Wolters Kluwer Publishing Ethics

Wolters Kluwer expects the highest ethical standards from their authors, reviewers, and editors when conducting research, submitting papers, and throughout the peer-review process. And as such, references best practice documents such as “Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals” formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (www.icmje.org). Wolters Kluwer is a member of the Committee on Publishing Ethics (COPE) and follows their recommendations on publication ethics and standards. For additional information on COPE please visit http://publicationethics.org/.

Wolters Kluwer is committed to:

• Fostering the editorial independence of journal editors
• Working with and supporting editors to set policies and run their journals ethically and transparently
• Maintaining an accurate and transparent academic record, including publishing corrections and retractions when necessary

Responsibilities

Editors

• Provide guidelines to authors for the preparation and submission of manuscripts
• Establish a system for effective and rapid peer review
• Make editorial decisions with reasonable speed and communicate them clearly
• Establish policies for the handling of incidences of academic misconduct or systemic error that necessitate a correction of the scientific record
• Communicate clearly all other editorial policies and standards

Reviewers

• Maintain the confidentiality of the review process
• Provide unbiased feedback in a timely manner, addressing the appropriate aspects of the work
• Alert the editor to any potential personal financial conflict of interest, and decline to review when any such conflict exists

Authors

• Ensure that submitted work is original and has not been previously published or submitted elsewhere
• Cite source materials clearly and obtain appropriate permissions
• Confirm that the work does not infringe on any rights of others, including privacy rights and intellectual property rights
• Report any conflicts of interest accurately
• Communicate to the Editor any material errors immediately upon discovery
• Represent authorship of the paper accurately and ensure that all individuals credited as authors participated in the actual authorship of the work and that all who participated are credited and have given consent for publication

Policies

Redundant or duplicate publication

Duplicate or redundant publication is a publication that overlaps substantially with one already published, in press, or in an electronic media submission. (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/publishing-and-editorial-issues/overlapping-publications.html)

Duplicate or redundant submission is the same manuscript (or the same data) that is submitted to different journals at the same time. International copyright laws, ethical conduct, and cost effective use of resources require that readers can be assured that what they are reading is original. (International Council of Medical Journal Editors. http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/publishing-and-editorial-issues/overlapping-publications.html)

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published or currently submitted elsewhere. Duplicate publication will be grounds for prompt rejection of the submitted manuscript. If the editor was not aware of this before publication, a subsequent notice identifying the duplication of the literature will be published

Conflicts of interest

At the point of submission, policy requires that each author reveal any financial interests or connections, direct or indirect, or other situations that might raise the question of bias in the work reported or the conclusions, implications, or opinions stated - including pertinent commercial or other sources of funding for the individual author(s) or for the associated department(s) or organization(s), personal relationships, or direct academic competition.

Conflict of Interest information will be communicated to the reader through a statement in published articles.

Permissions to reproduce previously published material

For permissions to reproduce, please see the license under which the individual article has been published.

Patient consent forms

The protection of a patient's right to privacy is essential. A statement to the effect that such consent had been obtained must be included in the ‘Methods’ section of a paper when appropriate. If necessary, the Editors may request a copy of any consent forms.

Ethics committee approval

All articles dealing with original human or animal data must include a statement on ethics approval at the beginning of the ‘Methods’ section. This paragraph must contain the following information: the name and address of the ethics committee responsible; the protocol number that was attributed by this ethics committee; and the date of approval by the ethics committee.

The paragraph could read, for example:

“Ethical approval for this study (Ethical Committee N° NAC 207) was provided by the Ethical Committee NAC of Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, on 12 February 2007.”

In addition and as stated above, for studies conducted on human participants you must state clearly that you obtained written informed consent from the study participants; please also look at the latest version of the Declaration of Helsinki. If ethics clearance was not necessary, or if there was any deviation from these standard ethical requests, please state why it was not required. Please note that the editors may ask you to provide evidence of ethical approval. If you have approval from a National Drug Agency (or similar), please state this and provide details; this can be particularly useful when discussing the use of unlicensed drugs.

More information on individual journal policies, instructions, and guidelines can be found on the corresponding journal website.