Ethics and Disclosures

The Journal of Immunological Sciences is committed to the highest standards of publication ethics and transparency. All policies follow the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

All persons listed as authors must have made a substantial, direct, and intellectual contribution to the work. JIS follows the ICMJE criteria for authorship, which require that each author meets all four of the following conditions:

1. Substantial contribution to conception, design, acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data
2. Drafting the article or critically revising it for important intellectual content
3. Final approval of the version to be published
4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work, including questions about accuracy or integrity

Contributors who do not meet all four criteria should be acknowledged in the Acknowledgements section. Acquisition of funding, general supervision, data collection, language editing, and proofreading alone do not qualify for authorship.

Corresponding Author

One author must be designated as the corresponding author, who takes primary responsibility for communication with the journal from submission through publication and post-publication correspondence. The corresponding author must sign the License to Publish Form on behalf of all co-authors, confirming that all listed authors meet the above criteria and consent to publication.

Changes to Authorship

Requests to add, remove, or reorder authors after submission must be submitted in writing to the editorial office with a clear explanation and a signed statement of agreement from all listed authors, including any author being added or removed. The Editor-in-Chief makes the final decision. JIS does not permit guest authorship (listing individuals who did not contribute) or ghost authorship (omitting individuals who did contribute).

Group Authorship

Where work is conducted by a named group or consortium, the group name may be listed as an author. Individual group members who meet authorship criteria should be listed in the Acknowledgements as collaborators.

A conflict of interest exists when an author, reviewer, or editor has financial, personal, academic, or other relationships that could inappropriately influence their judgement. JIS requires all parties to disclose any potential conflicts at the time of submission or assignment.

Authors

The corresponding author must disclose all sources of funding and any financial or non-financial interests that could be perceived as influencing the work. This includes but is not limited to: employment, consultancy, stock ownership, honoraria, expert testimony, grants, and patents. Disclosures must appear in the manuscript under a dedicated Conflict of Interest statement before the references. If no conflicts exist, authors must state: "The authors declare no conflict of interest."

Reviewers

Reviewers must disqualify themselves from reviewing any manuscript in which they have a conflict of interest — including manuscripts from current or recent collaborators, colleagues at the same institution, or where they have a competing financial interest. Reviewers should contact the editorial office immediately if a conflict is identified after assignment.

Editors

Editors who have a conflict of interest with a submitted manuscript must recuse themselves from all decisions relating to that manuscript. The manuscript will be handled by another member of the editorial board with no conflict.

All sources of funding for the research must be disclosed in the manuscript. Funding information should appear under a separate heading titled "Funding" at the end of the manuscript, before the Conflict of Interest statement.

Authors must state the role of the funding body (if any) in: study design; collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; writing of the manuscript; and the decision to submit for publication. If the funder had no role in any of these, this should be explicitly stated.

JIS is committed to financial transparency. The APC (Article Processing Charge) does not influence editorial decisions. Waiver decisions are made independently of the editorial process and are never communicated to editors or reviewers.

Research involving human participants must be conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and applicable national regulations. Authors must state in the Methods section that written informed consent was obtained from all participants (or their legal guardians) prior to the study.

Case Reports & Clinical Images

Case reports, case series, and any manuscript containing clinical images or identifiable patient data require written informed consent from the patient (or their guardian). A statement confirming this must appear in the manuscript. Patient identifiers must be removed or anonymised unless the patient has specifically consented to their inclusion.

Research Involving Children

Research involving minors requires consent from a parent or legal guardian, and assent from the child where developmentally appropriate. This must be described in the Methods section.

Research Involving Vulnerable Populations

Particular care must be taken in studies involving vulnerable groups, including individuals with immunology conditions, cognitive impairment, or those in coercive environments. Authors should describe safeguards applied to protect participants.

All research involving human participants, human tissue, or animals must have been approved by the relevant Institutional Review Board (IRB) or Ethics Committee before the study commenced. The manuscript must include the name of the approving body and the approval reference number in the Methods section.

Animal Research

Studies involving laboratory animals must confirm compliance with all applicable national guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals and must have received ethics committee approval. Authors must confirm that procedures were designed to minimise animal suffering and that the 3Rs principles (Replacement, Reduction, Refinement) were applied.

Studies Without Ethics Approval

If a study was conducted without ethics committee approval, authors must explain why and demonstrate that it meets all relevant ethical standards. The editorial board reserves the right to reject such manuscripts.

Clinical Trials

All clinical trials must be registered in a publicly accessible registry (e.g., ClinicalTrials.gov, WHO ICTRP) before the first participant is enrolled. The trial registration number must be included in the abstract. Retrospective registration must be explained and justified.

JIS treats plagiarism as a serious breach of publication ethics. All submitted manuscripts are screened using plagiarism detection software before peer review. The following are considered forms of plagiarism:

• Direct copying of text, data, images, or ideas from another source without attribution
• Paraphrasing another's work so closely that it amounts to copying without acknowledgement
• Republishing one's own previously published work without disclosure (self-plagiarism)
• Using another's images, figures, or tables without permission and appropriate attribution
• Unattributed translation of another person's work

Manuscripts submitted to JIS must be original and must not be under simultaneous consideration by any other journal. Authors must confirm at submission that the work has not been published elsewhere and is not currently being reviewed by another publication.

Duplicate Publication

Duplicate publication is the publication of the same — or substantially similar — intellectual content in more than one journal without disclosure and prior permission. This applies even where superficial differences exist (new title, modified abstract) while the core data and findings remain the same. Copyright for the paper rests with the authors, but authors do not have the right to republish without consent.

Redundant Publication

Redundant (or "salami") publication refers to splitting a single study into multiple smaller papers to increase publication count. This is discouraged and manuscripts suspected of redundant publication will be evaluated carefully by editors.

