Publication Ethics Policy

Articles with serious research errors, or showing signs of research misconduct (including plagiarism), will be investigated by an editorial committee made up of the editor-in-chief and two members of the editorial board. If a published article is found to have research misconduct, that article will be retracted from publication. This will entail marking the article galleys “Retracted” with an explanation and retraction date appended to the article to explain the retraction. Other errors, such as errors in unpublished manuscripts, may be addressed at the discretion of the editorial board, including  by rejection of the manuscript. Reviewers who suspect research or publication misconduct in a submitted manuscript should contact the Editor-in-chief with a detailed explanation of what the perceived misconduct is.

Misconduct Investigation Procedures

If an author of a submitted (but as yet unpublished) manuscript or a published article is suspected of research misconduct, ISTL will initiate an impartial and confidential investigation. The investigation will be conducted by an editorial committee made up of the editor-in-chief and two members of the editorial board. The committee will review the allegations, and determine what additional information is necessary to make a decision. If necessary, the committee will interview the authors(s), as well as all other individuals involved in the publication. The investigation may involve the sharing of relevant information among the committee members. Any such information will be shared in a secure fashion. The editor may also contact other journal editors or institutional review boards to ascertain if there has been possible data fabrication, lack of ethical approval, serious plagiarism, or duplicate publication affecting multiple papers. This will only occur in the event that a response from the author(s) is inadequate or there is no response at all within a reasonable time (e.g. a month).

Post-Publication Discussion and Correction

Readers are welcome to respond to or debate content published in ISTL by submitting a letter to the editor. This will be published in the next available issue.