Ethics

The Publication Ethics, Rights and Malpractice

Publication Ethics, Rights and Malpractice Statement

Medicine and Materials is committed to maintaining high standards of publication ethics, research integrity, editorial independence, transparency, and responsible scholarly publishing. The journal follows the principles and Core Practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and takes into account relevant recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), the Council of Science Editors (CSE), the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), and the EQUATOR Network.

  1. GENERAL PRINCIPLES

1.1 Alignment with International Editorial Standards

Medicine and Materials follows internationally recognized principles of responsible editorial practice and research integrity, including:

The publisher and editors take reasonable measures to identify and prevent publication of manuscripts involving plagiarism, data fabrication, falsification, inappropriate image manipulation, unethical research practices, citation manipulation, inappropriate authorship, undisclosed conflicts of interest, duplicate or redundant publication, peer-review manipulation, or other forms of research misconduct.

Research and publication misconduct are not tolerated. The journal, publisher, editors, reviewers, and authors must not knowingly encourage or permit unethical publishing practices.

1.2 Editorial Independence

The Editorial Board operates independently in all editorial decisions. Financial support, institutional relationships, sponsorship, Article Publication Charges, or other commercial considerations do not influence peer review or decisions regarding acceptance, rejection, correction, or retraction.

Editorial decisions are based on scientific quality, originality, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, relevance to the journal’s scope, and independent peer-review evaluation.

 

  1. BUSINESS MODEL, REVENUE AND TRANSPARENCY

2.1 Revenue Sources and Business Model

Medicine and Materials operates under a Gold Open Access publishing model and is funded primarily through Article Publication Charges (APCs) and financial support provided by ResearchMD SRL.

Revenue sources do not influence editorial policies, peer review, or publication decisions.

2.2 Publication Fees

The journal applies an Article Publication Charge (APC) of 300 EUR, payable only after formal acceptance following peer review.

No submission fee or retraction fee is charged.

Payment of the APC, or an author’s ability to pay, does not influence peer review or editorial decisions.

Any waiver or reduction policy, where applicable, is administered separately from the editorial decision-making process.

2.3 Advertising and Marketing Policy

The journal does not accept advertising, sponsored editorial content, or marketing-related material within published scientific articles.

Editorial decisions are independent of commercial interests.

 

  1. OPEN ACCESS AND COPYRIGHT POLICY

3.1 Open Access Policy

Medicine and Materials is an OPEN ACCESS journal. All published content is freely available to readers without subscription or access charges.

Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

Users are permitted to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, link to, reuse, and adapt published material, including for commercial purposes, provided that appropriate credit is given to the original author(s) and source, a link to the license is provided, and any changes are indicated.

3.2 Copyright and Authors’ Rights

Authors retain copyright in their published work.

By submitting a manuscript to Medicine and Materials, authors grant the journal a non-exclusive worldwide right to publish, distribute, reproduce, communicate, and archive the accepted article in all appropriate formats and media.

Authors have the right to:

  • deposit the submitted manuscript in an appropriate preprint repository;
  • deposit the accepted manuscript in institutional or subject repositories;
  • deposit and share the published Version of Record;
  • share the article through personal or institutional websites and academic platforms;
  • reuse their work in future publications, books, lectures, teaching materials, and other scholarly works with appropriate citation.

The publisher imposes no restrictions beyond those associated with the CC BY 4.0 license.

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyrighted third-party material, including photographs, screenshots, figures, tables, maps, graphics, or other protected content.

3.3 Publication Fee

The Article Publication Charge is 300 EUR and is payable only after formal acceptance.

No submission or retraction fee is applied.

Medicine and Materials publishes four regular issues per year, normally in March, June, September, and December, and may also publish Special Issues or thematic collections.

 

  1. DIGITAL ARCHIVING AND PRESERVATION POLICY

4.1 Backup Systems

The journal maintains multiple copies of its website and published content through independent server and backup systems in order to reduce the risk of data loss.

4.2 Website and Content Preservation

Electronic journal content, including published articles and essential website data, is maintained on multiple storage and backup systems. These backups support restoration in the event of technical failure.

4.3 Metadata Preservation

Bibliographic metadata and article information are distributed to DOI registration, abstracting, indexing, and other scholarly information services where applicable. These services provide additional records through which published articles can be identified and located.

4.4 Long-Term Availability

The publisher is committed to maintaining access to the scholarly record and preserving published content for the long term.

