Allegations of Misconduct

The Journal of Epidemiology and Public Health (JEPH) takes all forms of misconduct seriously and will take all necessary action, in accordance with COPE guidelines, to protect the integrity of the scholarly record. Examples of misconduct include (but are not limited to):

Affiliation misrepresentation

Affiliations must be an accurate reflection of where the study was approved and/or supported and/or conducted. For non-research articles, the affiliation should be listed as the place the author(s) was based at time of submission.

Citation manipulation

Citation manipulation or gaming is where authors excessively or inappropriately self-cite or enter into prearrangements among researcher or reviewer groups to inappropriately cite each other’s work. Citation manipulation may include the following behaviors:

• Coercive citation: where journal Editorial team members coerce or require authors to cite papers from their own previously published articles, or from specific journals (including their own), or specific author groups, without due scholarly justification or relevance, often as a condition of acceptance;

• Citation stacking: where peer reviewers use their review reports on articles, or journal Editorial team members use decision letters to authors, to increase their own or specific colleagues’ citations, or citations to their journals, by requesting authors cite articles without due scholarly justification or relevance. This leads to an inappropriate inflation in citation levels for an article, an individual, an author group or a journal or book;

• Excessive self-citation: authors citing their own articles without due scholarly justification or relevance;

• Citation ‘farming’: where potentially irrelevant citations, or citations the authors cannot justify, are included in the article at request, for a fee, or other benefit;

• Over-citation: where multiple, unnecessary citations are added to support claims in an article, which would only require the most relevant and timely sources to be cited. This leads to inappropriate inflation to the citation score of other researchers, journals or books.

• Miscitation: where articles are inaccurately cited leading to misattribution.

Where citation manipulation is suspected or detected, it will be subject to an investigation. Where this behaviour is identified, unpublished articles may be rejected, or if published, may be subject to a post-publication notice, such as retraction.

Duplicate submission/publication

The Journal of Epidemiology and Public Health (JEPH) does not accept manuscripts that have been submitted simultaneously to, or are under consideration by, another journal, or that have been published previously in substantially similar form, unless an exception is permitted under recognized publication ethics guidelines.

Authors are required to declare upon submission that their manuscript is original, has not been published previously, and is not currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. By submitting a manuscript, authors confirm that they have complied with these requirements and that all co-authors have approved the submission.

Duplicate submission occurs when the same manuscript, or substantially similar manuscripts, are submitted to more than one journal simultaneously or while a decision from another journal is pending. Duplicate publication occurs when substantially similar findings, data, or content are published more than once without appropriate disclosure, justification, or cross-reference. Such practices may mislead readers, distort the scientific evidence, and constitute publication misconduct.

The journal recognizes that certain forms of secondary publication may be acceptable under specific circumstances, such as translations or publications intended for a different audience, provided that the applicable ethical requirements are met. Such publications must receive prior approval from the relevant editors, clearly acknowledge the original publication, and comply with applicable copyright and licensing requirements and established publication ethics guidelines.

Authors must disclose any previous dissemination of the manuscript's content, including related publications, preprints, conference abstracts, conference proceedings, or manuscripts based on overlapping datasets, where applicable. Preprints and conference abstracts are not automatically considered duplicate publications; however, authors must disclose them in accordance with the journal's submission requirements and ensure that the submitted manuscript complies with the journal's policies.

If duplicate submission or publication is suspected or detected, the journal will assess the circumstances and may request an explanation or supporting documentation from the authors. Where misconduct is established, the journal may reject the manuscript, withdraw it from the editorial process, notify the relevant institutions or other journals when appropriate, or take corrective action for an already published article, including issuing a correction, an expression of concern, or a retraction, depending on the nature and severity of the violation.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that their submissions comply with this policy. Failure to disclose relevant prior submissions or publications, particularly when intentional, may be treated as a deliberate breach of publication ethics.

Image or data manipulation/fabrication

Authors should include images and figures only when they are relevant and add scientific value to the reported work. Images or figures used solely for illustrative purposes without contributing meaningful scholarly value should be avoided.

The Journal of Epidemiology and Public Health (JEPH) does not tolerate the fabrication, falsification, or inappropriate manipulation of research images or data. Authors must ensure that all data, images, figures, and research findings are accurate, authentic, and presented without misleading alterations.

Authorship

Authors are required to give an honest account of authorship, where each listed author meets the authorship criteria in order to provide transparency and credit to those who have substantially contributed to the work. However, where authors deliberately don’t comply this is considered to be a form of misconduct. Of particular concern are:

• ‘Ghost authorship’ – where an author(s) has substantially contributed to the work but has not been given credit. This also impacts transparency as any competing interests pertaining to a ‘ghost author’ will not be declared.

• ‘Gift authorship’ – where a listed author(s) has not contributed substantially, or at all to the published work.

• ‘Authorship for sale’ – where authors have ‘sold’ an author spot on a paper, or where a researcher has ‘bought’ an authorship spot on a paper.

• ‘APC authorship’ – where an author who does not meet the authorship criteria is added to the authorship list as corresponding author solely to receive an APC waiver or other open access agreement which the authors would otherwise not be eligible for.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism applies to data, images, words or ideas taken from any materials in electronic or print formats without sufficient attribution. This can include abstracts, seminar presentations, laboratory reports, thesis or dissertation, research proposals, computer programs, online posts, grey literature and unpublished or published manuscripts.

The use of any such material either directly or indirectly should be properly acknowledged in all instances and the source of content must always be cited.

Text-recycling/self-plagiarism

Although authors are expected to refer to their own previously published work, in some cases re-using large proportions is considered to be unacceptable. Where this is unavoidable authors must be transparent about their previously published work by providing appropriate citations.

Undisclosed competing interests

Where authors, editors or reviewers do not declare relevant competing interests, which can be perceived to influence their opinion of or assessment of a research or other type of scholarly article. Editors and reviewers should recuse themselves from any kind of involvement with submissions they have a significant competing interest against. The nature of which is likely to influence their ability to provide a fair and balanced assessment.

Find out more about competing interest policy.

Unethical research

The Journal of Epidemiology and Public Health (JEPH) requires all research to comply with applicable ethical standards and regulations. Authors must ensure that appropriate ethical approval and informed consent have been obtained, where required.

For detailed requirements regarding research ethics, ethical approval, informed consent, and the handling of research misconduct, authors are encouraged to read the journal’s Research Ethics Policy.

Suspected unethical research will be investigated, and appropriate editorial action may be taken in accordance with the journal’s publication ethics policies.

Inappropriate use of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) provides a host of exciting opportunities for researchers to enhance their work. However, you should be aware of the limits of its permitted use.

You should not submit manuscripts where generative AI tools have been used in ways that replace core researcher and author responsibilities, for example:

• Text or code generation without rigorous revision.

• Synthetic data generation to substitute missing data without robust methodology.

• Generation of content which is inaccurate including references, abstracts or supplemental materials.

• Creation or manipulation of outputs of research or clinical testing, for example, research results, clinical samples and diagnostic images.

Please read our guidance on using AI tools in your research and manuscript preparation.