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Ethical Guidelines for CCI Journal

Critical Care Innovations Journal has operated under a strict ethics policy that ensures our editorial independence and the integrity of our journalism. All of our editorial staff are required to abide by the following guidelines, many of which exceed standards in our industry. Objections regarding publishing ethics and published articles should be reported by e-mail to the editorial office of "Critical Care Innovations" or the publishing house - "Towarzystwo Pomocy Doraznej". Printed letters are also accepted. Detailed policy descriptions of the CCI Editorial Office and TPD Publisher are provided below.

Publisher's Responsibilities

We follow the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)'s Code of Conduct for Journal Publishers.

The publisher (Towarzystwo Pomocy Doraźnej) is dedicated to supporting the vast efforts of the editors, the academic contributions of authors, and the respected volunteer work undertaken by reviewers. The publisher is also responsible for ensuring that the publication system works smoothly, and that ethical guidelines are applied to assist the editor, author, and reviewer in performing their ethical duties.

Editor's Responsibilities

We follow the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)'s Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors. In addition, some key points are listed below.

The editor should acknowledge receipt of submitted manuscripts within two working days of receipt and ensure an efficient, fair, and timely review process.

The editor should ensure that submitted manuscripts are processed in a confidential manner, and that no content of the manuscripts will be disclosed to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, and the publisher, as appropriate.

The editor should recuse himself or herself from processing manuscripts if he or she has any conflict of interest with any of the authors or institutions related to the manuscripts.

The editor should not disclose the names and other details of the reviewers to a third party without the permission of the reviewers.

The editor has the right to make the final decision on whether to accept or reject a manuscript with reference to the significance, originality, and clarity of the manuscript and its relevance to the journal.

The editor should by no means make any effort to oblige the authors to cite his or her journal either as an implied or explicit condition of accepting their manuscripts for publication.

The editor should not use for his or her own research any part of any data or work reported in submitted and as yet unpublished articles.

The editor should respond promptly and take reasonable measures when an ethical complaint occurs concerning a submitted manuscript or a published paper, and the editor should immediately contact and consult with the author. In this case, a written formal retraction or correction may also be required.

Reviewer's Responsibilities

We follow the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)'s COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers. In addition, some key points are listed below.

The reviewer who feels unqualified to review the assigned manuscript or affirms that he or she cannot meet the deadline for completion of the review should immediately notify the editor and excuse himself or herself from the process of reviewing this manuscript.

The reviewer should inform the editor and recuse himself or herself from reviewing the manuscript if there is a conflict of interest. Specifically, the reviewer should recuse himself or herself from reviewing any manuscript authored or coauthored by a person with whom the reviewer has an obvious personal or academic relationship, if the relationship could introduce bias or the reasonable perception of bias.

The reviewer should treat the manuscript in a confidential manner. The manuscript should not be disclosed to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor.

The reviewer should approach the peer-review job objectively. Personal criticism of the author is unacceptable.

The reviewer should not use for his or her own research any part of any data or work reported in submitted and as yet unpublished articles.

The reviewer should immediately notify the editor of any similarities between the manuscript under review and another paper either published or under consideration by another journal. The reviewer should immediately call to the editor’s attention a manuscript containing plagiarized material or falsified data.

Author's Responsibilities

The author should not submit concurrent manuscripts (or manuscripts essentially describing the same subject matter) to multiple journals. Likewise, an author should not submit any paper previously published anywhere to the journals for consideration. The publication of articles on specific subject matter, such as clinical guidelines and translations, in more than one journal is acceptable if certain conditions are met.

The author should present a precise and brief report of his or her research and an impartial description of its significance.

The author should honestly gather and interpret his or her research data. Publishers, editors, reviewers, and readers are entitled to request the author to provide the raw data for his or her research for convenience of editorial review and public access. If practicable, the author should retain such data for any possible use after publication.

The author should guarantee that the works he or she has submitted are original. If the author has used work and/or words by others, appropriate citations are required. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.

The author should indicate explicitly all sources that have supported the research and also declare any conflict(s) of interest.

The author should give due acknowledgement to all of those who have made contributions to the research. Those who have contributed significantly to the research should be listed as coauthors. The author should ensure that all coauthors have affirmed the final version of the paper and have agreed on its final publication.

The author should promptly inform the journal editor of any obvious error(s) in his or her published paper and cooperate earnestly with the editor in retraction or correction of the paper. If the editor is notified by any party other than the author that the published paper contains an obvious error, the author should write a retraction or make the correction based on the medium of publication.

Consequences

In instances where an editor finds that a significant error has been published for which a correction needs to be made, and in all cases where there is reason for concern about such matters as plagiarism, fabrication of research, duplicate publication, or failure to disclose conflicts of interest, the editor will review and resolve the matter in consultation with Towarzystwo Pomocy Doraźnej following the CODE rules.

Articles that have been published shall remain extant, exact and unaltered as far as is possible. However, very occasionally circumstances may arise where an article is published that must later be retracted or even removed. Such actions must not be undertaken lightly and can only occur under exceptional circumstances. In all cases, our official archives at the National Library of the Poland will retain all article versions, including retracted or otherwise removed articles.

Article removal - Infringements of professional ethical codes, such as multiple submission, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data or the like. A retraction signed by the authors and/or the editor is published in the paginated part of a subsequent issue of the journal and listed in the contents list. In the electronic version, a link is made to the original article. The online article is preceded by a screen containing the retraction note. It is to this screen that the link resolves; the reader can then proceed to the article itself. The original article is retained unchanged save for a watermark on the .pdf indicating on each page that it is "retracted". The HTML version of the document is removed. In cases where the article, if acted upon, might pose a serious health risk, the authors of the original article may wish to retract the flawed original and replace it with a corrected version. In these circumstances the procedures for retraction will be followed with the difference that the database retraction notice will publish a link to the corrected re-published article and a history of the document.

The Editorial Office has the right to withdraw an article if it states:
- they have clear evidence that the findings are unreliable, either as a result of misconduct (e.g. data fabrication / falsification) or honest error (e.g. miscalculation or experimental error).
- the findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper cross-referencing or permission.
- it constitutes plagiarism (appropriation of another person’s ideas, processes, results, or words without giving appropriate credit (including those obtained through confidential review of others’ manuscripts).
- it reports unethical research.
- the peer-review process has been compromised / manipulated and the scientific integrity of the article cannot be guaranteed.
- authors’ conflict(s) of interest have been disclosed post publication and the disclosure is significant enough to potentially change the conclusions (in the judgment of the editor).

Article erratum - The Editorial Office may publish a correction / errata if errors reported after the publication of the article are immediately corrected by the authors by agreement. Please note that database archives store the first published version for life and cannot be deleted, except in the case of a court order.

We rely on good principles developed by COPE. Below are the decision paths of the most important ethical issues that may arise.

FABRICATED DATA

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

CHANGES IN AUTHORSHIP - addition of extra author

CHANGES IN AUTHORSHIP - removal of author

DUPLICATE PUBLICATION

GHOST, GUEST or GIFT AUTHORSHIP

ETHICAL PROBLEM