Publication Ethics

This Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement sets out the standards expected of everyone involved in publishing in the Journal of Materials Research Communications: authors, editors, reviewers and the publisher. It is based on the guidance and Core Practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Duties of authors

• Originality: submitted work must be original and must not have been published, or be under consideration, elsewhere. Posting a preprint is permitted. The work and words of others must be appropriately cited or quoted.
• Accuracy: authors must present an accurate account of the work performed and an objective discussion of its significance. Fabrication, falsification and selective reporting of data are unacceptable.
• Image integrity: images must not be altered in any way that obscures, removes or misrepresents a feature of the original data. Adjustments to brightness, contrast or colour balance must be applied to the whole image and must not change the information it conveys.
• Data access: authors should be able to provide the raw data on which the article is based and should follow the Research Data Policy.
• Multiple and redundant publication: authors must not publish substantially the same research in more than one journal, and must disclose any related manuscripts under consideration elsewhere.
• Disclosure: all sources of funding and any competing interests must be declared.
• Errors in published work: authors who discover a significant error in their published article must notify the journal promptly and cooperate in correcting or retracting it.

Authorship

JMRC follows the authorship criteria of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). Each author should have made a substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work, or to the acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data; drafted the manuscript or revised it critically; approved the final version; and agreed to be accountable for the work. People who contributed but do not meet these criteria should be acknowledged. Author contributions are described using the CRediT taxonomy.

Any change to the author list after submission (an addition, a removal or a change in order) requires the written agreement of all authors and the approval of the editor. Generative AI tools cannot be listed as authors; see the Generative AI Policy.

Duties of editors

• Evaluate manuscripts fairly and solely on their scientific merit and relevance, without regard to the authors' gender, ethnic origin, religion, citizenship, institution or political views.
• Maintain the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts and of the identities of reviewers.
• Declare competing interests and recuse themselves from handling manuscripts in which they have a conflict.
• Ensure that peer review is fair, timely and rigorous, and that editorial decisions are independent of commercial considerations.
• Respond promptly to concerns about research integrity, following COPE guidance.

Duties of reviewers

• Provide an objective, constructive and timely assessment, and decline invitations for which they lack the expertise or the time.
• Treat manuscripts as confidential documents and never use unpublished information for their own advantage.
• Declare any competing interest and decline to review where a conflict exists.
• Alert the editor to any suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication or manipulation of data.
• Never upload manuscripts to generative AI tools or other external services.

Duties of the publisher

The publisher supports the editors in upholding these standards, safeguards editorial independence, ensures the long-term preservation of published content, and works with the editors to correct the scholarly record when necessary.

Competing interests

A competing interest exists when professional judgement about the work could be influenced, or could be seen to be influenced, by a secondary interest such as financial gain, a personal relationship or academic rivalry. Authors, reviewers and editors must declare all relevant financial and non-financial interests. Relevant interests declared by authors are published with the article.

Research involving humans or animals

Research involving human participants, human tissue or data, or animals must have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee and carried out in accordance with the relevant laws and guidelines, such as the Declaration of Helsinki and the ARRIVE guidelines. Informed consent must be obtained where applicable, and the approving body and approval number must be stated in the manuscript.

Intellectual property

Authors must ensure that they have the right to publish all of the material in their manuscript, including permission to reproduce previously published figures or tables. Patentable or commercially sensitive results should be protected before submission.

Handling allegations of misconduct

JMRC takes all allegations of research or publication misconduct seriously, including plagiarism, fabrication or falsification of data, image manipulation, duplicate publication, authorship disputes, citation manipulation and undisclosed conflicts of interest. Allegations are investigated confidentially following the COPE flowcharts. The authors are given the opportunity to respond, and the journal may contact their institutions or funders. Outcomes can include rejection of a manuscript under consideration, a correction, an expression of concern or a retraction.

Preprints

Authors may post preprints of their manuscripts on recognised preprint servers at any time. Please tell the journal about any preprint when you submit, and link the preprint to the published article after publication.

Reporting a concern

Concerns about any manuscript or published article can be sent in confidence to the editorial office at editor@jmrconline.com, with “Ethics” in the subject line. Anonymous concerns are considered if they are supported by sufficient evidence.