PUBLICATION ETHICS
This set of guidelines is instituted following the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Guidelines and shall be observed for the assurance of publication integrity and reputability of the PJBMB.
The said guidelines shall embody the 10 core practices of COPE on: 1. Allegations of misconduct, 2. Authorship and contributorship, 3. Complaints and appeal, 4. Conflicts of Interest, 5. Data and reproducibility, 6. Ethical oversight, 7. Intellectual property, 8. Journal management, 9. Peer review process, 10. Post-publication discussions and corrections.
The guidelines are listed below as follows:
The peer review process flow as indicated in the journal website shall be strictly followed. A double-blind review shall be observed and in cases of conflict of result, a third blind review is sought followed by a final decision of acceptance or rejection. The manuscript sent to the reviewer shall not bear information linked to the submitting author/s; the choice of reviewer shall be decided by the Editor based on what would reflect fair and balanced technical assessment of the manuscript.
​1. Electronic copies of the review documents will be maintained in perpetuity in the official email and archive files of the journal, inside folders with filename versions time-stamped prior to the public release of the issue.
2. A statement of author/s’ contributions to the manuscript is required with each submission. If appropriate, this should state which primary authors contributed equally. Gift authorship is not allowed.
3. Reports of misconduct shall be accompanied by a formal complaint from the aggrieved party and compiled evidence. Investigations on the matter shall be handled by an adhoc Committee appointed by the PJBMB Editorial Board. The ad hoc Committee shall be mandated to report their findings regarding the incident to the Editorial Board through an official statement.
4. Statements on authors’ conflicts of interest shall be required for all manuscript submissions.
5. Certification of ethics review board approval will be required for all manuscripts that involve clinical or human trials.
6. Certification of Institute of Animal Care and Use Committee(IACUC) clearance shall be required for all manuscripts involving animal testing.
7. Certification of biosafety clearance shall be required for manuscripts involving microbes, cells and genetic manipulation.
8. Certification of environmental safety compliance shall be required for manuscripts involving new and endangered specimens.
9. Ethical oversight on matters of data confidentiality for case reports and other manuscript types shall be strictly enforced.
10. Protection of copyright for pictures, statements, ideas, and other intellectual properties including claims for inventions, shall be implemented at all times especially in review papers and manuscript discussions and citations.
11. Creative commons (CC) licenses will be required for manuscripts containing copyrighted and IP-protected materials. In these cases, statements of CC clearance shall be incorporated in the manuscript.
12. Post-publication discussion of articles will be encouraged through letters to the Editor and implemented through the responsible conduct of correcting, revising or retracting articles after publication.