Publication Ethics & Malpractice Statement

Global Virology Reports (GVR) is committed to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics and integrity. We take all forms of malpractice seriously and are a supporting member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), adhering to its core practices and guidelines for all editors, authors, and reviewers.

Editorial Responsibilities
Editors are responsible for the fair, objective, and confidential handling of all submissions. They must:

·       Evaluate manuscripts solely on their intellectual merit without regard to the authors' race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, citizenship, or political philosophy.

·       Ensure the confidentiality of the submission and peer review process.

·       Disclose and recuse themselves from handling manuscripts where they have a conflict of interest.

·       Make the final decision on whether to publish a manuscript, guided by the journal's policies and legal requirements regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism.

Author Responsibilities and Prohibited Practices
Authors are required to adhere to the following ethical standards. Unacceptable practices include, but are not limited to:

·       Data Fabrication and Falsification: Inventing or deliberately misrepresenting research data.

·       Plagiarism: The appropriation of another person's ideas, processes, text, or results without credit. This includes verbatim copying and paraphrasing of substantial portions of another's work without attribution. All submissions are screened with plagiarism detection software.

·       Inappropriate Image Manipulation: Digital enhancements that misrepresent the original data or obscure, remove, or introduce elements are prohibited. Adjustments to brightness or contrast must be applied equally across the entire image and must not obscure any information present in the original.

·       Undisclosed Conflicts of Interest: Failure to declare any financial or other substantive conflicts of interest that could be construed to influence the results or their interpretation.

·       Duplicate/Redundant Publication: Submitting the same manuscript, or substantial parts of it, to more than one journal simultaneously. This includes publishing articles that overlap significantly with one's own previously published work without citation or justification (salami publication).

·       Unethical Research: Research involving human participants must have been conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and must include a statement confirming approval by an institutional review board (IRB) and informed consent. Research involving animals must follow institutional and national guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals and include a statement of compliance.

Reviewer Responsibilities
Reviewers must:

·       Provide objective, constructive, and timely assessments.

·       Maintain the confidentiality of the manuscript and not use knowledge of it for personal advantage.

·       Declare any conflicts of interest and alert the editor to any ethical concerns, such as substantial similarity to published works or suspected plagiarism.

Handling of Allegations of Misconduct
In cases of alleged ethical misconduct, GVR will follow the formal procedures outlined by COPE. The initial step involves seeking a response from the accused authors. If the allegation is upheld, an investigation will be conducted in collaboration with the authors' institution(s).

Sanctions
Depending on the severity of the misconduct, sanctions may include, but are not limited to:

·       Rejection of the submitted manuscript.

·       Retraction of a published article with a public retraction notice.

·       A ban on future submissions from the authors for a defined period.

·       Reporting the misconduct to the authors' institutional leadership, funding bodies, or other relevant authorities.