Repetition Detection
The journal uses the repetition detection system developed by CNKI to test all manuscripts The repetition rate should not exceed 20 %. Multiple submission is unacceptable. If multiple submission or plagiarism is found, the editorial office will reject any submission from the author within 2 years, and will notify the author’s institutes and other journals within the field.
Authorship
According to the guidelines of ICMJE, authors are defined by following 4 criteria.
(1) Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
(2) Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
(3) Final approval of the version to be published; AND
(4) Agreement 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.
Those designated as authors should meet all the following 4 criteria and all who meet the 4 criteria should be identified as authors. Those who do not meet all 4 criteria should be acknowledged.
For a collective piece of work, the authors should specify their contribution in the Authors Contribution Form (template can be downloaded at the bottom of this page) and submit it along with the manuscript.
The order of authors shall be collectively determined before submission and shall not be changed thereafter. If truly necessary, authorship or the order of author can be changed only if the Authorship Change Application (template can be downloaded at the bottom of this page) is provided, which must be signed by all authors before and after the change.
Conflicts of Interest
All authors must disclose all potential conflicts of interest, i.e., when the financing/ personal status/ affiliation of the authors (or the authors' organization/ employer) may affect the authors' decision, work or manuscript. When a product is involved, the author should also disclose whether there is a conflict of interest against competitive products. Authors should also submit the Statement of Competing Interests (template can be downloaded at the bottom of this page) along with the manuscript.
Medical Ethics
Authors must provide the Statement of Ethical Reviews (template can be downloaded at the bottom of this page) and all relevant ethical certification when submitting the manuscript. The journal is committed to promoting the ethical standard in research activities in the field of forensic medicine, and protecting lawful rights and interests of subjects, researchers and users. The medical ethical requirements are described below.
(1) when research participants are humans, the author should explain in article whether its procedure complied with the ethical standards formulated by relevant committee (institutional, regional or national) responsible for human trials. The approval document of the committee should be submitted. Consent letter from research participants or their relatives must be obtained and the photocopies should be submitted to the editorial office. At the same time, the research should comply with the principles set forth in the Helsinki Declaration (2013 Edition) issued by the World Medical Association (WMA).
(2) For pictures of human body, the non-lesion parts should be omitted, covered or pixeled as much as possible. Face area or other identifiable part of the participants should be avoided as much as possible. The name, address, identification, document number and other personal information of the research participants shall not be mentioned in the text.
(3) When reporting animal experiments, the study should comply with Regulations on Experimental Animals (实验动物管理条例), Administration of Quality Control on Experimental Animals (实验动物质量管理办法), and Guidelines on Treating Experimental Animals (关于善待实验动物的指导性意见), and the photocopy of ethical approval documents should be submitted. Necessary information of experimental animals should be indicated in the article, such as variety, strain, sex, day or month age, weight, quantity, feeding conditions, modeling method and time, starting and ending point of the experiment, method of execution, etc.
(4) Articles involving Clinical trials must include the Universal Trial Number (UTN) obtained from one of the Primary Registries in the WHO Registry Network. The UTN shall be included in the abstract or the main body of the full text.
Ethics for reviewers and editors.
Reviewers and editors should follow the following standards in their work:
(1) Reviewers and editors must process manuscripts fairly and impartially. The selection criteria should be only based on quality, innovation, scientificity, practicality, and the requirement of the publishing scope.
(2) Reviewers and editors should keep confidential of the manuscript content, author information and review comment.
(3) Reviewers and editors should respect the research achievements of authors and should not disclose or use data of unpublished articles without authorization.
(4) If any academic misconduct is found in the manuscript, reviewers and editors shall handle the case impartially.
(5) If there is a conflict of interest, reviewers and editors should report it to the editorial office of editorial board and avoiding handling the manuscript.
Intellectual Property and Open Science
The editorial office strives to respect the protection of intellectual property and requires editors, authors and reviewers to do so. Any potential infringement should be avoided. Third-party infringement to the intellectual property of the journal is prohibited. On the premise of intellectual property protection, the journal encourages the practice of open science. Authors are encouraged to publish or share their research data whenever appropriate. The data for sharing may include original data, observation records, experimental results, etc. The journal also encourages the sharing of software, code, models, algorithms, protocols, methods and other useful materials. Authors can upload the materials above to an accessible third-party repository and make a proper citation or add a link at the end of the article.
Handling of Academic Misconduct
The journal editorial committee will discuss and determine whether there is an academic misconduct and what is the punishment. Should forgery of data, multiple submission or plagiarism be found, the manuscript will be rejected immediately and the journal will not accept submission from the authors involved in two years. An announcement shall be published and the institutes of the authors shall be notified. All consequences shall be borne by authors. For other types of academic misconduct, once verified, the case will be handled according to national standards and international guidelines, depending on the specific circumstances.
Download List
All ethical document templates listed below can be downloaded clicking the titles.
