Best Practices
Journal of Phytomedicine and Botany is committed to maintaining high standards of scholarly publishing, research integrity, editorial independence, transparency, and responsible open-access publishing. The journal follows internationally recognized principles of publication ethics and best practices, including relevant guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing, and applicable research-ethics standards.
These principles apply to authors, editors, reviewers, editorial board members, and the publisher and are intended to promote the integrity, reliability, accessibility, and long-term preservation of the scholarly record.
1. Editorial Independence
Editorial decisions are based on the scientific quality, originality, relevance, methodological soundness, ethical compliance, and scholarly contribution of submitted manuscripts.
Editorial decisions are not influenced by the author's nationality, institutional affiliation, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, political views, or other personal characteristics.
Editors are responsible for making independent editorial decisions and should avoid situations in which personal, professional, financial, or institutional interests could influence the handling or outcome of a manuscript.
Neither the publisher nor commercial interests shall influence editorial decisions concerning the acceptance, revision, or rejection of manuscripts.
2. Peer Review and Quality Control
All submitted manuscripts undergo an initial editorial assessment before being considered for external peer review.
Manuscripts considered suitable for review are evaluated by independent reviewers with appropriate subject expertise. The journal normally follows a double-blind peer-review process.
Reviewers are expected to:
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Evaluate manuscripts objectively and constructively.
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Maintain confidentiality.
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Identify potential methodological, ethical, or scientific concerns.
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Disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest.
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Avoid using unpublished information obtained during peer review for personal or professional advantage.
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Provide their recommendations within the requested timeframe.
Editors may seek additional reviews when necessary to resolve substantial differences between reviewer recommendations or when specialist expertise is required.
Peer reviewers should not use generative artificial intelligence tools to generate substantive peer-review reports or upload confidential manuscript content into external AI systems.
3. Research Integrity
The journal expects all published research to meet appropriate standards of scientific integrity.
Authors are responsible for ensuring that their work is accurate, original, appropriately documented, and conducted according to applicable ethical and regulatory requirements.
The journal does not tolerate:
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Fabrication of data.
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Falsification or inappropriate manipulation of data or images.
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Plagiarism.
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Duplicate or redundant publication.
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Inappropriate image manipulation.
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Fraudulent authorship.
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Undisclosed conflicts of interest.
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Citation manipulation.
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Unethical research practices.
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Deliberate misrepresentation of research findings.
Where research-integrity concerns arise, the journal may investigate the matter and take appropriate action in accordance with applicable publication-ethics guidance.
4. Authorship and Contributorship
Authorship should be based on substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work, acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data, together with meaningful participation in drafting or critically revising the manuscript and approval of the final version.
All authors should accept responsibility for their contributions and agree to be accountable for the integrity of the work.
The journal requires an Author Contributions Statement for research articles where applicable.
Individuals who contributed to the work but do not meet the criteria for authorship should be appropriately acknowledged.
Any authorship change after submission must be justified and agreed upon by all affected authors and approved by the editorial office. Authorship disputes may be investigated in accordance with applicable publication-ethics guidance.
5. Conflicts of Interest
Authors, editors, reviewers, and editorial board members should disclose any financial, personal, professional, institutional, or other interests that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the research or editorial process.
Authors must provide a Competing Interests/Conflict of Interest Statement where applicable.
Reviewers must disclose conflicts of interest before accepting a review assignment.
Editors should not handle manuscripts where they have a significant conflict of interest. When necessary, the manuscript should be assigned to another qualified editor.
6. Ethical Approval and Research Involving Humans or Animals
Research involving human participants, identifiable human data, human biological materials, or animals must comply with applicable ethical and regulatory requirements.
Where ethical approval is required, authors must provide the name of the approving ethics committee or institutional review board and the relevant approval or reference number.
For research involving human participants, informed consent should be obtained where required.
For research involving animals, authors should provide appropriate information regarding animal ethics approval, welfare standards, and applicable institutional or national regulations.
The journal may request evidence of ethical approval where necessary.
7. Clinical and Human Research Transparency
Manuscripts reporting clinical studies, human intervention studies, or other research requiring registration should provide the appropriate registration information where applicable.
Authors should follow recognized reporting standards appropriate to the study design, such as CONSORT, STROBE, PRISMA, CARE, ARRIVE, or other relevant guidelines.
