Ethics

Every author must have made substantial intellectual contributions to the design and execution of the manuscript. Every author must have critically reviewed the final manuscript and mutually and severally accepts responsibility for its contents and implications of its conclusions. Authors may be required to submit raw data and should be prepared to provide public access to this information. All authors are responsible for informing the journal of any inaccuracies in their submission as soon as they are apparent. If more than ten authors made significant contribution, additional contributors should be listed under acknowledgements. Any changes in the author list must be submitted and explained in writing to the editorial board with the signature and approval of all authors. Any disagreement between authors must be adjudicated by the institution of the authors. Ghostwriting is prohibited by this journal. Manuscripts may not be written by freelance writers. On the other hand, guest authorship and gift authorship are also prohibited.

Manuscripts must contain original material that has not been previously published or submitted for review. If any part of the article has appeared elsewhere, it must be disclosed in the comments to the editor. Simultaneous submissions to multiple publishers is prohibited. It is the author's responsibility to ensure that there is no copyright infringement of the work submitted. The journal shall not be responsible for copyright infringement resulting from author submission.

Plagiarism includes submitting work of someone else. Moreover, plagiarism also includes submitting one's own work without proper citation. Fabrication includes altering original data, including any image or video file such that it distorts the accuracy of the representation. Any reuse of text, ideas, concepts, images, figures, data, or any other work without proper citation is considered plagiarism. Regardless of proper citation, such material may be protected by copyright laws or nondisclosure agreements and also considered illegal. All authors are mutually and severally liable for the manuscript submitted. The journal shall not be responsible for copyright infringement resulting from author submission. If any author finds an ethical error after submission, proactive disclosure to the editorial board is mandatory. Plagiarism detection software is utilized as stipulated by governing bodies. If plagiarism is suspected, it will be formally investigated. If the investigation deems the plagiarism to be flagrant, the journal reserves the right to contact associated institutions for further disciplinary action. If plagiarism or fabrication is determined after publication, the journal also reserves the right to retract the publication.

Including false data or omitting selected data is will prompt a thorough investigation. Examples of falsification and fabrication include digital image manipulation such that it distorts any perceived interpretation. If request for explanation is unsatisfactory, disciplinary action will be pursued. The journal reserves the right to remove the article from publication, prohibit the author group from further publication, and inform relevant author institutions and professional entities.

Conflicts of interest are financial or nonfinancial relationships that may directly or indirectly suggest influence upon the objectivity of research. It is important to disclose all sources of funding, equipment, time, materials, stock ownership, board memberships, patent ownerships, and similar partnerships of researchers and their family members. Likewise, editors are required to disclose all such financial or nonfinancial relationships that may influence their decisions. Editors have an ethical obligation to recuse themselves from reviewing certain manuscripts in which there might be a conflict of interest.

Authors must obtain verbal and written informed consent of all human subjects. Authors must indefinitely retain this documentation after submission to the journal. All patient identifiers must be removed, including but limited to, names, dates, numbers, tattoos, jewelry. All submission must be HIPAA compliant. Authors must agree that all research was conducted with the recommendations of the Declaration of Helsinki. All research must be approved by the respective local Institutional Review Board. All clinical trials must be registered with the FDA at www.clinicaltrials.gov and have these registration numbers supplied with the publication.

Any content submitted must be kept confidential until the submission has been published.

For further information, please consult the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics at this link.