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Editorial and Publishing Policies

About Science Postprint

1. Aims and Scope

Science Postprint (SPP) is a peer reviewed, international on-line open access journal launched in 2013, published by General Healthcare Inc., Japan. Although SPP aims to publish all areas in science, SPP accepts articles in medicine, life sciences, and environmental sciences at the current moment.
SPP is dedicated to rapid publication of research papers with peer review, to facilitate academic communication, application of science to industry, and citizens’ understanding of science. Articles that carry concepts, phenomenon, and methods which have not been reported in other journals are eligible for publication.

MedicineA list of study areas
Basic Medicine
» Anatomy
» Endocrinology
» Epidemiology
» Evidence Based Medicine
» Forensics Medicine
» Global Health
» Hematology
» Histology
» Immunology
» Infectious Diseases
» Medical Biology
» Medical Devices
» Medical Informatics
» Medical Nutrition
» Metabology
» Neuroscience
» Oncology
» Pathology
» Pharmacology
» Physiology
» Preventive Medicine
» Public Health
» Toxicology
» Virology
» Other related fields

Clinical Medicine
» Allergy and Clinical Immunology
» Anesthesiology and Pain Management
» Cardiology
» Chiropractic
» Clinical Trials
» Dentistry
» Dermatology
» Diagnostics
» Emergency and Critical Care
» Gastroenterology & Hepatology
» Geriatrics
» Gynecology & Obstetrics
» Integrative Medicine
» Internal Medicine
» Medical Communication
» Medical Genetics
» Nephrology
» Nursing
» Ophthalmology
» Oriental Medicine
» Orthopedics
» Otorhinolaryngology
» Pediatrics
» Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation
» Plastic Surgery
» Psychiatry, Psychology & Behavioral Science
» Radiology and Medical Imaging
» Regenerative Medicine
» Reproductive Medicine
» Respiratory Medicine
» Rheumatology
» Sports Medicine
» Surgery
» Urology
» Other related fields

Life SciencesA list of study areas
Life sciences comprise the fields of sciences that involve scientific studies of living organisms, such as microorganisms, plants, animals, and human beings as well as related considerations like bioethics.

» Agronomy
» Anthropology
» Behavioral Ecology
» Behavioral Science
» Biochemistry
» Biodiversity
» Bioethics
» Biogeography
» Bioinformatics
» Biophysics
» Biotechnology
» Cancer Science
» Conservation Biology
» Developmental Biology
» Ecology
» Entomology
» Environmental Sciences
» Evolutionary Biology
» Genetics
» Livestock Science
» Marine Biology
» Mathematical Biology
» Microbiology
» Molecular Cell Biology
» Nutrition Science
» Paleontology
» Parasitology
» Physiology
» Plant Science
» Space Biology
» Stem Cell Biology
» Structural Biology
» Taxonomy
» Veterinary Medicine
» Zoology
» Other related fields

General SciencesA list of study areas

» Science Communication
» Science & Medical Education
» Science Policy
» Ethics
» Other related fields
Environmental SciencesA list of study areas
Environmental sciences are studies concerning human impacts on the physical and biological environment of organisms. Sociology, economics, and political science are also involved, as a new, interdisciplinary field. Environmental sciences are partially overlapping with the fields of life sciences or medicine.

» Agricultural Chemistry
» Agricultural Science
» Agronomy
» Biogeography
» Chemistry
» Conservation biology
» Ecology
» Economics
» Energetics
» Engineering
» Entomology
» Environmental Assessment
» Environmental Sciences
» Fish Science
» Geology
» Geoscience
» Legal Issues
» Livestock Science
» Marine Biology
» Methodology
» Microbiology
» Plant Science
» Political Science
» Science Communication
» Science Policy
» Social Policy
» Sociology
» Soil Science
» Toxicology
» Translational Research
» Zoology
» Other related fields

2. Article Types

Research Article

Original research with substantial new findings and extensive analyses which advance the scientific field or add evidence to a proposed theory.

Clinical Research

Clinical Research includes not only clinical studies but also case reports.

Any work that prospectively assigns human participants or groups of humans to one or more health-related interventions to evaluate the effects on health outcomes is defined as clinical studies. Clinical study may also be referred to as interventional trials. Interventions include but are not restricted to the use of drugs, cells and other biological products, surgical procedures, radiological procedures, devices, behavioral treatments, process-of-care changes, and preventive care.

Case reports are to share clinical knowledge for further investigation or for developing medical treatment. We welcome case reports from all areas of medicine involving nursing, dentistry, and so on. Case reports should show something new that makes us review the disease including its pathogenic mechanisms, symptoms, medical treatment, healthcare lore, and so on. Unreported cases or unreported adverse effects of interventions are also eligible. Treatment contexts and definite outcome should be referred.