The journal encourages transparent reporting of methodology, limitations, study design, statistical procedures, and research materials.
8. Data Availability and Research Materials
Authors are encouraged to make the data, datasets, protocols, analytical procedures, code, and other research materials underlying their conclusions available whenever ethically and legally possible.
Authors should provide a Data Availability Statement where appropriate.
Where data cannot be publicly shared because of ethical, legal, privacy, confidentiality, intellectual-property, or other legitimate restrictions, authors should clearly state the reason and describe how qualified researchers may request access, where applicable.
Authors remain responsible for ensuring that shared data comply with applicable privacy, confidentiality, ethical, and legal requirements.
9. Plagiarism and Text Similarity
Submitted manuscripts may be screened using plagiarism or text-similarity detection tools.
Plagiarism includes the use of another person's words, ideas, data, figures, images, or other intellectual contributions without appropriate attribution.
The journal also considers substantial self-plagiarism, duplicate publication, and inappropriate reuse of previously published material as potential research-integrity concerns.
Where suspected plagiarism or duplicate publication is identified, the journal may investigate the matter and take appropriate editorial action in accordance with applicable publication-ethics guidance.
10. Generative Artificial Intelligence and Automated Tools
Authors may use generative artificial intelligence and other automated tools where their use is appropriate and does not compromise research integrity, confidentiality, originality, or accountability.
Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and ethical compliance of the submitted manuscript.
Generative AI tools must not be listed as authors.
Where generative AI has been used to generate or substantially modify manuscript content beyond routine spelling, grammar, formatting, or language correction, authors should disclose its use in an appropriate statement.
Authors should verify all AI-generated content, including factual claims, citations, references, data interpretation, and technical statements.
Generative AI tools should not be used to fabricate data, references, images, experimental results, or other research content.
Peer reviewers and editors should not upload confidential manuscripts or unpublished material into generative AI systems that are not authorized for confidential editorial use.
The journal may use automated tools as part of editorial workflows, including screening for plagiarism, duplicate content, image manipulation, or other research-integrity concerns. Such tools should support, rather than replace, human editorial judgment.
11. Citation and Referencing Practices
Authors should cite relevant and original sources accurately and appropriately.
References should not be added solely to increase citation counts or manipulate bibliometric indicators.
Authors, reviewers, and editors should avoid unnecessary citation manipulation, including excessive self-citation, reciprocal citation arrangements, or requests for citations that are not scientifically justified.
All sources cited in the manuscript should be represented accurately in the reference list, and references should be checked for completeness and correctness.
12. Corrections and Post-Publication Updates
The journal recognizes that errors may occasionally be identified after publication.
When a substantive error is identified, the journal may publish an appropriate correction, clarification, or other post-publication notice.
Minor errors that do not affect the scientific interpretation may be corrected according to editorial judgment.
The journal maintains the integrity of the published scholarly record and does not ordinarily remove published articles simply because an error is identified.
13. Retraction
A published article may be considered for retraction when there is reliable evidence of serious problems affecting the validity, integrity, or ethical status of the published work.
Possible grounds include:
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Fabricated or falsified data.
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Major methodological or factual errors that invalidate the conclusions.
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Plagiarism.
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Substantial duplicate publication.
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Unethical research.
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Serious authorship or copyright issues.
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Other circumstances that materially compromise the integrity of the scholarly record.
When retraction is necessary, the original article should remain accessible where possible, with a clear and permanent retraction notice explaining the reason for the action.
Retraction decisions should be handled transparently and in accordance with applicable publication-ethics guidance.
14. Complaints and Appeals
Authors may contact the editorial office regarding editorial decisions, publication processes, ethical concerns, or other journal-related matters.
Complaints and appeals should be submitted with sufficient information to allow the journal to assess the matter appropriately.
The journal will consider complaints and appeals fairly, objectively, and confidentially.
Where a complaint concerns an editor or editorial decision, the matter may be referred to an appropriate independent member of the editorial team or publisher for consideration.
Complaints concerning research misconduct, authorship, plagiarism, conflicts of interest, or publication ethics will be handled according to the nature of the allegation and applicable publication-ethics guidance.
15. Confidentiality
Information submitted to the journal during manuscript evaluation should be treated as confidential.
Editors, reviewers, and editorial staff must not disclose unpublished manuscript information to unauthorized persons.
