Chinese Journal of Medical Physics abides by the principle of "three reviews and three proofreading", adheres to the professional ethics in publishing, and resolutely resists academic misconducts. To strengthen the construction of academic integrity, and further standardize the writing, editing and publishing processes, in combination with the actual situation, the ethical code for authors, peer reviewers and editors of Chinese Journal of Medical Physics is formulated according to the copyright law, publication ethics at home and abroad and other relevant clauses.

Publication ethics for authors

1. The authors should be responsible for the originality of the research, and must comply with the principles as follows: no paper writing by third party; no submission by third party; no revision by third party. The submitted manuscript should be scientific, academic and innovative, with authentic materials, reliable statistics and clear arguments, and written in a formal style and appropriate structure. There must be no fabrication, falsification or plagiarism; and no false fund items shall be provided. If necessary, the authors have the duty to provide the original pictures and data, project mandate and name and other proof materials as required by the editorial department.

2. When submitting manuscript, the authors must declare that there is no conflict of interest and authorship dispute, and ensure that there are no misconducts, such as infringement, multiple submissions and duplicate publication etc., must not concerning confidentiality issues. Any change to the author list and institution list should be approved by the responsible authors (first author and corresponding author), and a formal proposal approved by all authors is needed to the editorial department to elucidate the reasons. The authors must contact the editorial department to request for a retraction before submitting the manuscript to another journal.

3. For the study involving human subjects, the authors need to provide the documents concerning ethical assessment for the research (the approval number should be labeled in the paper) and the informed consent of the subjects or their relatives. Clinical trials should follow the basic principles of bioethics, and the authors should register the study in the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry for obtaining the registration number. The animal experiment report should state whether the regulations about the management and use of laboratory animals are followed, and the authors should provide the approval document and approval number from the Animal Ethics Committee.

4. If academic controversies arise during the peer review process, the authors should maintain an objective and rational attitude towards the reviewers’ comments on the manuscript. If necessary, the authors may submit written allegation and make detailed interpretation and explanations for the reviewers’ suggestions/decisions to the editorial department.

5. Chinese Journal of Medical Physics has been included in many domestic and international databases, including JST, WPRIM, CSCD, CNKI, Wanfang, Weipu, etc. If authors do not approve of the paper being included in the above-mentioned databases, please inform the editorial department when submitting.

6. If spotting any mistakes in the published papers, the authors have the duty to notify the editorial department to make corrections and request for a retraction or publication of a correction statement. If the editors are informed that there exist academic misconducts, the author is obliged to cooperate with the editors in retracting or making a statement.

7. No fee for review will be charged for all submitted manuscripts; and once the submission is accepted for publication, the fee for publication (500 yuan/page) is charged according to the relevant national and industrial documents and regulations. The author shall pay the fee for publication as required, and Chinese Journal of Medical Physics will arrange the articles to be published after receiving the payment.

8. The authors can access the official website ( http://zgyxwlxzz.paperopen.com/en/ ) for full-text. The authors can read, download, copy, disseminate, print, search or link to the full text, or use them for any other lawful purpose.

Publication ethics for peer reviewers

1. The peer reviewers shall insist on the principles of fairness, justice, confidentialness and promptness to make a responsible review for the manuscripts. If the reviewing cannot be completed in time, reviewers should promptly inform the editorial department and return the manuscript. Without the consent of the editorial department, peer reviewers are not allowed to let others do the review on behalf of his/herself.

2. Peer reviewers must respect the authors’ viewpoint and the innovativeness of scientific research, and should mainly comment on the academic value of the manuscript, without holding prejudice or discrimination against the authors themselves or authors’ research institutions, regional disparity, seniority, ethnicity and others.

3. Chinese Journal of Medical Physics strictly implements double-blind peer review system. Any manuscripts received by peer reviewers must be regarded as confidential documents and must not be disclosed. Reviews shall not discuss the manuscripts with others or misappropriate the authors’ work.

4. Peer reviewers should declare the conflict of interest to the editorial department in time when there is a conflict of interest between the reviewers and the authors (such as kinship, teacher-student relationship, alumni relationship, colleague or competition relation), and make an application for the avoidance of reviewing the manuscripts, thereby ensuring the impartiality of the reviewing.

