To give appropriate credit to each author, the individual contributions of authors should be specified in the manuscript.
An 'author' is generally considered to be someone who has made substantive intellectual contributions to a published study. We recommend that that you adhere to the guidelines for authorship that are applicable in your research field or, in the absence of any guidelines, to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) guidelines. According to the ICMJE guidelines, to qualify as an author one should have:
- made substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data;
- been involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content;
- given final approval of the version to be published. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content; and
- agreed 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.
Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group, alone, does not usually justify authorship.
Please see individual journal's Instructions for Authors for information on the format for listing author contributions.
Authors wishing to make changes to authorship will be asked to complete our change of authorship form. Please note that changes to authorship cannot be made after acceptance of a manuscript.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an ‘Acknowledgements’ section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help or writing assistance, or a department chair who provided only general support.
SCIENTIFIC (MEDICAL) WRITERS
The involvement of scientific (medical) writers or anyone else who assisted with the preparation of the manuscript content should be acknowledged, along with their source of funding, as described in the European Medical Writers Association (EMWA) guidelines. The role of medical writers should be acknowledged explicitly in the ‘Acknowledgements’ or ‘Authors’ contributions’ section as appropriate.
CITATIONS
Research articles and non-research articles (e.g. Opinion, Review, and Commentary articles) must cite appropriate and relevant literature in support of the claims made. Excessive and inappropriate self-citation or coordinated efforts among several authors to collectively self-cite is strongly discouraged.
Authors should consider the following guidelines when preparing their manuscript:
- Any statement in the manuscript that relies on external sources of information (i.e. not the authors' own new ideas or findings or general knowledge) should use a citation.
- Authors should avoid citing derivations of original work. For example, they should cite the original work rather than a review article that cites an original work.
- Authors should ensure that their citations are accurate (i.e. they should ensure the citation supports the statement made in their manuscript and should not misrepresent another work by citing it if it does not support the point the authors wish to make).
- Authors should not cite sources that they have not read.
- Authors should not preferentially cite their own or their friends’, peers’, or institution’s publications.
- Authors should avoid citing work solely from one country.
- Authors should not use an excessive number of citations to support one point.
- Ideally, authors should cite sources that have undergone peer review where possible.
- Authors should not cite advertisements or advertorial material.
DUPLICATION PUBLICATION
Any manuscript submitted to a Science and Technology Development Journal journal must be original and the manuscript, or substantial parts of it, must not be under consideration by any other journal. In any case where there is the potential for overlap or duplication we require that authors are transparent. Authors should declare any potentially overlapping publications on submission. Any overlapping publications should be cited. Any ‘in press’ or unpublished manuscript cited, or relevant to the Editor’s and reviewers' assessment of the manuscript, should be made available if requested by the Editor. Science and Technology Development Journal reserves the right to judge potentially overlapping or redundant publications on a case-by-case basis.
In general, the manuscript should not already have been formally published in any journal or in any other citable form. If justified and made clear upon submission, there are exceptions to this rule. Details of these exceptions follow below and are also summarized in table 1.
Science and Technology Development Journal is a member of CrossCheck’s plagiarism detection initiative and takes seriously all cases of publication misconduct. Any suspected cases of covert duplicate manuscript submission will be handled as outlined in the COPE guidelines and the Editor may contact the authors’ institution (see [Misconduct] policy for more information).
COMPLETE MANUSCRIPTS
Co-publication in multiple journals
If transparent, and with prior agreement of the relevant journals and under the conditions specified in the ICMJE guidelines, co-publication in multiple journals will be considered at the Editor's discretion.
Health technology assessment
The reports of the NHS Health Technology Assessment (HTA) programme are freely accessible in full online. At the Editor's discretion, Science and Technology Development Journal will consider full or shortened versions of these articles for peer review.
Pre-print servers and author/institutional repositories
Posting a manuscript on a pre-print server such as ArXiv, bioRxiv, Peer J PrePrints, or similar platforms (both commercial and non-commercial) is not considered to be duplicate publication. Science and Technology Development Journal will also consider peer reviewing manuscripts that have been posted on an author's personal or institutional website. Material that has formed part of an academic thesis and been placed in the public domain, as required by the awarding institution, will also be considered by Science and Technology Development Journal.
Science and Technology Development Journal encourages [self-archiving] by authors of manuscripts accepted for publication in its journals.
Translations into English
Authors should comply with the ICMJE guidelines and seek approval from the original publisher to check that they do not breach the copyright terms of the original publication and that the original publisher gives permission for publication of the translation under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0.
INCOMPLETE MANUSCRIPTS
Abridged articles
At the Editor's discretion, some Science and Technology Development Journal will consider manuscripts that are substantially extended versions of articles that have previously been published in another peer-reviewed journal. The journal Trials, in particular, actively encourages this. In such cases the prior publication of an abridged version of the article would therefore not preclude publication, provided the new manuscript represents a substantially novel contribution to the scientific record. If applicable, the authors should seek approval from the original publisher before submitting the extended version of the manuscript.
Abstracts/posters
Prior abstracts of up to 400 words and posters presented at, or published as part of, academic meetings do not preclude consideration for peer review of a full manuscript, as the full manuscript represents a formal advance to the citable scientific record. Published abstracts should be cited. Authors should be aware that many conference proceedings exceed the allowable word limit and constitute a citable form.