Confidential information obtained through peer review or editorial work must not be used for personal, professional, or commercial advantage.
16. Intellectual Property and Licensing
Authors retain copyright in their published work according to the journal's Copyright Policy.
Published articles are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license unless otherwise explicitly stated.
The applicable copyright and licensing terms are provided through the journal's website and publication records.
Users of published material must comply with the applicable Creative Commons license and provide appropriate attribution.
17. Open Access
Journal of Phytomedicine and Botany provides immediate and unrestricted online access to its published scholarly content.
Readers are not required to register or pay subscription fees to access published articles.
The journal's complete Open Access Policy is available separately on the journal website.
18. Repository and Self-Archiving
The journal supports responsible self-archiving and long-term dissemination of scholarly research.
Authors may deposit permitted versions of their manuscripts in institutional, disciplinary, funding-agency, or other appropriate repositories in accordance with the journal's Repository Policy.
The journal does not impose an embargo on permitted repository deposits.
19. Digital Preservation and Long-Term Accessibility
The journal is committed to maintaining the accessibility and preservation of its published scholarly record.
Published content should be maintained in stable digital form and preserved through appropriate long-term archiving and preservation mechanisms.
The journal also supports the use of persistent identifiers and stable article URLs to facilitate long-term discoverability and citation.
20. Persistent Article Identification
Where applicable, published articles should be assigned persistent identifiers such as Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs).
Persistent identifiers should resolve to the appropriate article landing page and should remain stable throughout the lifetime of the publication.
Article metadata should be maintained accurately to support indexing, discoverability, citation, and interoperability.
21. Transparency of Publication Charges
Any applicable submission, processing, publication, or other author charges are disclosed on the journal website.
Authors should be able to determine the applicable charges and any available waiver or reduction conditions before publication.
The payment or non-payment of publication charges does not determine the scientific outcome of peer review.
22. Advertising and Commercial Influence
The journal maintains a clear separation between editorial decision-making and commercial activities.
Advertising, sponsorship, or other commercial relationships, where applicable, should not influence editorial decisions or the evaluation of manuscripts.
Commercial material should be clearly distinguishable from scholarly editorial content.
23. Special Issues and Guest Editors
Special issues, thematic collections, or guest-edited content should follow the same standards of editorial oversight and peer review as regular journal content.
The Editor-in-Chief retains overall responsibility for the scholarly content published by the journal.
Guest editors should disclose relevant conflicts of interest and should not make independent publication decisions where a conflict exists.
Manuscripts submitted by guest editors or members of the editorial team should receive independent editorial handling and external peer review where appropriate.
24. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
The journal promotes fair and respectful scholarly communication.
Editorial and peer-review decisions should be based on scholarly merit and ethical standards rather than personal characteristics or geographical origin.
The journal encourages participation from researchers from diverse institutions, countries, disciplines, and professional backgrounds.
25. Responsible Use of Metrics
The journal does not use journal-level metrics as a substitute for assessment of the scientific quality of individual research articles.
Authors, editors, and reviewers should not manipulate citations or other bibliometric indicators.
The journal supports responsible use of article-level and journal-level metrics in accordance with recognized principles of responsible research assessment.
26. Publisher and Editorial Responsibilities
The publisher provides the infrastructure necessary for submission, peer review, publication, dissemination, and preservation of journal content.
The editorial team is responsible for maintaining appropriate editorial and peer-review standards.
The Editor-in-Chief and editorial board are responsible for maintaining the academic quality and integrity of the journal.
The publisher and editorial team should work together to ensure transparency, ethical publishing, accessibility, and continuous improvement of journal practices.
27. Commitment to Continuous Improvement
Journal of Phytomedicine and Botany regularly reviews its editorial policies and publishing practices to ensure that they remain consistent with evolving standards in scholarly communication.
The journal welcomes constructive feedback from authors, reviewers, readers, and members of the scholarly community regarding its editorial and publishing practices.
The journal may update its policies when necessary to reflect developments in research ethics, scholarly publishing, open-access publishing, technology, and international best practices.
Related Journal Policies
For detailed information, authors and reviewers should also consult:
Journal of Phytomedicine and Botany is committed to maintaining a transparent, ethical, responsible, and researcher-focused publishing environment and to preserving the integrity of the scholarly record.
Journal of
Phytomedicine
and
Botany
Peer Reviewed Open Access Journal