Publication Ethics

Our publication ethics and publication malpractice statement is based on the COPE - Code of Conduct and Best-Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors, TID is an official member of which. Our journal follows the ICMJE's Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (December 2019 update). In addition we adhere to the standards on scholarly publishing as per the US NIH notice NOT-OD-18-011.

Ethics
All research submitted for publication in Tobacco Induced Diseases, must have been carried out within an appropriate ethical framework. Research involving human subjects, human material, or human data, must have been performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (as revised in 2013) and as per Good Clinical Practice.

For all research involving human subjects, informed consent to participate in the study should be obtained from participants or their guardian in the case of children. Identifying information of any form will not be published unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or guardian) gives written informed consent on its publication. Should a manuscript report on research that provides any material that should need informed consent then an ad hoc "Statement of Informed consent" will be published in the pdf of the article alongside the ICMJE Conflict of Interest Statement in the final published manuscript.

When reporting on experiments on animals the authors should indicate which institutional and national standards for care and use of laboratory animals were followed. Should a manuscript report on research that has been performed with animal subjects then an ad hoc "Statement of Animal Rights" will be published in the published manuscript alongside the ICMJE Conflict of Interest Statement.

All research must have been approved by an appropriate research ethics committee or institutional review board (IRB). The Editors will seek assurances that all research has been approved by an appropriate ethics committee and ethics approval numbers will be requested.

Plagiarism
TID investigates into all cases of publication misconduct and uses the CrossCheck’s plagiarism detection software. The software checks submissions against millions of published research papers, documents on the web, and other relevant sources. All articles submitted to TID are assessed through Ithenticate, and during all stages of revisions. If plagiarism or misconduct is found, immediate actions will be taken, including but not limited to the retraction of the article and publication of a retraction notice.

TID, as a member of COPE, adheres to guidelines for handling potential issues of plagiarism.

Corrections & Retractions
Should authors or reviewers identify an error in a manuscript, a correction letter will be published indicating where the mistakes were made, while the original source will be immediately corrected. In general, the COPE Guidelines for Retracting Articles are followed in this case. When faced with suspected misconduct the Editors-in-Chief are advised to follow the relevant COPE Flowcharts.

Appeals
If any authors are unhappy with the decision on their article they may appeal to the Editorial Office giving a reason why they feel the decision was incorrect. Any appeal will be reviewed by both Editor-in-Chiefs and a final decision will be made. Please note that authors may only appeal once.

Editorial Freedom
The Editors have full authority over the entire editorial content of the journal. The Editor-in-Chief is supported by an expert international editorial board comprised of individuals with relevant research, academic and or policy expertise. Together they make decisions on the validity and integrity of the submitted manuscripts in light of the journal's aim and scope. Upon recruitment to their position, editors are provided with documentation to support their activities including on their code of conduct, on how to perform peer review, the confidentiality of information they may view, and how to handle suspected author misconduct.
The Editorial board's composition is regularly reviewed, while clear guidance to editorial board members about their expected functions and duties is provided. The editorial board is also engaged twice a year to be informed on updates on publication ethics and journal strategic development.
The publisher, and none of its core administrative members, are not involved in the manuscript decision making process.

Provenance and peer review
All articles submitted to TID undergo double blind peer review. Every original article is peer reviewed by a minimum of two external experts and one member of the editorial board. In all cases the manuscript is also reviewed by at one Editor-in-Chief. Letters to the Editor and Editorials are peer reviewed internally. All journal content is clearly marked as whether peer reviewed or not (internally vs. externally peer reviewed). All articles have a specific provenance and peer review tab (commissioned vs. non commissioned).

Authors may suggest external reviewers that are qualified to peer review the manuscript, provided that they have not collaborated closely in the near past and that they are not from the same institution. Authors may also note peer reviewers who they would not prefer to review this paper. While the authors suggestions are taken into account, the Editorial Office reserves the right to handle double blind peer review at its discretion. Any manuscripts received for review will be treated as confidential documents.

External peer reviewers are requested to report on the ethical aspects of the manuscript they are allocated to review and are requested to report also on the novelty, the impact, the statistical analysis, references and potential conflicts of interest. A specific peer review form is provided with closed and open based questions so as to rate the manuscript and provide comments.