that all the co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the manuscript. The corresponding author should provide all co-authors with information regarding the manuscript, and obtain their approval as well as the approval of their institute before submitting any revisions. The authors are responsible for the whole scientific content as well as the accuracy of the bibliographic information. Also, the authors must confirm that the article contains no libelous or other unlawful statements and does not contain any materials that violate any personal or proprietary rights of any other person or entity. The authors also confirm that have obtained written permission from copyright owners for any excerpts from copyrighted works that are included and have credited the sources in their article. Also If authors are using any personal details or images of patients or research subjects, they have obtained written permission or consent from the patient.

Statement of Human and Animal Rights for AOJNMB;

All manuscripts reporting the results of experimental investigations involving human subjects should include a statement, confirming that informed written consent was obtained from each subject or the subject’s guardian. The study must also be approved by the local ethics committee and the study must comply with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its subsequent revisions.

For animal studies, it must be in compliance with the regulation(s) of a local institution and with generally accepted guidelines governing such work.

All prospective clinical trials must be registered. Registration of prospective clinical trials must be done in one of the publicly accessible registries and the registration number must be provided at the end of the abstract.

Statement of informed consent for the Asia Oceania Journal of Nuclear Medicine & biology;

Patients have a right to privacy that should not be infringed without informed consent. Identifying information, including patients' names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. Informed consent for this purpose requires that a patient who is identifiable be shown the manuscript to be published. Authors should identify Individuals who provide writing assistance and disclose the funding source for this assistance.

Identifying details should be omitted if they are not essential. Complete anonymity is difficult to achieve, however, and informed consent should be obtained if there is any doubt. For example, masking the eye region in photographs of patients is inadequate protection of anonymity. If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic pedigrees, authors should provide assurance that alterations do not distort scientific meaning and editors should so note.

Conflict of interest:

At the time of submission of the manuscript, all authors must disclose any type of conflict of interest including but not limited to financial interests that may influence the submitted manuscript. Any company consultancy, product or stock ownership related to the manuscript must be disclosed. Affiliations of authors should include corporate appointments relating to or in connection with the products or companies mentioned in the article. Authors should declare sources of funding for the work undertaken. If there is no conflict of interest for all of the authors, the phrase ‘No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed’ should be written in the acknowledgment. 

Regulations for Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement in the Asia Oceania Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Biology;

Section A: Publication and authorship

1. All submitted papers are subject to a strict peer-review process by at least two reviewers that are experts in the area of the particular paper. Associate Editors and Editor-in-Chief are selecting reviewers.
2. The factors that are taken into account in the review are relevance, originality, readability, statistical validity, and language.
3. The possible decisions include acceptance, minor revisions, major revision, or rejection.
4. If authors are encouraged to revise and resubmit a submission, there is no guarantee that the revised submission will be accepted.
5. Rejected articles will not be re-reviewed.
6. The paper acceptance is constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism.
7. No research can be included in more than one publication, whether within the same journal or in another journal.

 

Section B: Authors' responsibilities

1. Authors must certify that their manuscript is their original work.
2. Authors must certify that the manuscript has not previously been published elsewhere, or even submitted and been in reviewed in another journal.
3. Authors must participate in the peer-review process and follow the comments.
4. Authors are obliged to provide retractions or corrections of mistakes.
5. All Authors mentioned in the paper must have significantly contributed to the research. The level of their contribution also must be defined in the “Authors’ Contributions” section of the article.
6. Authors must state that all data in the paper are real and authentic.
7. Authors must notify the Editors of any conflicts of interest.
8. Authors must identify all sources used in the creation of their manuscript.
9. Authors must report any errors they discover in their published paper to the Editors.

 

Section C: Peer review/responsibility for the reviewers

1. Reviewers should keep all information regarding papers confidential and treat them as privileged information.
2. Reviews should be conducted objectively, with no personal criticism of the author. No self-knowledge of the author(s) must affect their comments and decision.
3. Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments in 500 to 1000 words.
4. Reviewers may identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors.
5. Reviewers should also call to the Editor-in-Chief's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.
6. Reviewers should not review manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

 

Section D: Editorial responsibilities

1. Editors (Associate Editors or Editor-in-Chief) have complete responsibility and authority to reject/accept an article.
2. Editors are responsible for the contents and overall quality of the publication.
3. Editors should always consider the needs of the authors and the readers when attempting to improve the publication.
4. Editors should guarantee the quality of the papers and the integrity of the academic record.
5. Editors should publish errata pages or make corrections when needed.
6. Editors should have a clear picture of a research's funding sources.
7. Editors should base their decisions solely on the papers' importance, originality, clarity, and relevance to the Journal's scope.
8. Editors should not reverse their decisions nor overturn the ones of previous editors without serious reason.
9. Editors should preserve the anonymity of reviewers
10. Editors should ensure that all research material they publish conforms to internationally accepted ethical guidelines.
11. Editors should only accept a paper when reasonably certain.
12. Editors should act if they suspect misconduct, whether a paper is published or unpublished, and make all reasonable attempts to persist in obtaining a resolution to the problem.
13. Editors should not reject papers based on suspicions; they should have proof of misconduct.
14. Editors should not allow any conflicts of interest between staff, authors, reviewers, and board members.
15. Editors must not change their decision after submitting a decision (especially after rejection or acceptance) unless they have a serious reason.

 

Section E: AOJNMB approach to ethics Issues

1. All editorial members, reviewers, and authors must confirm and obey the rules defined by COPE guidelines. These COPE guidelines will be used in approaching to solve any ethical issues that may come forward.
2. The corresponding author is the main owner of the article so she/he can withdraw the article when it is incomplete (before entering the review process or when a revision is asked for).
3. Authors cannot make major changes in the article after acceptance without a serious reason.
4. All editorial members and authors must will to publish any kind of corrections honestly and completely.