Obtainment of informed consent from everyone who was involved in the study and observance of code of ethics of affiliated committee is indispensable. Our editorial office may require authors to submit informed consent on occasion.

Review Article

Analyze or discuss works previously published by others, rather than reporting new experimental results. It should comprehensively assess related works and present academic perspectives.

Correspondences

Science Postprint receives and publishes a correspondence letter/article that discusses a debatable issue on a SPP article, as long as it conveys scientific cogency and does not make unjustified defamation. Editorial Office reviews the correspondence and occasionally asks expert(s) to give peer review. In such a case, competing interests of the peer reviewer will be carefully examined.
The author of the discussed article will be notified about the correspondence after its publication, and have a right to submit a corrected article or a counterargument correspondence. The submitted corrected article or counterargument correspondence will go through peer review process as ordinary articles. It does not cause charge for authors.
Correspondences are no charge, and Donation option will not be applied for Correspondences.

Editorials

Editorial is an opinion article on a topical issue. Editorials are not peer reviewed and only receive editing from internal editors. Editorial office may solicit Editorial article from an appropriate member of SPP Editorial Board.

3. Peer Review Types

Authors who submit their articles to Science Postprint have two choices in peer review process. The most difference is whether the review process is opened to the public or not, which means whether if the submitted article is published before peer review, and whether the peer review reports are published. Due to the differences, authors are charged for different phases of publication. In Traditional Peer Review Publication, authors pay for processing for publication of their accepted articles to GH Inc., which is the publisher of Science Postprint. In other words, authors are charged when submitted manuscript is accepted upon peer review, and the publication will be after the payment. On the other hand, in Post Publication Peer Review (PPP), authors pay in advance for the publication of the submitted articles, and open peer review will follow the publication. Authors benefit from quick publication and readers benefit from quick access to new achievements.
Basic Guidelines for Authors/Reviewers is the common guidelines for authors/reviewers in both peer review type, but Specific Guidelines for PPP Authors/Reviewers is given the first priority over the Basic Guidelines when authors choose Post Publication Peer Review. For items that are not especially stated in the Specific Guidelines authors/reviewers should conform to the Basic Guidelines.

4. Schedule of Publication

Each article decided to publication will be published on Wednesday in 1–2 weeks of acceptance and finalizing all corrections. New issue number will be started to be assigned to the publication on January.

Editorial and Publishing Policies

Science Postprint receives submissions which contain new findings. They must have not been published in other journals, however, they could be previously appeared or discussed at conferences, on preprint servers, in public database, blogs, wikis, and other ‘non journal’ venues. When submitting related articles advocating different theory to other journals, it is recommended to report to our editorial office preliminarily.

Ⅰ Roles and Responsibility of Authors, Reviewers, and Editors

1. Author Status

All authors should be aware and informed of the submission of the manuscript and approve its content and authorship. The corresponding author is obligated to manage and communicate all the information regarding the submitted manuscript between the journal and all co-authors at all times.

In order to be qualified as an author, all the requirements stated in the “International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendation” should be met; part of which is extracted below.

The ICMJE recommends that authorship be based on the following 4 criteria:

  • Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
  • Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
  • Final approval of the version to be published; AND
  • 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.

In addition to being accountable for the parts of the work he or she has done, an author should be able to identify which co-authors are responsible for specific other parts of the work. In addition, authors should have confidence in the integrity of the contributions of their co-authors.

Those who do not meet all four criteria should be acknowledged. Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship.

Science Postprint editorial office will contact all of the authors to confirm their authorship, and the peer review process will generally be started after receiving confirmation from all of the authors. Corresponding author should be responsible for all communication with editorial office throughout the review process.

2. Competing Interests

Science Postprint defines competing interests as a set of circumstances that creates a risk that scientific reporting, judgments or actions are to be unduly influenced by any other interests. Competing interests include, but are not limited to financial, professional, or personal relationships with any other parties. It also includes future employment or related patent. In order to exclude any undue influence on the research, and to provide readers with information about related interests that could influence how readers receive and understand the work, Science Postprint requires the following things:

  • All involved parties must declare any relevant competing interests;
  • Referees and editors must disentitle themselves to review or edit any submitted articles if there are any competing interests that could possibly influence their objective judgments;
  • Anyone who is to comment or rate articles must disclose their competing interests at the juncture of commenting/rating.

Science Postprint does not allow any author, reviewer, editor to handle articles unless statement of declaration of competing interests is submitted. For authors of a medical article, editorial office additionally requests to submit ICMJE conflict of interest disclosure sheet.
Science Postprint sets the time period of five years for such relationship of interests, but be aware that it is the only an indication.

