Policies and Ethics

Drugs in Context is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and abides by its code of conduct. It also endorses the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals. The journal wishes to highlight the issues raised in COPE’s position statement on the protection of vulnerable groups and individuals.

Submission of a manuscript to Drugs in Context implies that all authors have read and agreed to its content and that the manuscript conforms to the journal’s policies.

Please read Instructions for authors – Manuscript preparation guidelines – 5. Methods for specific instructions on how to include ethics-related information in each article type.

Open Access statement and copyright policy

All articles are published as Open Access. We apply either of two different copyright licenses depending upon how the article has been funded.

Publicly funded research

Creative Commons License Deed CC BY 4.0

This allows anyone, including the authors, to copy, distribute, transmit and adapt the article provided that it is properly attributed in the manner specified by Drugs in Context (but not in any way that suggests that Drugs in Context endorses the author or the use of their work).

Key features

Full-text PDFs of all articles deposited in PubMed Central, Europe PubMed Central & PubMed Central Canada immediately upon publication
No embargoes
Authors retain copyright

Authors can self-archive and the journal would appreciate a link to the original online version of the article on the Drugs in Context website.

Private or commercially funded research

Creative Commons License Deed CC BY NC ND 4.0

This allows anyone, including the authors, to copy, distribute and transmit the article provided that it is properly attributed in the manner specified by Drugs in Context (but not in any way that suggests that Drugs in Context endorses the author or the use of their work). The CC BY NC ND License Deed forbids the production of derivatives and commercial use of articles without the express permission of the Publisher.

Key features

Full-text PDFs of all articles deposited in PubMed Central, Europe PubMed Central & PubMed Central Canada immediately upon publication
No embargoes
Authors retain copyright
Authors can self-archive provided that a link is given to the original online version of the article on the Drugs in Context website

Under this license, Drugs in Context reserves the exclusive right to market authors’ articles to commercial users worldwide and to levy fees as appropriate for their reproduction, translation and dissemination in printed and any other form. For the avoidance of doubt, under CC BY NC ND 4.0 License Deed, agreeing to our Terms and Conditions of Publication (TCP) assigns an exclusive commercial re-use rights license to the Publisher of all the material. Additionally, any commercial use or re-use of the Work without the Publisher’s written consent will be a breach of the TCP and any author or third party acting in breach of these terms will be liable to the Publisher for such an amount as the Publisher would have charged for providing permission for commercial re-use of the Work plus all legal/recovery costs. Statutory fair use and other rights are in no way affected by the above.

For further information on commercial use, please contact the Editorial Office.

How to correctly attribute Creative Commons articles

The copyright license for publicly funded research is Creative Commons License Deed CC BY 4.0 Example of a correct attribution:
Copyright © 2013 Schwartz TL, Goradia V. http://dx.doi.org/10.7573/dic.212259. Published by Drugs in Context under Creative Commons Attribution License Deed CC BY 4.0.

The copyright license for privately funded research is Creative Commons License Deed CC BY NC ND 4.0. Example of a correct attribution:
© 2013 Altin M, El-Shafei AA, Yu M, Desaiah D, Treuer T, Zavadenko NN, Gao HY. http://dx.doi.org/10.7573/dic.212260. Published by Drugs in Context under Creative Commons Attribution License Deed CC BY NC ND 4.0.

Compliance with the access policies of funders of academic research

Drugs in Context is compliant with access policies of the public funders of research such as the US National Institutes of Health, The Wellcome Trust and the UK Medical Research Council. These require articles to be published under the Creative Commons License Deed CC BY 4.0 the key features of which are:

Full-text PDFs of all articles deposited in PubMed Central, Europe PubMed Central & PubMed Central Canada immediately upon publication
No embargoes
Authors retain copyright
Authors can self-archive

Ethics and editorial standards

We follow the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing.

Editorial Board

We work with a prestigious external Editorial Board of Associate Editors to formulate article ideas, facilitate robust peer review and maintain the quality of articles. Our Associate Editors do not receive payment for any journal work.

Rigorous & supportive peer review

Our peer-review process is very rigorous yet constructive, supportive and respectful of authors’ efforts. As a member of COPE, we follow COPE’s Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers. We urge all of our peer reviewers to adopt a positive attitude and to support authors with constructive advice and helpful suggestions. BioExcel Publishing Ltd does not influence the editorial decisions made on Drugs in Context. The Editorial Board and any peer reviewers receive no fees to perform peer review. Instead, we encourage peer review recognition through registration in Publons.

Ethics & quality

Committee on Publication Ethics

Drugs in Context is a member of the COPE and abides by the COPE Code of Conduct. It provides advice to editors and publishers on all aspects of publication ethics. All COPE members are expected to follow the Code of Conduct for Journal Editors. COPE will investigate complaints that members have not followed the Code.

Malpractice Policy

Drugs in Context follows the ICMJE’s Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, and COPE’s Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing and Core Practices. Authors should always refer to these three documents and follow the best-practice guidelines on ethical behaviour contained therein.

Archiving Policy

Drugs in Context undertakes full participation in the deposition of all published articles to the PubMed Central free full-text archive.

Plagiarism Policy

All submitted articles are screened with iThenticate software prior to further processing. Articles deemed to have plagiarized others work will be immediately rejected.

CrossRef

CrossRef is an independent membership association and its mission is to improve access to published scholarship through services that require collective agreement among scholarly and professional publishers. CrossRef enables citation linking in journals using the Digital Object Identifier, or DOI. The CrossRef DOI is paired with the object’s electronic address, or URL, in a central DOI directory that is easily updated. The CrossRef DOI is published in place of the URL to prevent link attrition while allowing the content to move as needed.