If the journal ceases publication, reasonable measures will be taken to preserve access to previously published content through available archival, repository, DOI, and indexing infrastructure.

4.5 Repository Policy

Authors are permitted to deposit:

  • the submitted manuscript (preprint);
  • the accepted manuscript (postprint);
  • the published Version of Record (PDF).

Deposited versions should include the full citation and DOI of the published article when available.

Authors are encouraged to use recognized institutional or subject repositories. Appropriate repositories may be identified through the Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR).

 

  1. PUBLICATION ETHICS AND RESEARCH INTEGRITY

5.1 Ethical Oversight and Pre-Publication Checks

Research misconduct is not tolerated.

Submitted manuscripts are screened for textual similarity using plagiarism-detection software. The journal may also investigate undisclosed or inappropriate use of AI-assisted technologies; however, editorial decisions are not based solely on automated AI-detection tools.

The editorial screening process may also verify, where applicable:

  • authorship and contributorship;
  • Conflicts of Interest;
  • funding information;
  • ethical approval and protocol numbers;
  • informed consent;
  • clinical trial registration;
  • appropriate EQUATOR reporting guidelines;
  • Data Availability statements;
  • review-article search methodologies;
  • AI-use disclosures.

5.2 Editorial Oversight and Citation Integrity

The journal maintains editorial oversight to ensure responsible citation practices.

Editors and reviewers must not:

  • encourage excessive or inappropriate self-citation;
  • require citation of particular articles without legitimate scholarly justification;
  • request citations primarily to increase the citation metrics of an author, reviewer, journal, institution, or publisher;
  • otherwise manipulate citation patterns.

References should be relevant to the manuscript, accurately represented, and consulted by the authors.

5.3 Plagiarism, Fabrication, Falsification and Image Manipulation

Authors must report their methods, results, and conclusions accurately and transparently.

The journal considers plagiarism, data fabrication, data falsification, inappropriate image manipulation, invented references, misleading presentation of results, and deliberate misrepresentation of research to constitute serious breaches of research integrity.

Manuscripts presenting substantial unattributed overlap or other serious integrity concerns may be rejected. Concerns discovered after publication may result in correction, Expression of Concern, retraction, or other appropriate action.

5.4 Duplicate and Redundant Publication

Authors must not submit the same manuscript simultaneously to more than one journal.

Previously published work must not be republished as original research. Substantial overlap with previous publications must be transparently identified, appropriately referenced, and scientifically justified.

Secondary publication may be considered only where ethically and legally appropriate, clearly identified as such, appropriately cross-referenced, and consistent with relevant ICMJE recommendations.

5.5 Data and Supporting Evidence

The journal supports transparency and openness regarding research data, protocols, code, and other supporting materials.

Authors must maintain accurate records of data and evidence supporting their research and should make such information available when reasonably required for editorial or scientific verification, subject to ethical, legal, confidentiality, privacy, or intellectual-property limitations.

Research manuscripts should include a Data Availability Statement describing where supporting data can be accessed or explaining why access is restricted.

Authors are encouraged to deposit appropriate data, protocols, code, and supplementary materials in recognized repositories whenever possible.

The journal may request raw or underlying data during editorial assessment or following publication when necessary to investigate questions concerning research integrity.

5.6 Artificial Intelligence and AI-Assisted Technologies

Medicine and Materials follows relevant ICMJE and WAME principles concerning the responsible use of artificial intelligence and AI-assisted technologies in scholarly publishing.

Artificial intelligence tools, language models, chatbots, and other AI-assisted technologies cannot be listed as authors or co-authors because they cannot assume responsibility or accountability for published work.

Authors remain fully responsible for all submitted content, including its accuracy, originality, references, interpretations, images, data, and compliance with ethical and copyright requirements.

When generative AI or AI-assisted technologies have been used in preparing or substantively modifying manuscript text, images, data analysis, coding, or other research-related content, authors must transparently disclose such use.

The disclosure should identify the tool and describe the purpose for which it was used.

Where AI-assisted technology has been used as part of the research methodology, its use should be described in sufficient detail in the Methods section to permit appropriate scientific evaluation and, where possible, reproducibility.

Routine spelling, grammar, or conventional language-editing tools that do not generate substantive intellectual content generally do not require the same level of disclosure.

