Publication Ethics & Malpractice

NINE follows the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and expects authors, reviewers and editors to follow them.

Authors

• Submit only original work that has not been published or submitted elsewhere, and cite all sources used.
• List as authors only persons who made a substantial contribution; all authors approve the final version. Changes to the author list after submission require the written agreement of all authors.
• Do not fabricate, falsify or selectively report data or images.
• Disclose conflicts of interest, funding and data availability (see Disclosures).
• Obtain ethical approval and informed consent for research involving human participants or animals and state this in the article.
• Notify the editor promptly if a significant error is found in a published article.

Editors

Editors decide on the basis of scientific merit only, regardless of the authors’ origin, gender, belief or affiliation, keep the review process confidential, and handle conflicts of interest and complaints impartially.

Reviewers

See the Peer Review Policy.

Handling of misconduct

Suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication, data manipulation, authorship disputes or other misconduct are investigated following COPE flowcharts. The authors are asked to respond. Depending on the outcome the journal may reject the manuscript, publish a correction, publish an expression of concern, or retract the article, and may inform the authors’ institution.

Corrections and retractions

Errors that affect the results or conclusions are corrected by a published correction notice. Articles with serious misconduct or unreliable findings are retracted; the retraction notice states the reason and is linked to the original article, which remains available and is marked as retracted.

Complaints and appeals

Complaints and appeals can be sent to the editorial office (see Contact). They are considered by an editor who was not involved in the original decision.