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)

Drugs in Context is listed in the DOAJ, which provides access to high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals. All data are freely available.

Industry-funded research and manuscripts

Drugs in Context endorses GPP3 and it is a requirement of submission, where relevant, for authors to confirm that their paper complies with GPP3.

Mandatory disclosure for authors, peer reviewers and Editorial Board members

Drugs in Context is committed to transparency and the avoidance of bias at all levels of the publishing process. Therefore, all authors/editors/reviewers must declare all relevant competing interests for consideration during the review process by signing a formal statement of interest.

A competing interest is anything that interferes with, or could reasonably be perceived as interfering with, the full and objective presentation, peer review, editorial decision-making or publication of research or non-research articles submitted. Competing interests can be financial or non-financial, professional, or personal. Competing interests can arise from a relationship to an organization or another person.

Everyone involved in authorship, funding, review and editorial decision-making of submitted articles must declare any and all relevant competing interests.

Failure to declare competing interests at submission, or when an article is commissioned, may result in immediate rejection of the paper. If a competing interest comes to light after publication Drugs in Context will issue a formal correction or retraction of the whole paper, as appropriate.

Full disclosure is part of the submission process.

Examples of competing interests

Financial

Paid employment or consultancy
Patent applications (pending or actual), including individual applications or those belonging to institutions to which authors/funders/reviewers/editors are affiliated and which those entities may benefit from
Research grants (from any source, restricted or unrestricted)

Non-financial

Non-financial competing interests include but are not limited to:

Professional

Acting as an expert witness
Membership in a government or other advisory board
Relationship (paid or unpaid) with organizations and funding bodies, including non-governmental organizations, research institutions or charities
Membership in lobbying or advocacy organizations
Writing or consulting for an educational company

Personal

Personal relationships with individuals involved in the submission or evaluation of a paper
Personal convictions (political, religious, ideological or other) related to a paper’s topic that may interfere with an unbiased publication process (at the stage of authorship, peer review, editorial decision-making or publication)

Standards of reporting science - important sources of information

Drugs in Context strongly encourages transparent reporting of biomedical and biological research. For biomedical and biological research, the checklist below must be completed before peer review, and made available to the Editors and reviewers.

Trial design, conduct and reporting of results must conform to the WMA Declaration of Helsinki – Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects. Additionally, include a clear description about the choice of statistical methods. Add information about Ethics/Review board approval with name, location and date of approval. For animal studies, add a statement about adequate care of animals. Please follow appropriate guidelines (see below).

We strongly recommend that authors refer to the minimum reporting guidelines for health research hosted by the Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research (EQUATOR Network) when preparing their manuscript.

Please refer to the following checklists and reporting guidelines:

Randomized controlled trials CONsolidated Standards Of Reporting Trials (CONSORT)
Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) and protocols (PRISMA-P)
Meta-analysis Of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (MOOSE)
STAndards for the Reporting of Diagnostic accuracy studies (STARD)
Observational studies (STROBE)
Case reports (CARE; see also this useful guide on how to de-identify patient data)
Sex and Gender Equity in Research – SAGER – guidelines
Pre-clinical animal studies (ARRIVE, PREPARE)

Statistical methods

Authors should include full information on the statistical methods and measures used in their research, including justification of the appropriateness of the statistical test used. Reviewers will be asked to check the statistical methods, and the manuscript may be sent for specialist statistical review if considered necessary.

Availability of data and materials

Drugs in Context encourages that materials described in the manuscript, including all relevant raw data, are freely available to any scientist wishing to use them for non-commercial purposes, without breaching participant confidentiality (if relevant).

We encourage authors to ensure that their datasets are either deposited in publicly available repositories (where available and appropriate) or presented in the main manuscript or additional supporting files, whenever possible.

Authorship and contributorship

Drugs in Context recognizes the differences between authors and contributors and fully adopts the new Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (updated December 2021) by the ICMJE.

Appeal against editorial decisions

If at any time during the editorial process the author wishes to appeal against editorial decisions, in the first instance please contact the Editorial Office.

Suspected misconduct or disputed authorship

Drugs in Context uses the Committee of Publication Ethics flowcharts to deal with cases of suspected misconduct or disputed authorship.

Corrections and retractions

Rarely, it may be necessary to publish corrections to, or retractions of, articles published in Drugs in Context to maintain the integrity of the academic record.

Corrections to, or retractions of, published articles will be made by publishing a Correction or a Retraction note bidirectionally linked to the original article. Any alterations to the original article will be described in the note. The original article remains in the public domain and the subsequent Correction or Retraction will be widely indexed. In the exceptional event that material is considered to infringe certain rights or is defamatory, the material may have to be removed from our site and archive sites.

Authors, readers or organizations who become aware of errors or ethics issues in a published article are encouraged to contact the Editorial Office. All reports will be considered; additional expert advice may be sought when deciding on the most appropriate course of action in a manner complaint with COPE.

Corrections

Changes to published articles that affect the interpretation and conclusion of the article, but do not fully invalidate the article, will, at the Editors discretion, be corrected via publication of a Correction that is indexed and bidirectionally linked to the original article.

Retractions

On rare occasions, when the interpretation or conclusion of an article is substantially undermined, it may be necessary for published articles to be retracted following the COPE guidelines. Retraction notices are indexed and bidirectionally linked to the original article. The original article is watermarked as retracted and the title is amended with the prefix ‘Retracted article’.