Authors must verify AI-generated or AI-assisted output and must not rely on AI systems as authoritative scientific sources. AI-generated citations or references must be independently verified against the original source.

Editors and reviewers must maintain manuscript confidentiality and must not upload submitted manuscripts, figures, unpublished data, supplementary files, or confidential peer-review material to generative AI systems or other external platforms where confidentiality and data protection cannot be assured.

5.7 Authorship and Contributorship

Authorship must comply with the ICMJE authorship criteria.

All listed authors must:

  1. have made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work, or to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data;
  2. have participated in drafting the manuscript or critically revising it for important intellectual content;
  3. have approved the final version to be published;
  4. agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work and for appropriately resolving questions related to its accuracy or integrity.

Individuals who contributed to the work but do not satisfy all authorship criteria should be acknowledged rather than listed as authors.

The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all listed authors meet the authorship criteria, approve the final manuscript, approve its submission, and agree with the Author Contributions statement.

All research articles must include an Author Contributions statement. The journal recommends the use of the CRediT Contributor Roles Taxonomy to describe individual contributions transparently.

Example:

Author Contributions: Conceptualization, A.A. and B.B.; Methodology, A.A.; Investigation, B.B. and C.C.; Data Curation, C.C.; Writing – Original Draft Preparation, A.A.; Writing – Review & Editing, B.B. and C.C.; Supervision, C.C. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Authors are encouraged to provide their ORCID iDs, and the corresponding author should provide an ORCID iD whenever available.

5.8 Conflicts and Competing Interests

Authors must disclose all financial and non-financial relationships or activities that could reasonably be perceived to influence the submitted work.

These may include:

  • financial relationships;
  • employment or consultancy;
  • institutional relationships;
  • research funding;
  • patent interests;
  • stock or ownership interests;
  • personal or professional relationships;
  • other relevant competing interests.

Every published article must contain a Conflicts of Interest statement, including when no conflicts exist.

Reviewers and editors must also disclose relevant conflicts of interest and recuse themselves where impartiality could reasonably be questioned.

5.9 Funding Disclosure

All sources of financial support must be disclosed, including the funding body and grant number where applicable.

Authors should also disclose the role of the funder in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, or the decision to publish where relevant.

If no external funding was received, authors should state:

Funding: This research received no external funding.

5.10 Intellectual Property

Authors retain copyright under the CC BY 4.0 license and are responsible for ensuring that submitted material does not unlawfully infringe third-party intellectual-property rights.

Authors are responsible for:

  • obtaining permission for copyrighted figures, photographs, tables, maps, and other protected material;
  • properly identifying and licensing third-party content;
  • disclosing relevant patents or patent applications;
  • respecting trademarks and proprietary information.

The journal will investigate substantiated intellectual-property complaints and take appropriate action where necessary.

 

  1. ETHICAL REQUIREMENTS FOR HUMAN AND ANIMAL RESEARCH

6.1 Research Involving Human Participants

Research involving human participants, identifiable human material, or identifiable human data must comply with applicable institutional, national, and international ethical standards and, where applicable, the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki.

Where ethical review is required, manuscripts must clearly state:

  • the full name of the Institutional Review Board or Ethics Committee;
  • the ethics approval or protocol number;
  • the approval date, where applicable;
  • that appropriate ethical approval was obtained before the research was conducted.

The article should include a statement such as:

Institutional Review Board Statement: The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Ethics Committee of [institution] (protocol no. XXX; date of approval: DD Month YYYY).

If formal ethical approval was not required or was waived, authors must provide the reason and, where applicable, identify the authority granting the exemption or waiver.

6.2 Informed Consent

Where applicable, authors must obtain written informed consent from participants before their inclusion in research.

The manuscript must contain an Informed Consent Statement such as:

Informed Consent Statement: Written informed consent was obtained from all participants involved in the study.

If informed consent was waived, the manuscript must explain the reason and identify the responsible ethics authority where applicable.

6.3 Consent for Publication and Patient Privacy

Authors must protect the privacy and confidentiality of research participants and patients.

Written consent for publication must be obtained when a manuscript contains identifiable personal information, photographs, imaging, case details, or other material from which an individual could reasonably be identified.

Unnecessary identifying information must be removed.

6.4 Case Reports

Case reports involving identifiable patients must follow appropriate ethical and privacy requirements and should comply with the CARE reporting guideline.