Science Postprint generally does not allow any editors or employees to publish their articles in SPP, except for Editorials which are opinion on an issue. A submission from a member of SPP Editorial Board will be handled by editors with respect to the transparency of the process to avoid actual or perceived bias in any occasion. It will be peer reviewed by two or three peer reviewers, at least one of them must be invited from outside of the Editorial Board; all of the involved person must submit declaration for their competing interests.

3. Experimental Animal Research and Human Subject Research

All experiments involving human participants must have an approval from authors’ institutional review board, ethics committee, or equivalent committees, and in case of medical interventions, they must abide by the Declaration of Helsinki. Educational researches should conform to the Code of Ethics by American Educational Research Association. Authors are required to include a statement confirming that informed consent was obtained from all subjects upon submission. Our editorial office may require authors to submit informed consent on occasion. Failure of its submission may result in rejection of your paper. Also, every precaution must be taken to protect the privacy of research subjects and the confidentiality of their personal information.

All studies involving animals must have been conducted according to national and international guidelines. Prior to conducting research on animals, appropriate approval must have been obtained from authors’ institutional review board, ethics committee, or equivalent committees.

References:

4. Confidentiality

Authors, reviewers and editors are required to treat all details regarding submitted manuscripts with a strict confidence unless explicitly stated. Reviewers and editors must not publicly discuss nor appropriate the idea of the article. Reviewers should destroy the hard copies of manuscripts and electronic copies after reviewing.

When a submission is rejected, editorial office will delete the submitted electronic files from the editorial system. When submission is accepted, editorial office retain the authors original draft, review comments, revisions, and correspondences for at least three years.

Confidentiality may be breached if misconduct is alleged.

5. Appeal Policy

Authors have a right to appeal against decline during the peer review process via email or contact form. An appeal should include only scientific reasons why the authors think the criticism from the peer reviewer or the editor is not fully justified. Editorial Office must carefully review the author’s argument, and if it was judged to be persuasive, Editorial Office will first contact the previous critical peer reviewer if s/he could provide answer report referring to the appeal from the authors. The next step would be inviting another/other new peer reviewer(s) for the declined version of the article. The article will be sent to the new reviewer(s) along with the previous peer review and the author’s appeal to give fair evaluation for the argument. Receiving the evaluation, Editorial Office will make final decision in a comprehensive manner.

The authors of declined article have one chance to appeal, and the complaints should be made within 90 days of the rejection.

If the complaint was not completely solved, Editorial Office will report the case to COPE.

Submission of completely revised version of the declined article will be considered for peer review as an initial submission, provided that the critical points suggested by the previous peer review was clearly answered.

6. Advertisement and Editorial Freedom

Science Postprint adopts the World Association of Medical Editors’ recommendation for advertisement and editorial independence. Editorial decision of SPP is independent of any commercial interests or potential revenue, and editors are responsible for upholding academic integrity. SPP editor-in-chief has the full control of the advertisements that appear on the journal contents, and does not allow any ads. to appear adjacent to the articles that refer to the related items.

Ⅱ Publishing and Editorial Issues

7. Corrections, Version Control and Retraction

Science Postprint will publish updates in case that corrections or clarifications are required in view of scientific accuracy or understanding, or in case the publication is considered to deserve retraction.

CrossMark

Science Postprint adopts CrossMark service for version control from August 2015. CrossMark is a multi-publisher initiative to provide a standard way for readers to locate the current version of a piece of content. By applying the CrossMark logo, Science Postprint is committing to maintaining the content it publishes and to alerting readers to changes if and when they occur.
Clicking on the CrossMark logo will tell you the current status of a document and may also give you additional publication record information about the document.
ClossMark logo is basically available for publications after August 2015; however it will be applied to the article of which the status is changed regardless of the publication date.

Corrections

Honest errors are also a part of the development of science. Correcting errors and breaking out the old paradigm, science has evolved. When errors are detected, Science Postprint will publish correction as soon as possible, detailing the changes with citation to original publication. Minor changes like spelling corrections or formatting changes which do not affect the interpretation of the contents will not be published as a correction notice.
When correction is published, Science Postprint Editorial Office immediately informs authors and occasionally encourages them for the new article. However, only significant change from previous publication will be considered for a new publication, and it requires peer review examination. Even after the publication of the correction or updated article, all of the prior versions will be kept accessible, with notes for current status by CrossMark.

