Letters in Biomathematics adheres to the highest standards of publishing ethics, with rigorous processes in place to ensure this is achieved. The journal follows the ethics guidelines of the Committee of Publications Ethics. The following specific factors are of utmost importance to LiB.
Authorship
Every author listed on a journal article should have made a significant contribution to the work reported. This could be in terms of research conception or design, or acquisition of data, or the analysis and interpretation of data. As an author or co-author, you share responsibility and accountability for the content of your article.
Avoid gift/guest authorship as well as ghost authorship.
- Gift (guest) authorship: where someone is added to the list of authors who has not been involved in writing the paper.
- Ghost authorship: where someone has been involved in writing the paper but is not included in the list of authors.
Plagiarism
When somebody presents the work of others (data, words or theories) as if they were his/her own and without proper acknowledgment.Committee of Publications Ethics (COPE)
When citing previous work (yours or others’), please ensure you have clearly marked quoted, verbatim text from another source appropriately; attributed and referenced all sources within the text and in the bibliography; and obtained permission from the original publisher and rightsholder when using previously published figures or tables. Make sure you correctly cite every instance of a reference and avoid self-plagiarism. If you are discussing your own previous work, make sure you cite it.
Any allegations of plagiarism or self-plagiarism made to a journal will be investigated by the Editor-in-Chief. If the allegations appear to be founded, we will then contact all named authors of the paper and request an explanation of the overlapping material. We may ask members of the Editorial Board to assist in further evaluation of the paper and allegations. If the explanation is not satisfactory, we will reject the submission. We may also choose not accept future submissions.
Data Fabrication / Falsification
Cases of data fabrication/falsification will be evaluated by the Editor-in-Chief. We may then ask authors to provide supporting raw data where required. We may also ask members of the Editorial Board to assist in further evaluation of the paper and allegations. If the explanation is not satisfactory we will reject the submission. We may also choose not accept future submissions.
Conflicts of Interest
It is very important to be honest about any conflicts of interest, whether sources of research funding, direct or indirect financial support, supply of equipment or materials, or other support. For some areas of research, such as medicine, evidence of ethical approval may need to be provided before the journal will publish the research.