5. The ethic codes and conducts should be followed in the reviewing. When peer reviewers find that the research is similar to themselves, they must not instruct or imply that the authors must cite their opinions or related literatures, and must not deliberately suppress or belittle the manuscript in his/her own convenience.

6. When peer reviewers encounter in the manuscript existing any academic misconducts such as fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, redundant publication, writing and submission by third party, he/she is accountable to the editorial department for the circumstance, and makes reviewing according to the acceptation standards of the journal, so that the editorial department can further verify the fact or require the authors to provide necessary explanations.

Publication ethics for editors

1. Each editor ought to comply with national policies and regulations related to journal management, and follow the periodical institutional norms, strictly implement review procedures, and do not alter the processing flow without authorization.

2. Editors should conduct academic misconduct literature check (AMLC) on all manuscripts, and directly reject those with a duplication ratio of more than 15%. For those with the ratio less than 15%, editors should handle each manuscript fairly, impartially and in a timely manner, avoid any prejudice against the authors' race, nationality, seniority, position, etc. The editors should give preliminary comments on the academic value of the research, and send the qualified manuscript for peer and final reviews. Based on the importance, originality, scientificness, readability and authenticity of the research, in combination with the review comments, editors make a decision of accepting or rejecting the manuscript, and then provide the authors with suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection as much elaborate as possible.

3. If editors and authors have any possible conflict of interest (such as kinship, teacher-student relationship, alumni relationship, colleague or competition relation), the editors should avoid dealing with the manuscript and are not allowed to take advantage of their authorities to seek improper interests. The editorial department should leave the manuscript to other editors.

4. Editors should abide by the principle of confidentiality, not only about the identities of authors and peer reviews, but also on the research content, and shall not interfere the decision by peer reviewers, and shall strive to ensure the independence of peer reviews to ensure a fair and appropriate peer review process.

5. For the peer reviewers recommended by the authors, the editor should verify the reviewers’ information, and then decide whether or not to employ the recommended reviewers based on his/her research area and expertise and whether there exists a conflict of interest. If the authors requests to avoid an expert reviewing the manuscript, and the editor should respect the request if it is reasonable.

6. Editors are obliged to remind authors of copyright and intellectual property issues that may arise after the alteration of author list and institution list.

7. Editors should declare detailed information (such as guidelines for manuscript submission, etc.) and update them in a timely manner.

? No fee for review will be charged for all submitted manuscripts; and once the submission is accepted for publication, the fee for publication (500 yuan/page) is charged according to the relevant national and industrial documents and regulations.

? Chinese Journal of Medical Physics is an open access journal, and all the articles online (http://zgyxwlxzz.paperopen.com/en/ ) are freely available to the public.

? Chinese Journal of Medical Physics will publish public-interest advertisements as required, but does not carry out any commercial advertising activities.

? Guidelines for manuscript submission

http://zgyxwlxzz.paperopen.com/EN/docs/ForAuthor/details.aspx?documentid=57

? Editorial and peer review process

http://zgyxwlxzz.paperopen.com/EN/docs/ForAuthor/details.aspx?documentid=56

? Open access, copyright and license notices

http://zgyxwlxzz.paperopen.com/EN/docs/ForAuthor/details.aspx?documentid=58

? Editorial board

http://zgyxwlxzz.paperopen.com/EN/Corp/5009.aspx

8. For the manuscript has been accepted, if there exist academic misconducts, editors have the right to reject, and notify the authors. For the published papers, if there are clear evidences that there are academic misconducts, the editors shall implement a retraction, publish a retraction notice, and inform relevant databases.

Consequences of violation of publication ethics

To sustain the credibility of the scientific research and to spread proper and authoritative information to the readers, the journal has zero tolerance for violations of publication ethics.

l Editors and peer reviewers who do not follow the publication ethics will be dismissed.

l If the authors violates academic codes and ethics, their submitted manuscripts will be rejected or retracted directly.

l Those who violate the law will hold legal responsibility.

Editorial Department of Chinese Journal of Medical Physics