Reports of Biochemistry
and Molecular Biology
Fri, May 9, 2025
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| Post date: 2016/08/6 |
Ethical Guidelines, Conflict of Interest and Copyright Policies
The Reports of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (RBMB) follows the ICMJE’s Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals.
Public trust in the scientific process and the credibility of published articles depend in part on how transparently conflicts of interest are managed during the planning, implementation, writing, peer review, editing, and publication of scientific work.
A conflict of interest exists when professional judgment regarding a primary interest (such as patient welfare or the validity of research) may be influenced by a secondary interest (such as financial gain). Perceptions of conflicts of interest are as important as actual conflicts.
Financial relationships (such as employment, consultancies, stock ownership or options, honoraria, patents, and paid expert testimony) are the most easily identifiable and common forms of conflicts of interest, and the most likely to undermine the credibility of authors, journals, and science itself. However, conflicts may also arise from personal relationships, academic competition, intellectual beliefs, or rivalries.
Authors should avoid entering into agreements with study sponsors—whether for-profit or non-profit—that interfere with their access to all study data, their ability to analyze and interpret the data, or their independence in preparing and publishing manuscripts.
All participants in the peer-review and publication process, including authors, reviewers, editors, and editorial board members, must disclose any relationships or activities that could be perceived as potential conflicts of interest.
a. Authors
Authors are responsible for disclosing all financial and personal relationships that could bias or be perceived to bias their work at the time of manuscript submission. The ICMJE has developed a Form for Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest to facilitate standardized reporting. RBMB requires that all authors use this form upon submission.
b. Peer Reviewers
Reviewers must disclose any conflicts of interest that may bias their assessment and recuse themselves from reviewing specific manuscripts where a conflict exists. Reviewers must not use knowledge of the manuscript’s content for personal gain or to advance their own work prior to publication.
c. Editors and Journal Staff
Editors making final decisions on manuscripts must recuse themselves in cases of potential conflicts. Editorial staff involved in decision-making should disclose financial or other interests that might influence editorial judgments and must not use unpublished material for personal gain. Guest editors are expected to adhere to the same standards.
Published articles must be accompanied by conflict-of-interest statements or supporting documents, such as the ICMJE disclosure form, indicating:
- Authors’ conflicts of interest.
- Sources of funding, including sponsor names and roles in the study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, writing, or submission. If the sponsor was not involved, this must be stated explicitly.
- Authors’ access to data, including the nature and extent of access.
RBMB upholds the highest standards of publication ethics and actively works to prevent publication malpractice. Authors, editors, and reviewers are expected to adhere to the following ethical considerations:
Authors
- Authors must confirm the originality of their work and must properly cite or quote any use of others’ work.
- Manuscripts should not be submitted if they have already been published in the same form elsewhere. Authors must disclose if related work has been presented or published previously.
- Research articles must present accurate data and objective analysis with sufficient detail for reproducibility.
- Errors discovered after submission or publication must be promptly reported to the editor.
- All financial or personal relationships that could influence the work must be disclosed.
- Ethical standards for human and animal research must be clearly stated.
- Proper acknowledgment must be given to all sources, individuals, and laws that influenced the work.
- The editor is responsible for selecting submitted articles for publication based solely on scientific merit.
- Editors must ensure fair peer review and adhere to journal policies regarding copyright and plagiarism.
- Editors must maintain the confidentiality of manuscript content and not use unpublished material for personal gain.
- Allegations of unethical behavior must be investigated, even post-publication.
- Reviewers must avoid reviewing manuscripts where a conflict of interest exists due to relationships or competition.
- They are expected to identify uncited relevant literature and possible duplication with other published works.
- Unpublished materials from reviewed manuscripts must not be used for personal benefit.
Reports of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (RBMB) is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the dissemination of high-quality research in the fields of biochemistry and molecular biology. The copyright policy below governs the use and distribution of RBMB content.
Copyright Ownership
Authors retain the copyright of their published work while granting RBMB the right of first publication, including online and print formats. Articles are permanently archived in the RBMB repository.
License
All articles in RBMB are published under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) unless otherwise stated. This license allows for unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided proper citation of the original work and authorship.
Author Rights
Authors may:
- Share their articles via personal websites, institutional repositories, or preprint servers.
- Reuse content in future works (e.g., books or presentations) with appropriate citations.
- Distribute copies for educational or research purposes.
Third-Party Use
Any reuse of RBMB articles by third parties must comply with the CC BY license terms and include appropriate attribution.
Plagiarism and Copyright Infringement
RBMB strictly prohibits plagiarism and copyright violations. Manuscripts found to contain such issues will be rejected or retracted, and appropriate corrective actions will be taken.
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