Draft for legal review

Publication ethics

Last updated: 28 October 2026

COPE-aligned principles

The journal follows the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Core Practices.

• Authorship: all authors meet authorship criteria; contributions are described with CRediT roles.
• Conflicts of interest: authors, reviewers and editors declare competing interests. Editors never handle their own manuscripts.
• Consent: Case Reports, Interesting Cases and Interesting Images require documented patient consent and the CARE checklist.
• Ethics approval: research involving humans or animals states the approving body.
• Generative AI: every submission discloses whether and how AI tools were used; AI tools cannot be authors.
• Data availability: authors state how data can be accessed.
• Misconduct: suspected fabrication, falsification or plagiarism is investigated following COPE flowcharts.
• Corrections and retractions: published as linked Erratum or Retraction articles.