The Natural Products Journal

Editor-in-Chief:

Bin Wu
Zhejiang University
Hangzhou
China

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PUBLISHING ETHICS AND RECTITUDE

The publication of science involves conscientious, systematic and comprehensive processes by publishers and editors which require to be dealt with efficiently and competently. To maintain high ethical standards of publication of quality science the publisher strives to work closely at all times with journal editors, authors and peer-reviewers. The ethics statement for Bentham Science Publishers (BSP) journals is based on those by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Code of Conduct guidelines available at www.publicationethics.org.

The essentials of BSP’s publishing ethics for all groups involved in the publishing process are as follows:

Editors’ Responsibilities

  • The editor of a journal holds a vital position taking important editorial decisions on all peer-reviewed submitted for publication.
  • The editor should maintain the transparency of the academic research & record, preclude professional needs from cooperating ethical standards, and always be willing to publish retractions, rectifications, and erratum when required.
  • The editor should assess manuscripts for their scientific quality and intellectual content, free from any sort of biased decisions based on discrimination of race, gender, geographical origin, or religion of the author(s). The editor should evaluate manuscripts objectively based on their academic merit free of any commercial or self-interests.
  • The editor should not disclose any information on submitted manuscripts before publication of the manuscript.
  • Promoting research rectitude must be preserved. If at any stage the publisher suspects any kind of misconduct in research, it should be investigated promptly in detail with suitable authority; and if any suspicious act of misconduct is observed in the peer review, it should be resolved with diligence.

Reviewers’ Responsibilities

  • Providing a detailed, constructive, and unbiased evaluation in a timely manner on the scientific content of the work.
  • Indicating whether the writing is relevant, concise & clear and evaluating the originality and scientific accuracy.
  • Maintaining the confidentiality of the complete review process.
  • Notifying the journal editor about any financial or personal conflict of interest and declining to review the manuscript when a possibility of such a conflict exists.
  • Notifying the journal editor of any ethical concerns in their evaluation of submitted manuscripts; such as any violation of ethical treatment of animal or human subjects or any considerable similarity between the previously published article and any reviewed manuscript.

Authors’ Responsibilities

  • All the work reported in the manuscript must be original and free from any kind of plagiarism.
  • The work should not have been published elsewhere or submitted to any other journal(s) at the same time.
  • Any potential conflict of interest must be clearly acknowledged.
  • Proper acknowledgements to other work reported (individual/company/institution) must be given. Permission must be obtained from any content used from other sources.
  • Only those who have made any substantial contribution to the interpretation or composition of the submitted work, should be listed as ‘Authors’. While other contributors should be mentioned as ‘co-authors’.

Publishers’ Responsibilities

  • BSP is committed to work with journal editors, defining clearly their relevant roles, in order to ensure appropriate decisions regarding publication procedures and maintaining the transparency of editorial decisions.
  • BSP ensures the integrity autonomy and originality of each published article with respect to:
    • publication and research fundings
    • publication ethics and rectitude
    • conflicts of interest
    • confidentiality
    • authorship
    • article modifications
    • timely publication of content.