Malpractice Statement

Misconduct Handling Policy

Asia-Pacific Journal of Pharmacotherapy & Toxicology (AJPT) is aware of the potential impact allegations of ethical misconduct that can have on a researcher's career. We take all allegations of unethical conduct seriously and investigate them fully.

A. The Co-managing editor should always be the first point of contact and will seek clarification from all affected parties in accordance with COPE guidelines.

B. If the allegation is made against any of the co-editors, it should be sent to the publisher for further investigation.

C. If a third party brings an allegation of plagiarism to AJPT, the Co-editorial Managing Editor will always seek a response from the original author or copyright owner before making a recommendation.

D. The Co-Managing Editor will abide by the COPE flow chart and will not be influenced by other parties. Any decision will be made in a fair and objective manner. At all times, the Co-Managing editors will remain neutral, act in good faith and, where possible, educate.

E. Publishers are under no obligation to discuss cases of alleged plagiarism with third parties.

F. If the complainant provides a false name or affiliation, or acts in an inappropriate or threatening manner towards journal editors and staff, the publisher reserves the right not to pursue the case.

Please refer to the guidelines below and the COPE flowchart for the process followed by journals in the case of suspected plagiarism in submitted or published articles.

Guidelines

AJPT welcomes original submissions that have not been simultaneously considered by any other publication and that contribute to the existing body of knowledge. All authors should be aware of the importance of expressing content in their own language, based on their own research. Plagiarism is bad and unethical.

The following types of ethical misconduct should be avoided:

Verbatim copying

Verbatim reproduction of important passages or streams of text from another's work without attribution, citation, or quotation marks.

Apply indiscriminately

There are many cases of improper paraphrasing of someone else's work, but an important one is the rearrangement of sentences in a paragraph or paragraph of text without proper attribution. Significant inappropriate paraphrasing without proper attribution is considered serious verbatim reproduction.

Reusing parts of a work without attribution

Reuse elements from someone else's work, such as figures, tables, or paragraphs, without attribution, citing, or using quotation marks. It is the author's responsibility to obtain the necessary permission from the copyright owner to reuse elements of someone else's work.

Self-plagiarism

AJPT requires all authors to sign a copyright form that clearly states that the work they are submitting has not been previously published. If elements of the work have already been published in other publications, the author must acknowledge the previous work and point out how the subsequent work is different and how it builds on the research and conclusions contained in the previous work. Word-for-word reproduction of an author's own work and interpretation is not allowed, and we recommend reusing research results only if they support new conclusions. Authors should cite all prior stages of publishing and presenting their ideas in the final work, including conference papers, seminar presentations, and mail newsletters. This will ensure that all communication related to work is fully recorded.

Reprinting original works

Exceptions to publication of original work include conference papers, archival papers republished in anniversary or commemorative journals, papers of particular value, and papers that receive only limited circulation (e.g. through corporate newsletters). These papers are republished at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief. Original works should be fully and correctly attributed and with the permission of the appropriate copyright owner.

Standards of Reporting

The Journal requires all authors to follow the correct standards for reporting biomedical research. See EQUATOR for guidelines on health research and MIBBI for guidelines and tools on bioscience reporting. Authors are strongly advised to use these guidelines as a checklist when writing a manuscript.

Other checklists available include CONSORT for randomized controlled trials, PRISMA for systematic reviews, STROBE for observational studies, MOOSE for meta-analyses of observational studies, STARD for diagnostic accuracy studies, RATS for qualitative studies, and CHEERS for economic assessments.

The authors of the systematic review must provide a link in the methods section showing all the details of the search strategy. See the Cochrane for examples of search strategies.

Authors must use standardized gene nomenclature. The HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee details the symbols and names of human genes. Other species of data can be found at https://www.genenames.org/help/faq/; The Human Genome Variation Society provides guidelines on mutation nomenclature.

Where appropriate, authors should follow the CARE guidelines for case reports, the STREGA guidelines for genetic association studies and the SRQR guidelines for qualitative studies.

The author shall comply with the relevant data preparation and record the current specific areas of the standard, at the same time, strict confidentiality for patients. In addition, when using unpublished data, authors must contact the data owner before starting their own research.

Human and Animal Testing

All human or animal research should be approved or exempted by an appropriate institutional human and/or animal subject Review committee or, if there is no formal ethics committee, in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration. Such approval or exemption should be stated in the methods section of the article.

When reporting animal experiments, authors should indicate whether institutional and national standards for the care and use of laboratory animals have been followed. Further guidance about animal research ethics are available from the ARRIVE guide.

Patient consent

All authors must declare that, where relevant, consent has been obtained from the patient (or, in the case of children under 16, from their parents or guardians) and that all reasonable steps have been taken to maintain patient confidentiality, including illustrations, which should be as anonymous as possible.

Clinical trial registration

The journal follows ICMJE's Clinical Trials Registration Statement. All clinical trials published in a journal must be registered in a public trial registry at or before the start of participant enrollment. Manuscripts should be submitted with an accurate URL and a unique trial registration identifier. This information will be published in the article and we ask that you include the URL and identification code on the title page of your article.

Clinical trials initiated before 2008 will be subject to retrospective registration. A list of recommended registries can be found on the ICMJE website. Results published in the same clinical trial registry where the primary registry is located will not be considered prior publication if presented in the form of a short abstract (500 words or less) or table.

Clinical trials must be reported in accordance with relevant reporting guidelines, namely the CONSORT of randomized controlled Trials, the TREND of non-randomized trials, and appropriate spcialized guidelines. Interventions should be described according to the requirements of the checklist and guide. Submissions must also include the research proposal as supporting information and, if accepted, will be published with the manuscript.

Authors of manuscripts describing clinical trial results must follow CONSORT reporting guidelines, which apply to their trial design and are available on the CONSORT Statement web site. Any deviation from the test protocol must be explained in the paper. Authors must explicitly discuss informed consent in the paper, and we reserve the right to request a copy of the patient's consent.

System review registration

Prospective registrations of systematic reviews are welcome, and we encourage all authors to register their systematic reviews with an appropriate registry such as PROSPERO. Please indicate the registration number on the last line of the abstract.