Editorial standards
These policies define how JBOS handles authorship, research integrity, peer review, clinical ethics, conflicts of interest, corrections, and publication decisions.
JBOS expects all submissions to comply with accepted standards of research integrity, accurate reporting, transparent disclosure, and responsible authorship. Manuscripts may be rejected, corrected, or retracted if fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, undisclosed duplicate publication, unethical research conduct, or misleading reporting is identified.
Submitted manuscripts are first screened for scope, completeness, formatting, ethical statements, and conflicts of interest. Manuscripts considered suitable may be sent to qualified reviewers. The Editor-in-Chief or assigned editor makes the final editorial decision based on scientific merit, relevance, reviewer comments, ethical compliance, and journal priorities.
All listed authors must have made a meaningful scholarly contribution, reviewed and approved the submitted manuscript, accepted responsibility for the work, and approved the author order. Contributors who do not meet authorship criteria should be listed in acknowledgments with permission.
Authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose financial, professional, personal, or institutional relationships that could influence, or appear to influence, the work. Reviewers and editors should recuse themselves when a conflict may affect impartial evaluation.
Research involving human participants must include ethics committee or institutional review approval when applicable. Clinical case reports, patient photographs, radiographs, videos, or identifiable health information must be de-identified and supported by written patient consent when identification is possible.
Authors must disclose any substantive use of generative AI or AI-assisted tools in manuscript preparation. AI systems cannot be listed as authors. Human authors remain fully responsible for accuracy, originality, citations, confidentiality, and ethical compliance.
Authors should include a data availability statement describing where supporting data can be accessed, whether data are available upon reasonable request, or why access is restricted due to privacy, consent, confidentiality, or legal limitations.
JBOS may publish corrections when errors affect the scholarly record. Expressions of concern or retractions may be issued when there are unresolved integrity concerns, unreliable findings, major ethical issues, or confirmed misconduct.
Authors may submit a reasoned appeal or complaint to the editorial office. Appeals must identify the manuscript, explain the concern, and provide supporting information. JBOS will review appeals fairly, but editorial decisions remain at the discretion of the journal.
Authors must review and accept the JBOS Author Publishing Agreement during submission. Copyright transfer or publication licensing terms apply only after acceptance and publication, as described in the agreement.
Read the publishing agreement