Minor Corrections after Publication

Authors can request Science Postprint to correct spelling or formatting errors which do not affect the interpretation of the results or discussion of the article. A request for such correction can be sent anytime to the Editorial Office, and Editorial Office will deal with that as soon as possible. However, in some cases it may cause additional fee for correction (see Charges in Author Guidelines).

Major Correction after Publication

Major correction which requires changes in the interpretation of the results or changes in data itself should be published as a notice of correction, clarification, or in a serious case, retraction. Authors of the article that such significant error was found must submit the context of the error to Editorial Office.

Retraction

Serious errors which possibly invalidate the results of the work or apparent breach of the research and publication ethics may require retraction. In such cases, Editorial Office immediately publishes retraction referring to the reason of the retraction. The retracted article will be kept readable with a warning of the current status by CrossMark.

Article Removal

Science Postprint may remove an article from the online publication due to the concern for legal issue or serious harm for health. Such that Editorial Office found clear defamation or infringements of legal rights of others, requirements for following a court order or similar circumstances, or following the article should results in serious harm to human health are the cases of removal.
The title and authors of the removed article will be remained with the notice of concern while the text of the article will be completely deleted.

8. Scientific Misconduct and Breach of Publication Ethics

Science Postprint believes upholding academic integrity, scientific transparency and researching ethics is a responsibility and obligation of all parties involved. Authors are required to comply with the best practice in publication ethics and keep to the policy of authorship, competing interest disclosure, and reporting of research ethics. Scientific misconduct includes but not limited to dual publication/submission, fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, and misuse of documents. If misconduct was suspected or alleged—whether or not they are the results of a deliberate intent to deceive—, editorial office will promptly follow COPE’s Code of Conduct to take editorial action.

All submitted articles are checked using CrossCheck service (http://www.crossref.org/crosscheck.html), powered by iThenticate at the time of submission and any required time during the peer review process. Authors might be contacted if needed.
If any concerns should be addressed regarding research misconduct, Editorial Office appreciate your information. Please contact our Editorial Office.

Dual Publication/Submission

Dual publication/submission includes publishing/submitting translated article which has already been published in other peer reviewed journal in other language. However, a work which has previously been appeared or discussed at conferences, on preprint servers, in public database, blogs, wikis, and other non-journal venues may not make dual publication, but is required to be reported to the editorial office at the time of submission. When submitting related articles advocating different theory to other journals, it is recommended to report to our editorial office preliminarily.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism includes copying of ideas, text, data, and other creative works such as tables or figures without any acknowledgement and proper citation to the original work. Plagiarism is not limited to the direct copying of the text, tables, or figures, but covers the use of the idea that has already been proposed. When an author hopes to cite a previous work regardless of whether it is the author’s own or not, using original phrase or sentences, the copied phrase/sentences should be clearly identified by double quotation marks, as well as adding proper citation. However, extensive text copying should be avoided.

The first work in which the idea, text, data, or images originate should get the credit for the contribution. Subsequent works are expected to cite the first work.

Falsification

Falsification includes manipulating research materials, equipment, or processes, or changing or omitting data or results. These manipulations result in distorted results, which diminish science development and erode the public's confidence in science.

Fabrication

Making up data or results for publication without relevant research is fabrication. Fabulous data or results should not be discussed nor published.

9. Bio-security and Dual Use Research of Concerns

National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) in United States defines “dual use research of concern” as "biological research with legitimate scientific purpose that may be misused to pose a biologic threat to public health and/or national security." Science Postprint reserves all the rights to determine whether the article is subject to concerns of dual use research.

10. Copyright

All authors will be asked to comply with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND 2.1 JP), upon submission of their articles. Authors retain copyright of their articles under the term of this license. It gives permission to any and all user to copy, distribute, display, and make derivative of the work for non-profit purpose, as long as the author and original source are properly cited.  Authors are able to self archive immediately after publication.

Science Postprint is granted a right to publish and distribute articles, and additional rights to enforce the right on behalf of the author against third parties. Science Postprint has the right to give permission to third parties to make commercial use of a work. When authors are going to use their own works for commercial purposes, they need to contact our editorial office.

11. Embargos and the Media

Science Postprint encourages self archiving or registration to public repositories. The definitive work—which is the final version of the work that has been published—can be available for self archiving without any delay from the publication date.

For articles that are to be press released, an embargo date will be established by Science Postprint. This ensures appropriate reveal of the article to the media and the free access to the wide audience of the peer-reviewed article when the new article is published. If further information is needed, please contact the press office by email.

