Ethical standards and procedures
Ethical considerations
Wroclaw Medical University Press is committed to upholding standards of ethical behavior at all stages of the publication process. We strictly follow the guidelines for best practices established by the industry associations, such as the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICJME).
Duties and responsibilities of Authors
Authors are obliged to prepare and send the manuscript in accordance with the requirements set out in section Information for Authors on the journal's website, with particularly useful guidelines placed in the Preparing manuscript tab. Moreover, Authors need to provide via the Editorial System the necessary statements regarding the originality of the content of the article (work not published elsewhere and not submitted for publication in any other journal) and the copyright issues.
Conflict of interest
All Authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) or be perceived to bias their work (Conflict of interest statement).
Examples of financial and non-financial conflicts of interest: employment; stock ownership; consultancy; honoraria; expert testimony; patents or patent applications; travel grants; advisory board membership; lobbying or advocacy organization membership; relationships with governmental and non-governmental organizations, research institutions or charities; personal relationships (e.g., friend, spouse/partner, family member, mentor, adversary) that could affect objectivity; personal beliefs (political, religious, ideological, or other) related to the topic of the paper that might interfere with an unbiased publication process.
If there is no conflict of interest, Authors should state that none exists.
Research involving human participants
Manuscripts not conforming to the principles of the World Medical Association (WMA) Declaration of Helsinki cannot be accepted for publication. Authors must be acquainted with the established rules and confirm (in the Editorial System) their research fully complies with them.
In section Declarations, Authors are required to provide the necessary statements regarding ethics approval and consent to participate, as well as consent for publication.
Ethics approval must be obtained from the appropriate institutional Research Ethics Committee, if applicable. The statement must contain the name of the institution and the number of approval.
If applicable, the study subjects (or their parents/legal guardians in the case of the underage) must deliver written informed consent to participate in the study. Before commencing the study, all participants must be fully informed if anonymity is assured, why the research is being conducted, which procedures will be implemented, how their data will be used, and if there are any risks associated.
Consent for publication is required if the participants' identifiable information (photographs and/or case history) is relevant to the research, and thus appears in the manuscript. The patients' initials or other personal identifiers must not be revealed in the text or in any images. Patient details must be anonymized as far as possible.
Research involving animals
Authors should ensure that their research complies with the commonly accepted '3Rs':
- Replacement of animals by alternatives wherever possible;
- Reduction in the number of animals used; and
- Refinement of experimental conditions and procedures to minimize harm to animals.
Papers describing animal experiments can be accepted for publication only if the experiment conforms to the legal requirements binding in Poland (for Polish research), as well as to the European Communities Council Directive 86/609/EEC of 24 November 1986 or the National Research Council Committee for the Update of the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals.
Authors must provide in their manuscript details on housing and pain management, with a full description of the anesthetics and surgical procedures applied in the experiment. For further guidance, Authors should refer to the Code of Practice for the Housing and Care of Animals Bred, Supplied or Used for Scientific Purposes.
For in vivo animal research, the journal acknowledges ARRIVE as the binding standard.
Duties and responsibilities of Reviewers
Articles are selected for publication in double-blind selection system and published in open access mode. Reviewers review manuscripts via the Editorial System on the basis of questions prepared by journal’s Editorial Board. It is also possible for Reviewer to send individual comments to be published in the article content. All judgments and findings in the peer-review process should be objective. Reviewers should have no conflict of interest (they make a statement before proceeding to the review). Reviewers - if there is a legitimate need - should point out the relevant published work which is not yet cited, and the articles reviewed by them should be treated confidentially prior to their publication.
Duties and responsibilities of Editors
Editors are responsible for deciding which articles are accepted for publication. Editors act in a balanced, objective and fair way while carrying out their expected duties, without discrimination on grounds of gender, sexual orientation, religious or political beliefs, ethnic or geographical origin of the authors. Publisher and Editors are always ready to publish corrections, clarifications, withdrawals, and apologies if there is a legitimate need. If there is a suspicion that an inappropriate research procedure was applied in the work sent by Authors, Authors are obliged by the Editorial Office - if not yet submitted - to submit information regarding the approval of the described research procedure by a properly established ethics committee to conduct clinical trials.
Withdrawals
The detailed information regarding withdrawals, initiated either by Authors or by the Editorial Office, as well as on the journal's refund policy, is available HERE.
Complaints, corrections, retractions, removals
The detailed information regarding complaints, corrections, retractions, and removals is available HERE.
Plagiarism and duplicate publications
All manuscripts submitted to Dental and Medical Problems are checked for plagiarism using Similarity Check, a service enabling Editors to screen the published and submitted content for originality by providing access to the iThenticate software. Cases of suspected scientific misconduct, including plagiarism and duplicate publications, are handled according to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ Core Practices guidance.