Modern scholarly publishing requires more than good science. Here is a complete guide to the ethical and compliance elements that must accompany every submission.
Modern scholarly publishing requires more than good science. Here is a complete guide to the ethical and compliance elements that must accompany every submission.
A well-written manuscript with sound methodology can still be rejected — or, worse, retracted after publication — if it fails to meet the ethical and compliance standards that govern scholarly publishing. These standards are not bureaucratic formalities. They exist to protect research participants, ensure reproducibility, maintain public trust in science, and uphold the integrity of the scholarly record.
This guide covers the essential declarations and compliance elements that Research and Science Today requires from all submitting authors, in alignment with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), and the practices of leading international publishers.
Ethics Approval and Informed Consent
Any research involving human participants, human tissue, or identifiable human data requires approval from an institutional ethics committee (also known as an Institutional Review Board, or IRB). The approval must be obtained before the research is conducted — retrospective approval is not acceptable.
Your manuscript must state the name of the approving ethics committee, the approval reference number, and confirm that informed consent was obtained from all participants (or their legal guardians, in the case of minors). For research involving vulnerable populations, additional safeguards may apply. If your study is exempt from ethics review (for example, because it uses only publicly available anonymized data), state this explicitly and explain why.
For animal research, state the institutional and national guidelines followed, the ethics approval obtained, and confirm compliance with the ARRIVE guidelines or equivalent reporting standards.
Author Contributions
Every manuscript must include a statement specifying the contribution of each named author. This requirement, mandated by the ICMJE and adopted by virtually all international journals, serves two purposes: it ensures that everyone who made a substantive intellectual contribution receives appropriate credit, and it establishes accountability for specific aspects of the work.
Use a recognized taxonomy such as the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) system, which defines 14 standard contribution categories including conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, writing — original draft, writing — review and editing, supervision, and funding acquisition. Each author should be associated with at least one role, and each role should be associated with at least one author.
All listed authors must have approved the final version of the manuscript and agreed to be accountable for the work. Individuals who contributed to the research but do not meet authorship criteria (for example, those who provided technical assistance or data access) should be acknowledged in the Acknowledgements section, with their permission.
Conflict of Interest Disclosure
All authors must declare any financial or non-financial interests that could be perceived as influencing the research or its interpretation. Financial interests include funding, employment, consultancy fees, stock ownership, patents, or paid expert testimony. Non-financial interests include membership on advisory boards, personal relationships with people involved in the research, or strongly held ideological positions relevant to the topic.
If no conflicts exist, include an explicit statement: “The authors declare no conflicts of interest.” The absence of a declaration is not equivalent to a declaration of no conflicts — and its omission will delay or prevent publication.
Funding Statement
Disclose all sources of financial support for the research, including grant numbers and the names of funding organizations. Specify the role of the funder — did they influence the study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, or the decision to submit for publication? If the funder had no role in these processes, state this explicitly.
If the research received no external funding, include a statement to that effect. Transparency about funding is essential for readers to assess potential sources of bias.
Data Availability
Research and Science Today supports the principles of open science and expects authors to make the data underlying their findings available to the extent permitted by ethical and legal constraints. Your manuscript must include a Data Availability Statement specifying one of the following:
- Open access. Data are publicly available in a named repository (e.g., Zenodo, Figshare, Dryad, institutional repository), with a DOI or persistent identifier provided.
- Available on request. Data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request, with an explanation of any restrictions.
- Restricted access. Data cannot be shared due to ethical, legal, or contractual constraints (e.g., patient confidentiality, proprietary data). The specific nature of the restriction must be stated.
- Not applicable. The study did not generate new data (e.g., theoretical work, commentary, review articles).
When depositing data in a repository, ensure that sensitive or personally identifiable information is removed or anonymized. The goal is to enable verification and replication of your findings without compromising participant privacy or violating legal requirements.
Originality and Prior Publication
By submitting to Research and Science Today, you confirm that the manuscript is original, has not been published previously in any form (including as a preprint, unless the journal’s policy permits this), and is not currently under consideration by another journal. Simultaneous submission — sending the same manuscript to multiple journals at the same time — is a serious breach of publication ethics and may result in a ban from future submissions.
If the manuscript builds on previously published work (for example, by extending an analysis with new data), the prior publication must be cited and the new contribution clearly distinguished. If any portion of the manuscript has been previously published — including in conference proceedings, theses, or institutional reports — disclose this in your cover letter.
Plagiarism and Textual Integrity
All submissions are screened for textual similarity using automated plagiarism detection tools. Excessive overlap with published work — whether your own or others’ — may lead to rejection or, if discovered after publication, retraction. Self-plagiarism (recycling substantial portions of your own previously published text without attribution) is treated with the same seriousness as plagiarism of others’ work.
When paraphrasing or building on existing work, ensure that you are genuinely restating ideas in your own words and properly citing the source. Block-copying text — even from your own prior publications — and making superficial word changes does not constitute original writing.
AI Disclosure
If you used generative AI tools (such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, or similar systems) at any stage of research or manuscript preparation, you must declare this. Specify the tool, the version, the date of use, and the tasks for which it was employed. AI-assisted copy editing (basic grammar and spelling corrections) does not require disclosure; generative use (drafting, summarizing, translating, analyzing) does. See our detailed article on AI-assisted writing for complete guidance.
A Note on Compliance Across Disciplines
Research and Science Today publishes across a wide range of disciplines, and we recognize that compliance requirements vary by field. A clinical trial in medicine requires different declarations than a computational study in data science or a historical analysis in the humanities. However, the core principles — transparency, accountability, reproducibility, and respect for human dignity — apply universally. When in doubt about what disclosures are required for your specific type of research, contact the editorial office before submission. We are here to help.
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This article is aligned with the COPE Core Practices. Research and Science Today operates in full compliance with COPE principles.