Reports of Biochemistry

The “Reports of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology” (RBMB) follows the recommendations of the ICMJE’s Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals.

Author Responsibilities-Conflicts of Interest

Public trust in the scientific process and the credibility of published articles depend in part on how transparently conflicts of interest are handled during the planning, implementation, writing, peer review, editing, and publication of scientific work.

A conflict of interest exists when professional judgment concerning a primary interest (such as patients' welfare or the validity of research) may be influenced by a secondary interest (such as financial gain). Perceptions of conflict of interest are as important as actual conflicts of interest.

Financial relationships (such as employment, consultancies, stock ownership or options, honoraria, patents, and paid expert testimony) are the most easily identifiable conflicts of interest and the most likely to undermine the credibility of the journal, the authors, and of science itself. However, conflicts can occur for other reasons, such as personal relationships or rivalries, academic competition, and intellectual beliefs. Authors should avoid entering in to agreements with study sponsors, both for-profit and non-profit, that interfere with authors’ access to all of the study’s data or that interfere with their ability to analyze and interpret the data and to prepare and publish manuscripts independently when and where they choose.

1. Participants

All participants in the peer-review and publication process—not only authors but also peer reviewers, editors, and editorial board members of journals—must consider their conflicts of interest when fulfilling their roles in the process of article review and publication and must disclose all relationships that could be viewed as potential conflicts of interest.

a. Authors

When authors submit a manuscript of any type or format they are responsible for disclosing all financial and personal relationships that might bias or be seen to bias their work. The ICMJE has developed a Form for Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest to facilitate and standardize authors’ disclosures. ICMJE member journals require that authors use this form, and ICMJE encourages other journals to adopt it.

b. Peer Reviewers

Reviewers should be asked at the time they are asked to critique a manuscript if they have conflicts of interest that could complicate their review. Reviewers must disclose to editors any conflicts of interest that could bias their opinions of the manuscript, and should recuse themselves from reviewing specific manuscripts if the potential for bias exists. Reviewers must not use knowledge of the work they’re reviewing before its publication to further their own interests.

c. Editors and Journal Staff

Editors who make final decisions about manuscripts should recuse themselves from editorial decisions if they have conflicts of interest or relationships that pose potential conflicts related to articles under consideration. Other editorial staff members who participate in editorial decisions must provide editors with a current description of their financial interests or other conflicts (as they might relate to editorial judgments) and recuse themselves from any decisions in which a conflict of interest exists. Editorial staff must not use information gained through working with manuscripts for private gain. Editors should publish regular disclosure statements about potential conflicts of interests related to the commitments of journal staff. Guest editors should follow these same procedures.

2. Reporting Conflicts of Interest

Articles should be published with statements or supporting documents, such as the ICMJE conflict of interest form, declaring:

* Authors’ conflicts of interest; and

* Sources of support for the work, including sponsor names along with explanations of the role of those sources if any in study design; collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; writing of the report; the decision to submit the report for publication; or a statement declaring that the supporting source had no such involvement; and

* Whether the authors had access to the study data, with an explanation of the nature and extent of access, including whether access is on-going.

To support the above statements, editors may request that authors of a study sponsored by a funder with a proprietary or financial interest in the outcome sign a statement, such as “I had full access to all of the data in this study and I take complete responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.”

Ethical guidelines

The journal Reports of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (RBMB), uphold the standard of publication ethics and take all possible measures against publication malpractices. Authors, editors and reviewers should respect the following consideration.

Authors:

Articles are published only after the authors agree to transfer all copyrights to RBMB. The authors should warrant the full originality of their work. If they have used the work/words of another author, this has to be cited or quoted. Also, the authors should not submit manuscripts that have been published in the same form in other journals. If papers closely related have been published elsewhere or presented in different scientific meetings the author must state this when submitting the article.

Authors of original articles or researches should present an accurate account of their results, as well as an objective discussion of its significance. The paper should contain sufficient details to permit its quotation by other authors.

If an author discovers errors or inaccurate data in his/her manuscript, it is the author’s obligation to inform the editor and to withdraw or correct the paper.

All authors must disclose any financial or personal relationship with people or organizations that could inappropriately influence their work. All sources of financial support have to be mentioned. The manuscript submitted for publication must contain a statement that the human and animal studies have been performed in accordance with the ethical standards.

Proper acknowledgment must be given. The authors have to mention any publication, person or law that have influence the nature and the results of their work.

Editors:

The editor of the RBMB can decide which of the article submitted to the journal should be published.

The editor has to follow journal’s policy in matter of copyright and plagiarism.

The journal’s editor should evaluate the manuscripts for only their scientific content.

The editor may give information about the manuscript content only to the author, reviewers, publisher or other editorial advisers. In case of unpublished materials this should not be used by the editor in his/her benefit without the written consent of the author.

The editor has to take into consideration any unethical publishing behavior even it is reported or discovered years after publication.

Reviewers:

Reviewers should not assess papers susceptible of conflict of interest resulting from collaboration or any other relationship with the authors.

Reviewers have to identify relevant publications not cited by the author and notify any similarity with other published article.

In case of unpublished materials this should not be used by the reviewer in his/her benefit without the written consent of the author.