12. Data and Materials Sharing

Science Postprint is committed to providing free access environment that enables any interested reader world-wide to read full text of scientific articles with no charge. Furthermore, from the perspective of scientific information communication, we require authors to make materials, data, and associated protocols easily available to readers. Any restrictions on the data, materials, and protocols should be disclosed, and submitted manuscript should include how the data, materials, and protocols can be obtained. Raw data or laboratory notebook that is related to the submitted article should be retained for at least 5 years of publication. Failures of meeting the requirements will be taken into account at the time of publication, and published article may be retracted if the failure became apparent.
The preferred way to fulfill this obligation is to utilize public repositories. A non exhaustive list of them is shown below. In all cases, accession/deposition numbers or digital objective identifiers (DOIs) should be submitted before publication.

For the data set of DNA and protein sequences, submission to a widely-recognized public repository is mandatory. Some of them are listed below.

Uniprot, Genbank, European Nucleotide Archive (ENA), DDBJ, Protein DataBank, NCBI trace and short-read, ENA's Sequence Read Archive

For sharing large data sets, it is recommended to deposit them to the appropriate public repositories.

PRIDE, PeptideAtlas, Tranche, IMEx consortium of databases, ITIS (taxonomy), NCBI taxonomy, Species 2000, National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, Dryad, figshare

For biological materials like mutant strains and cell lines, it is recommended to use established ones from public repositories if possible, in order to ensure the reproducibility of the work. Some of them are shown below.

Jackson Laboratory, the European Mouse Mutant Archive (EMMA), the European Conditional Mouse Mutagenesis Program (EUCOMM), the Knockout Mouse Project (KOMP), Addgene, RIKEN Bioresource Centre, the Mutant Mouse Regional Resource Centers, American Type Culture Collection, UK Stem Cell Bank

Ⅲ Innovations and Others

13. Grading

Each of the articles will be evaluated in five point scale by its peer reviewers in the following axes. Since there are multiple reviewers, the grade of a submitted manuscript will be the average. Axis 1, “general evaluation” is the common axis for all types of articles.

Axis 1: General evaluation:
Point 5: Expected to be cited over 300 times in the next 10 years;
Point 4: Expected to be cited over 150 times in the next 10 years;
Point 3: Expected to be cited over 75 times in the next 10 years;
Point 2: Expected to be cited over 30 times in the next 10 years;
Point 1: Expected to be cited less than 30 times in the next 10 years.


Axes 2-4: Innovation, Advancement, Industrial usefulness, Originality, Comprehensiveness

Research Article and Clinical Research will be evaluated based on its potential for innovation, future advancement, and industrial usefulness. Review Article will be evaluated based on its originality, comprehensiveness, other than industrial usefulness.
Point 5: Very strong;
Point 4: Strong;
Point 3: Average;
Point 2: Weak;
Point 1: Very Weak.

14. Awards

Science Postprint welcomes any offers from corporations or organizations such as private businesses, educational groups, self-help patient groups, and so on to establish academic awards. Awards are funded by industries or organizations which hope to support researchers, introduce cutting age innovation to their products or services, or encourage development in medical care. The qualifications of nominees, prizes, periods, and selection criterion are defined in each award’s agreement, based on the funder’s philosophy and regionality. The selection will be totally left for award selection committee of each corporation or organization that offers to establish award. Science Postprint provides the funder with the nominees’ submitted information with their published articles. The funder might contact authors to provide some information.

Award applicant is required to submit his/her work to Science Postprint to be a nominee. Prize winners will be announced by Science Postprint editorial office.

15. Donation

Science Postprint has created a crowd funding system to raise research fund for authors. This system allows citizens to donate research funds for authors they want to support, using “Donation” button that appears on each of the article pages.

Science Postprint will sum up the total donation amount for each articles every three months (January, April, July, October) and once the contribution exceeds $1,000, we make a remittance by the end of March, June, September, or December depending on when the amount exceeds $1000, to first or corresponding author’s bank account after charging 15% of commission and $15 fee from the total amount of research fund. In case of special circumstances, such as being out of contact for more than six months, or rejecting the acceptance of donation, collected amount will be credited to Science Postprint’s aid fund. Depending on receiving ways or country, research fund may be taxed.

We welcome messages with donations. When we receive a message, we will transfer it to the named author. Authors’ replies are highly welcomed.

Notes for Authors:
Before the remittance is made, an email will be sent to the author. Organizations that authors belong to may require certain procedures upon receiving contribution. Therefore, assertion of those procedures prior to receiving contribution is strongly recommended. Also, if you need to submit a document concerning receiving research fund to your affiliated organization, please let us know.

Help and Contact

Should you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact us through this form. We will reply to you within three business days.

01/15/2014 Abstract limit was revised
10/17/2014 Ammended
03/09/2015 Revised
08/18/2015 Revised