(Adapted from the Committee on Publication Ethics' (COPE) and World Association of Medical Editors' (WAME) Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors.)

IJSTT is an open access journal that publishes peer-reviewed articles. This statement establishes the ethical standards for all parties involved in the publication of an article in this journal, including the author, the chief Editor, the Editorial Board, the peer reviewer, and the publisher. This statement is based on COPE's former Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors (see below) and COPE's current Core Practices.

Unijourn publisher takes their duties of guardianship over all stages of publishing extremely seriously, and we recognize our ethical and other responsibilities.

Ethical guidelines for publication

The publication of an article in the peer-reviewed journals published by Unijourn Publisher is a process of permanent knowledge improvement. It is a direct reflection of the quality of the work of the authors and the institutions that support them. Peer-reviewed articles support and embody the scientific method. It is therefore important to agree upon standards of expected ethical behavior for all parties involved in the act of publishing: the author, the journal editor, the peer reviewer, the publisher and the society of society-owned or sponsored journals.

We are committed to ensuring that advertising, reprint, or other commercial revenue has no impact or influence on editorial decisions. In addition, Editorial Board will assist in communications with other journals and/or publishers where this is useful to editors.

Declaration of Competing Interest

Corresponding authors must disclose, on behalf of all authors of submission, any financial and personal links with other people or organizations that could inappropriately affect (bias) their work. Employment, consulting, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding are examples of potential conflicts of interest. All authors, including those with no competing interests to disclose, are required to submit the pertinent information to the corresponding author (which, where relevant, may specify they have nothing to declare). Then, corresponding authors must utilize this tool to generate a shared statement and upload it to the submission system during the Attach Files stage. Please refrain from converting the.docx template to another file format. Author signatures are optional.

Change of Authorship

Before submitting their work, writers are expected to carefully study the list and order of authors and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the initial submission. Any addition, deletion, or rearranging of author names in the authorship list should only occur prior to the manuscript's acceptance and with the Editor's approval. To seek such a change, the associated author must submit the following to the Editor: (a) the justification for the change in the author list, and (b) written confirmation (email, letter) from each author that they agree with the addition, deletion, or rearrangement. In the event that an author is added or removed, this contains confirmation from the added or withdrawn author.

The Editor will only consider authors' addition, deletion, or rearranging after the submission has been accepted under exceptional circumstances. The publication of the manuscript will be halted while the Editor reviews the request. If the manuscript has already been published in an online issue, and the Editor approves the request, a corrigendum will be issued.

Duties of Editors

• Fair Play

  An editor assesses articles on the basis of their intellectual content, regardless of the authors' color, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic background, citizenship, or political ideology.

• Confidentiality

  The Editor and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.

• Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

  Without the author's clear written approval, an editor may not use unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted work for his or her own research.

• Publication Decisions

  The editorial board of the journal is responsible for determining which papers should be published. Such decisions must always be motivated by the validation of the work in question and its significance to academics and readers. The editors may be led by the editorial board's policies and bound by any applicable legal requirements involving libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism at the time.

• Review of Manuscripts

  The Editor is responsible for ensuring that each paper is initially examined for originality. The Editor should organize and utilize peer review in a fair and prudent manner. Editors should describe their peer review processes and specify which sections of the journal are peer-reviewed in the information for authors. The Editor should pick peer reviewers with sufficient knowledge and avoid those with conflicts of interest for manuscripts under consideration for publication.

Duties of Reviewers

• Contribution to Editorial Decisions

  Peer review assists the Editor in making editorial decisions and through the editorial communications with the author may also help the author in improving the paper.

• Promptness

  Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the Editor and excuse himself from the review process.

• Confidentiality

  Any manuscripts received for review must treat as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the Editor.

• Standards of Objectivity

  Reviews should conduct objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.

• Acknowledgement of Sources

  Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument reported should accompany the appropriate citation. A reviewer should also call to the Editor's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.

• Disclosure and Conflict of Interest

  Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

Duties of Authors

• Reporting standards

  Authors of reports of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed and an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable

• Data Access and Retention

  Authors are asked to provide the raw data in connection with a paper for editorial review, and should be prepared to provide public access to such data (consistent with the ALPSP-STM Statement on Data and Databases), if practicable, and should, in any event, be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable time after publication.

• Originality and Plagiarism

  The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original actions and if the authors have used the works or words of others that this has appropriately cited or quoted.

• Multiple, Redundant or Concurrent Publication

  An author should not, in general, publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same paper concurrently to more than one journal constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.

• Acknowledgement of Sources

  Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work.

• Authorship of the Paper

  Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included in the paper and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the article and have agreed to its submission for publication.

• Fundamental errors in published works

  When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author's obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the Editor to retract or correct the paper.

• Disclosure and Conflict of Interest

  Authors must declare any potential conflict of interest in the statement of conflict of interest. Full disclosure is required for the journal editor team to inform their editorial decisions. Additionally, authors must fully acknowledge all funding sources, including research funding, direct or indirect financial support, the supply of equipment or materials, etc. which support the work