Research and publication ethics
JAST adheres to the guidelines of research and publication ethics described in the ICMJE Guidelines (http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/) and the Guidelines on Good Publication (http://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines).
Authorship
An 'author' is generally considered to be someone who has made substantive intellectual contributions to a published study. According to the ICMJE guidelines(http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/), authorship credit should be based on:
- 1) Substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, and/or analysis and interpretation of data; AND
- 2) Drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
- 3) Final approval of the version to be published; AND
- 4) Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
Authors wishing to make any changes to authorship will be asked to make and submit an official letter to the editor. Please note that changes to authorship cannot be made after acceptance of a manuscript.
Duplicate Publication
Any manuscripts submitted to the JAST must be original and the manuscript, or substantial parts of it, must not be under consideration by any other journals. All manuscripts submitted to the journal are checked for possible plagiarism or duplicate publication by Similarity Check’s plagiarism detection (https://www.crossref.org/services/similarity-check/). Any suspected cases of covert duplicate manuscript submission will be handled and the editor may contact the authors’ institution.
Competing interests
The JAST requires authors to declare all competing interests including financial or non-financial support related to their work. Where authors have no competing interests, the statement should read “No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported”. The editor may ask for further information relating to competing interests.
Statement of human and animal rights
Investigations involving humans must be conducted in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki (https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/). Clinical studies not adhering to the Helsinki Declaration will not be considered for publication. For animal research, studies must comply with the National or Institutional Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, ensuring the ethical treatment of all experimental animals.
Statement of informed consent and IRB approval
Research involving humans or animals must be approved by the institution's Research Ethics Committee (REC), Institutional Review Board (IRB), or Animal Care Committee. For human studies, informed consent must be obtained unless waived by the IRB. Copies of written informed consent (from the patient, or from a parent or guardian if the patient is not capable) and IRB approval should be retained. Editors or reviewers may request these documents. The manuscript must explicitly state that written informed consent was obtained from all study participants. For animal studies, approval from the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) is required.
Care and Use of Animals
Experimental research on vertebrates or any regulated invertebrates must comply with institutional, national, or international guidelines, and where available should have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee. The manuscript must include a statement of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) compliance that should appear as the first item in the section of materials and methods. If necessary, the editor or reviewers may request an official number of IACUC approval. The JAST maintains the right to reject any manuscripts on the basis of unethical conduct or misconduct of animal studies.
Selection and Description of Participants
Ensure correct use of the terms sex (when reporting biological factors) and gender (identity, psychosocial or cultural factors), and, unless inappropriate, report the sex and/or gender of study participants, the sex of animals or cells, and describe the methods used to determine sex and gender. If the study was done involving an exclusive population, for example in only one sex, authors should justify why, except in obvious cases (e.g., prostate cancer). Authors should define how they determined race or ethnicity and justify their relevance.
Use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies
The following principles shall apply to the use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the preparation of manuscripts and materials for publication. Where authors use generative AI or AI-assisted technologies in the writing process, such technologies should be used only in a limited manner to improve the readability, language, and clarity of the manuscript. Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies must not be used to replace scholarly judgment, draw scientific conclusions, or generate the core ideas of the research. The use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies must always be subject to human oversight and control, and authors must carefully review the output generated by such technologies and make any necessary revisions. Authors bear full responsibility and accountability for the entire content of the manuscript.
If authors use generative AI or AI-assisted technologies in the preparation of a manuscript, they must explicitly disclose such use within the manuscript. Such disclosure helps promote transparency and trust among authors, readers, reviewers, editors, and other stakeholders, and also facilitates compliance with the terms of use of the relevant tool or technology.
Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies must not be listed as an author or co-author, nor cited as an author. Authorship implies responsibilities and roles that can be attributed only to humans. Each author is responsible for appropriately examining and resolving questions related to the accuracy and integrity of the manuscript, and must be able to approve the final version of the manuscript and agree to its submission. Authors are also responsible for ensuring the originality of the manuscript, confirming that all listed authors meet the criteria for authorship, and ensuring that the manuscript does not infringe upon any third-party rights. Authors should familiarize themselves with this journal’s research and publication ethics policies prior to submission.
Confidentiality and use of generative AI in peer review
Reviewers must treat as confidential all manuscripts, supplementary materials, review reports, and any information encountered during the editorial and peer review process. Reviewers must not enter or upload the submitted manuscript, in whole or in part, or any confidential information concerning the manuscript or its authors into external generative AI tools or similar automated systems. Scholarly judgment, critical evaluation, and final assessment required for peer review must remain under human responsibility, and reviewers bear full responsibility for the accuracy and appropriateness of the review reports they submit. Unless explicitly permitted by the journal, generative AI must not be used in the preparation or revision of peer review reports.
Managing Research and Publication Misconduct
The JAST may find any suspected cases of research and publication misconduct. In these cases, the ethics committee of the journal will follow the process provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (http://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts), discuss and finalize the cases for further publication.
Research Misconduct Policy of JAST
Editorial Responsibilities
The editorial board of the JAST will continuously monitor research and publication ethics. The editors maintain the following responsibilities: responsibility and authority to reject and accept articles; avoiding any conflict of interest with respect to articles they reject or accept; promoting publication of corrections or retractions when errors are found; and preservation of the anonymity of reviewers.
