Ethics and Malpractice Statement

NAMMCO Scientific Publications has developed publication ethics policies for each of the Core Practices described by COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics). In drawing up these policies, we have followed COPE’s guidelines for editors and publishers. When identifying suspected cases of malpractice, we follow the flowcharts developed by COPE.

Authorship and contributorship

NAMMCO Scientific Publications uses the definition of authorship set out by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). An author (or co-author) of a manuscript should meet all four of the following criteria:

• Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
• Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
• Final approval of the version to be published; AND
• Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Where contributors do not fully meet these criteria, their contribution should instead be credited in an acknowledgement. Corresponding authors are requested to provide their ORCID when submitting a manuscript, and we recommend ORCIDs are supplied for all co-authors.

Conflicts of interest

When submitting a manuscript to NAMMCO Scientific Publications, authors are required to disclose any potential conflicts of interests that may prejudice or compromise their work, such as financial or commercial interests, personal or professional relationships, and political or religious beliefs. If the submission is accepted for publication, a conflict-of-interest statement will be added to the manuscript if applicable.

In line with COPE’s Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers, reviewers must declare all potential competing interests that might prevent them from providing a fair and unbiased review when they are approached by the Editor. The Editor will not participate in decisions regarding publication of his own scholarly work.

Data sharing

NAMMCO Scientific Publications expects that data supporting the results in published articles are made publicly available and accessible through being archived in a public repository. Authors should provide a data availability statement at the end of their article describing the availability or absence of open access to their supporting data. When data have been shared, authors are asked to include in their data availability statement a link to the repository they have used and the relevant reference number or persistent identifier for the shared data. Whenever possible, the scripts and other artefacts used to generate the analyses presented in the paper should also be publicly archived. If sharing data compromises ethical standards or legal requirements, authors are not expected to share it, although this should be justified and explained in the data availability statement.

Ethical oversight

Authors are expected to follow relevant institutional and national guidelines on research ethics. Informed consent must have been obtained from any human subjects who participated in the research.

Intellectual property

When submitting a manuscript to NAMMCO Scientific Publications, authors must confirm that their work is original and has not been published or is currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. Authors of articles published in NAMMCO Scientific Publications retain copyright to their work and grant permission to Septentrio Academic Publishing to distribute their work under a Creative Commons license.

Post-publication discussions and corrections

After an article has been published in NAMMCO Scientific Publications, errors that affect the meaning of content or that relate to data or citations can be corrected. A correction notice including a list of changes, publication date of the original article and the date of the correction, and where to obtain the original article will be added to the end of the corrected articles.

In rare circumstances, serious errors may invalidate an article’s results or conclusions. In such cases, we will follow COPE’s Retraction Guidelines and publish a retraction notice that states which parts of the article are erroneous, as well as the grounds for retraction.

Complaints and appeals

Complaints to NAMMCO Scientific Publications should be submitted by email to genevieve@nammco.org. Complainants should describe the subject and nature of their complaint and provide supporting documentation. The Editor will, in consultation with the Editorial Board if necessary, assess any complaint on its merits, take any necessary remedial action, and respond to the complainant promptly.