Written informed consent for publication must be obtained from the patient or an authorized representative where required.

6.5 Research Involving Animals

Animal research must comply with applicable institutional, national, and international animal-welfare standards.

Where applicable, studies should comply with Directive 2010/63/EU on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes and with relevant institutional animal-care requirements.

Authors must report:

  • the approving animal ethics committee or competent authority;
  • the approval or protocol number;
  • relevant animal-welfare standards;
  • appropriate details concerning animal care and experimental procedures.

Animal studies should be reported in accordance with the ARRIVE guidelines where applicable.

 

  1. REPORTING STANDARDS FOR HEALTH RESEARCH

7.1 EQUATOR Network Reporting Guidelines

Authors are expected to use the reporting guideline appropriate to their study design. Medicine and Materials supports the recommendations of the EQUATOR Network.

Relevant guidelines include, but are not limited to:

  • CONSORT – randomized controlled trials;
  • STROBE – observational studies;
  • PRISMA – systematic reviews and meta-analyses;
  • CARE – case reports;
  • STARD – diagnostic accuracy studies;
  • SPIRIT – clinical trial protocols;
  • TRIPOD – prediction model studies;
  • ARRIVE – animal research;
  • COREQ/SRQR – qualitative research;
  • CHEERS – health economic evaluations;
  • SQUIRE – quality-improvement studies.

Authors should identify the applicable reporting guideline in the manuscript and may be required to submit the corresponding completed checklist as supplementary material.

7.2 Clinical Trial Registration

Prospective clinical trials should be registered in an appropriate publicly accessible clinical trial registry in accordance with applicable ICMJE recommendations.

The registry name and registration number must be provided in the manuscript where applicable.

 

  1. REVIEW ARTICLES AND EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS

8.1 Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses must provide a transparent and reproducible methodology and should comply with PRISMA or another appropriate reporting guideline.

Authors should report, where applicable:

  • databases and information sources searched;
  • date range covered;
  • date of the final search;
  • complete or reproducible search strategy;
  • keywords, search terms, and Boolean operators;
  • inclusion and exclusion criteria;
  • study-selection procedures;
  • risk-of-bias or quality assessment;
  • protocol registration, where applicable;
  • PRISMA flow diagram.

8.2 Narrative Reviews

Narrative reviews must provide sufficient transparency regarding how the literature was identified and selected.

Authors should report:

  • databases or information sources consulted;
  • the literature-search period;
  • principal search terms or concepts;
  • criteria used to select the literature;
  • date of the literature search where applicable.

Narrative reviews should provide a sufficiently comprehensive, balanced, and current bibliography appropriate to the breadth of the subject addressed.

The journal does not impose an arbitrary minimum number of references; adequacy of the literature base is assessed in relation to the scope, subject, and claims of the review.

 

  1. PEER REVIEW PROCESS AND ETHICS

Medicine and Materials uses single-blind peer review. Manuscripts proceeding to external evaluation are reviewed by at least two independent experts with relevant scientific expertise.

The detailed peer-review workflow is described on the journal’s Editorial Process and Peer Review page.

9.1 Reviewer Responsibilities

Reviewers must:

  • accept review assignments only within their area of expertise;
  • maintain strict confidentiality;
  • provide objective, constructive, evidence-based, and respectful comments;
  • declare conflicts of interest;
  • decline review where impartiality cannot be maintained;
  • not use unpublished information obtained through peer review for personal, academic, professional, or commercial advantage;
  • alert editors to suspected plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, duplicate publication, image manipulation, or other ethical concerns;
  • not misrepresent their identity, affiliation, qualifications, or expertise;
  • not contact authors directly regarding a manuscript under review.

9.2 Confidentiality and AI Use by Reviewers and Editors

Reviewers and editors must not upload confidential manuscripts, figures, supplementary information, unpublished research data, or peer-review material to publicly accessible generative AI systems or other external services where confidentiality and data protection cannot be assured.

AI-assisted technologies cannot replace reviewer or editor judgment. Reviewers and editors remain fully responsible for the integrity and content of their assessments and decisions.

9.3 Submissions from Editors and Editorial Board Members

Manuscripts authored by the Editor-in-Chief, editors, Editorial Board members, or other persons closely associated with the journal are subject to the same peer-review standards as all other submissions.

Such manuscripts must be handled by an independent editor without a relevant conflict of interest. The author-editor must not participate in reviewer selection, peer-review management, or the editorial decision concerning their own manuscript.