Datasets
Making scientific data sets publicly available before associated manuscripts are submitted will not preclude consideration by a Science and Technology Development Journal. Because an increasing number of research funding agencies require that their grant holders share the 'raw data' research outputs, such data sharing is encouraged by Science and Technology Development Journal, provided appropriate safeguards are in place to protect personal or sensitive information.
Non-research articles
Authors of non-research articles (usually commissioned reviews and commentaries) can include figures and tables that have been previously published in other journals provided they confirm on submission that permission has been obtained from the original publisher (if applicable) and cite the original article. Documentary evidence to support this permission must be made available to the Editor on request.
In order to avoid the potential for self-plagiarism, inadvertently or otherwise, authors agreeing to write commissioned articles should notify the Editor of any recent publications or invitations to write on a similar topic.
Open science
If authors have previously discussed or posted their own data in venues such as blogs, wikis, social networking websites, or online electronic lab notebooks, they are still able to submit their findings to Science and Technology Development Journal. However, given the rapidly evolving nature of these resources, where discussion of data or manuscripts posted to these venues has subsequently been incorporated into the manuscript, the Editor will make their own assessment as to whether there may be duplication in the submitted manuscript.
Study protocols
Publication of study protocols reduces the risk of non-publication of research findings and facilitates methodological discussion, and is encouraged by a number of Science and Technology Development Journal. Therefore prior publication of a study protocol before submission of a manuscript reporting the results is not considered duplicate publication.
Summary clinical trial results in public registries
Posting of summary clinical trial results in publicly accessible databases is generally not considered duplicate publication. Science and Technology Development Journal requires authors of manuscripts reporting clinical trials to have registered their trial in a suitably accessible registry (see our [Trial Registration] policy for more information). In the US, submission of trial results to ClinicalTrials.gov is a statutory requirement.
Table 1. Generally permissible and non-permissible forms of duplicate/overlapping publication
| Previous publication | Guidance on permissibility |
| Abridged articles | At the Editor's discretion, provided there is agreement from the original journal/publisher and the original publication is cited |
| Abstracts up to 400 words or posters presented at scientific meetings | Yes - published abstracts should be cited |
| Co-publication in multiple journals | At the Editor's discretion and with conditions, as outlined in the ICMJE guidelines |
| Cochrane systematic reviews | No, unless original or substantially updated |
| Datasets in public or restricted access repositories | Yes - datasets should be cited in/hyperlinked from the manuscript if possible |
| Figures and tables in non-research articles | Yes, if, where applicable, permission has been obtained from the original publisher by the submitting author |
| Health Technology Assessment reports | At the Editor's discretion - contact the Editor for more information |
| Open science: data posted and discussed on wikis, blogs, online electronic lab notebooks, networking websites incorporated into submitted manuscript | Yes, usually permissible |
| Pre-print servers, including authors' personal and institutional websites | Yes |
| Study protocol published | Yes - published protocols should be cited |
| Summary results in clinical trial registries | Yes - accession number should be included in the abstract |
| Translations into English | At the Editor's discretion, provided there is agreement from the original journal/publisher, no breach of copyright and the original publication is cited. |
TEXT RECYCLING
Authors should be aware that replication of text from their own previous publications is text recycling (also referred to as self-plagiarism), and in some cases is considered unacceptable. Where overlap of text with authors’ own previous publications is necessary or unavoidable, duplication must always be reported transparently and be properly attributed and compliant with copyright requirements.
If a mansucript contains text that has been published elsewhere, authors should notify the Editor of this on submission.
CONFIDENTIALITY
Editors will treat all manuscripts submitted to Science and Technology Development Journal in confidence. Science and Technology Development Journal adheres to COPE’s Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers. Reviewers are therefore required to respect the confidentiality of the peer review process and not reveal any details of a manuscript or its review, during or after the peer-review process, beyond the information released by the journal. If reviewers wish to involve a colleague in the review process they should first obtain permission from the journal. The Editor should be informed of the names of any individuals who assisted in the review process when the report is returned.
Science and Technology Development Journal will not share manuscripts with third parties outside of Science and Technology Development Journal except in cases of suspected misconduct.
CORRECTIONS AND RETRACTIONS
Rarely, it may be necessary for Science and Technology Development Journal to publish corrections to, or retractions of, articles published in its journals, so as to maintain the integrity of the academic record.
In line with Science and Technology Development Journal policy, corrections to, or retractions of, published articles will be made by publishing an Erratum or a Retraction article, without altering the original article in any way other than to add a prominent link to the Erratum/Retraction article. The original article remains in the public domain and the subsequent Erratum or Retraction will be widely indexed. In the exceptional event that material is considered to infringe certain rights or is defamatory, we may have to remove that material from our site and archive sites.
CORRECTIONS
Changes to published articles that affect the interpretation and conclusion of the article, but do not fully invalidate the article, will, at the Editor(s)’ discretion, be corrected via publication of an Erratum that is indexed and linked to the original article.
RETRACTIONS
On rare occasions, when the scientific information in an article is substantially undermined, it may be necessary for published articles to be retracted. Science and Technology Development Journal will follow the COPE guidelines in such cases. Retraction articles are indexed and linked to the original article.