Permissible Prior Disclosure

The following do not constitute duplicate publication and do not require prior approval: presentation at a scientific conference; posting a preprint on an approved server (e.g., medRxiv, PsyArXiv) — authors must disclose the preprint at submission; thesis or dissertation chapters. Any related or overlapping publications must be cited and copies submitted as supplementary material.

Simultaneous Submission Procedure

If an author wishes to submit a manuscript currently under consideration elsewhere, they must: (1) obtain written consent from all co-authors; (2) formally withdraw from the first journal; (3) obtain written confirmation of withdrawal; (4) submit this confirmation alongside the new manuscript.

JIS maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward data fabrication and data falsification. These constitute the most serious forms of research misconduct and undermine the integrity of the scientific record.

• Data Fabrication — inventing data or results that were never collected or observed
• Data Falsification — manipulating research data with the intent to give a false impression, including modifying figures, omitting conflicting results, or selectively reporting findings

Editors and reviewers are alert to signs of data manipulation including: irregular statistical distributions, duplicated images or image segments, implausibly round numbers, and inconsistencies between methods and results sections.

Raw Data

Authors may be asked to provide raw data at any point during or after peer review. Inability or refusal to provide supporting data may be treated as evidence of fabrication. Authors are expected to retain raw data for a minimum of five years after publication.

JIS operates a single-anonymized peer review process (reviewers are anonymous to authors). The editorial office assigns manuscripts to reviewers with relevant expertise and no conflicts of interest.

Reviewer Responsibilities

• Provide objective, constructive, and timely reviews based on scientific merit
• Disclose any conflicts of interest immediately upon assignment
• Maintain strict confidentiality — manuscript contents must not be shared, discussed, or used before publication
• Not use knowledge gained from an unpublished manuscript for personal or competitive advantage
• Decline the review if unable to complete it within the agreed timeframe

Co-Reviewers

Reviewers wishing to involve a junior colleague must first obtain approval from the editor, name the co-reviewer to the editorial office, and ensure the co-reviewer is bound by the same confidentiality and ethics standards.

Editor Responsibilities

Editors make decisions based solely on scientific merit, relevance to the journal's scope, and compliance with these ethics policies. Editorial decisions are never influenced by the authors' nationality, institutional affiliation, gender, religion, or political views, nor by commercial considerations.

All submitted manuscripts are treated as confidential documents. Details of submitted, under-review, and rejected manuscripts — including their content, reviewer identities, and editorial correspondence — must not be disclosed or discussed publicly.

• Editors and editorial staff must not comment on or publicise manuscripts under consideration or rejected manuscripts
• Reviewers must not share the manuscript with colleagues outside their immediate review process without editor approval
• Neither editors nor reviewers may use unpublished data or ideas from a manuscript they are handling to advance their own research or interests
• Reviewer identities are never disclosed to authors
• Reviewer comments are not published

Authors may present work submitted to JIS at scientific conferences and publish abstracts in conference proceedings, but must not discuss the specifics of their submitted manuscript with media representatives while it is under review.

JIS respects authors' right to withdraw a submitted manuscript and handles all withdrawal requests in accordance with COPE guidelines. To initiate a withdrawal, email editor@immunologyresearchjournal.com with the subject line: "Withdrawal Request – [Manuscript ID] – [Title]", including the names of all authors and the reason for withdrawal.

JIS is committed to maintaining an accurate and reliable scientific record. Errors in published articles are addressed through the following mechanisms, in line with COPE Retraction Guidelines:

Retraction Principles

• Retractions are issued as promptly as possible after a decision is reached
• The retraction notice clearly states the reason for retraction
• The original article is retained online and watermarked "RETRACTED" — it is not deleted
• Authors are given the opportunity to respond before a retraction is issued, except in cases of clear and proven misconduct
• Retraction notices are freely accessible to all readers

JIS encourages the reporting of suspected publication misconduct. Concerns may relate to: plagiarism, data fabrication or falsification, authorship disputes, undisclosed conflicts of interest, duplicate publication, or unethical research practices.

How to Report

Contact the editorial office at editor@immunologyresearchjournal.com with as much detail as possible. Provide the manuscript ID or DOI, a clear description of the concern, and any supporting evidence. All reports are treated confidentially.

Investigation Process

All concerns are investigated by the Editor-in-Chief in accordance with the relevant COPE flowchart. Depending on the outcome, actions may include: requesting a response from the authors; contacting the authors' institution; issuing a correction, Expression of Concern, or retraction; or imposing a publishing ban.

Whistleblower Protection

JIS is committed to protecting individuals who report suspected misconduct in good faith. The identity of the person raising a concern will not be disclosed without their consent.

The rapid development of AI-assisted writing tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Copilot) raises important questions about authorship, originality, and transparency. JIS's policy is as follows:

AI Cannot Be Listed as an Author

AI and machine learning tools do not meet the ICMJE authorship criteria — they cannot take responsibility for the work, cannot consent to publication, and cannot be held accountable for errors. AI tools must not be listed as authors under any circumstances.

Disclosure Required

Authors who used AI tools to assist in the preparation of a manuscript — including writing, editing, translation, image generation, or data analysis — must disclose this in the Methods section or in an Acknowledgements statement. The disclosure should name the tool used, the version, and the nature of its use.

Example disclosure: "The authors used [Tool Name, Version] to assist with [specific use, e.g., language editing of the manuscript]. The authors reviewed and take full responsibility for all content."

Author Responsibility

Authors are fully responsible for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of all content in the manuscript, including any content generated or revised with the assistance of AI tools. Use of AI does not reduce authors' responsibility for avoiding plagiarism, fabrication, or hallucinated references.

Questions about ethics policies? Contact us at editor@immunologyresearchjournal.com