9.4 Special Issues

Special Issues and guest-edited collections are subject to the same peer-review, research-integrity, ethical, and editorial requirements as regular issues.

Guest Editors must declare conflicts of interest. Manuscripts authored by Guest Editors must be handled independently by the Editor-in-Chief or another editor without a relevant conflict of interest.

The Editor-in-Chief retains overall responsibility for editorial standards and the integrity of the peer-review process.

9.5 Review Time

The typical peer-review and editorial process may require approximately 4–24 weeks, depending on reviewer availability, manuscript complexity, revision requirements, and editorial assessment.

Requests for revision do not guarantee eventual acceptance.

 

  1. CORRECTIONS, ADDENDA, EXPRESSIONS OF CONCERN AND RETRACTIONS

10.1 Preservation of the Scholarly Record

The journal is committed to maintaining an accurate and trustworthy scholarly record.

When a significant error, omission, or ethical concern is identified after publication, the journal may issue an appropriate post-publication notice.

Possible actions include:

  • Erratum;
  • Corrigendum;
  • Addendum;
  • Expression of Concern;
  • Retraction.

Corrections and other notices must clearly identify and link to the original article. Where appropriate, the original article should also contain a link to the associated correction or notice.

Retractions are handled in accordance with COPE guidance. Retracted articles remain part of the scholarly record and are clearly identified as retracted rather than silently removed.

The journal does not permit authors or editors to silently alter substantive scientific or ethical information in the Version of Record after publication.

10.2 Author Responsibility for Corrections

Authors must promptly notify the journal if they discover a significant error or inaccuracy in their published work and must cooperate with the journal in correcting the scholarly record.

 

  1. IDENTIFICATION AND HANDLING OF RESEARCH MISCONDUCT

Potential misconduct may include, but is not limited to:

  • plagiarism;
  • data fabrication or falsification;
  • inappropriate image manipulation;
  • citation manipulation;
  • duplicate or redundant publication;
  • inappropriate authorship;
  • undisclosed conflicts of interest;
  • ethical violations involving human or animal research;
  • peer-review manipulation;
  • misrepresentation of research methods or results.

When a credible allegation is received, the journal may:

  1. conduct a preliminary assessment;
  2. contact the corresponding author and, where necessary, other authors;
  3. request original data or supporting documentation;
  4. seek independent expert assessment;
  5. contact the relevant institution, ethics committee, funder, or competent authority when appropriate;
  6. follow applicable COPE guidance and flowcharts.

An Expression of Concern may be issued while a significant investigation is ongoing if readers need to be alerted to potential concerns.

If misconduct is confirmed, actions may include:

  • rejection of the manuscript;
  • correction or addendum;
  • Expression of Concern;
  • retraction;
  • notification of the relevant institution or authority;
  • temporary or permanent restriction on future submissions in serious cases.

Investigations are conducted as fairly, confidentially, and impartially as reasonably possible.

 

  1. APPEALS AND COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE

12.1 Appeals

Authors may appeal an editorial decision by submitting a reasoned written request explaining the scientific or procedural basis for the appeal.

Appeals should address the specific issues raised in the editorial decision or peer-review reports and should not consist solely of disagreement with the outcome.

Appeals may be reviewed by an editor who was not directly responsible for the original decision and may involve additional independent expert assessment.

The decision reached after completion of the appeal procedure is final.

12.2 Complaints

Complaints concerning editorial handling, peer review, publication ethics, conflicts of interest, or other aspects of journal conduct are treated seriously and confidentially.

Complaints are considered in accordance with the journal’s policies and applicable COPE principles.

No retaliatory editorial action will be taken against an author, reviewer, or other individual solely because a complaint or ethical concern has been raised in good faith.

 

  1. GUIDELINES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

13.1 Responsibilities of Authors

  1. Submitted manuscripts must be original and must not be simultaneously under consideration by another journal.
  2. Authors are responsible for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of the submitted work.
  3. All listed authors must meet the journal’s authorship criteria and approve the final manuscript and its submission.
  4. An Author Contributions statement should be provided using the CRediT taxonomy where applicable.
  5. Authors must disclose all relevant conflicts of interest and sources of funding.
  6. Research involving human participants must comply with applicable ethical requirements and include Ethics Committee/IRB information, approval or protocol number,