Publishing Policies
All submitted manuscripts must conform to FFSP GROUP LIMITED’s policies as described. FFSP closely follows the guidelines and core practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) . Editorial independence is a core tenet of FFSP‘s publishing philosophy, and the publisher will not interfere with editorial decision-making. As a publisher of academic works, our editors and publishing partners subscribe to the principles of academic freedom, editorial independence, and the highest levels of research integrity. All submitted manuscripts must conform to the FFSP's policies.
Authorship and Contributorship
JICN journal follow the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) guide, it recommends that authorship be based on the following 4 criteria:
- Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work;
- Drafting the work or reviewing it critically for important intellectual content;
- Final approval of the version to be published;
- Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
All those designated as authors should meet all four criteria for authorship, and all who meet the four criteria should be identified as authors. Contributors who meet fewer than all 4 of the above criteria for authorship should not be listed as authors, but they should be acknowledged. AI and AI-assisted technologies should not be listed as an author or co-author.
Author contributions
JICN journal require that all contributors describe their roles using CRediT, the corresponding author is required to assign CRediT roles across the author and contributor list.
The CRediT taxonomy includes 14 different roles describing each contributor's specific contribution to the scholarly output. The roles are: Conceptualization; Data curation; Formal analysis; Funding acquisition; Investigation; Methodology; Project administration; Resources; Software; Supervision; Validation; Visualization; Roles/Writing - original draft; and Writing - review & editing.
Corresponding authors
The corresponding author is the one individual who takes primary responsibility for communication with the journal during the manuscript submission, peer-review, and publication process. The corresponding author typically ensures that all the journal’s administrative requirements, such as providing details of authorship, ethics committee approval, clinical trial registration documentation, and disclosures of relationships and activities are properly completed and reported.
Changes to authorship
Authors are expected to carefully consider the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript. If authors request removal or addition of an author after manuscript submission, authors should provide an explanation and signed statement of agreement and ensure they get the approval of all authors, including any that are to be removed. Changes to authorship are not allowed after paper is accepted.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Assisted Technology
At submission, the authors are require to disclose whether they used artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted technologies (such as Large Language Models [LLMs], chatbots, or image creators) in the production of submitted work. Authors who use such technology should describe, in both the cover letter and the submitted work in the appropriate section if applicable, how they used it. Authors are responsible for any submitted material that included the use of AI-assisted technologies. Authors should carefully review and edit the result because AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that can be incorrect, incomplete, or biased. Authors should not list AI and AI-assisted technologies as an author or co-author, nor cite AI as an author. Authors should be able to assert that there is no plagiarism in their paper, including in text and images produced by the AI. Authors must ensure there is appropriate attribution of all quoted material, including full citations.
Peer review Policy
To maintains the highest quality standards for our published papers, all submissions to our journal are strictly and thoroughly peer-reviewed by experts. JICN journal adopts double-blind peer-review (the reviewers know the authors' identities, but the authors do not know the reviewers' identities).
All manuscripts submitted to JICN should adhere to FFSP Editor Process.
Open Access Policy
Open access refers to unrestricted online access to scholarly articles, research papers, and other forms of academic publications. It allows anyone, anywhere, to read, download, copy, distribute, or reuse these publications.
FFSP publishes accepted manuscripts under Gold Open Access model. We currently offer publication under Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Types of Open Access
Gold Open Access: In the gold OA model, the publisher makes all articles and related content available for free immediately on the journal's website. In such publications, articles are licensed for sharing and reuse via Creative Commons licenses or similar. Authors, institutions, or funding bodies often pay article processing charges (APCs) to cover publication costs, ensuring that the content is freely accessible to readers.
Green Open Access: Self-archiving by authors is permitted under green OA. Independently from publication by a publisher, the author also posts the work to a website controlled by the author, the research institution that funded or hosted the work, or to an independent central open repository, where people can download the work without paying, usually after an embargo period determined by the publisher.
Hybrid Open Access: Hybrid open-access journals contain a mixture of open access articles and closed access articles. In hybrid journals, authors can choose to make their article open access by paying an APC, while other content remains behind a paywall.
Diamond Open Access: Journals that publish open access without charging authors article processing charges are sometimes referred to as diamond OA. Since they do not charge either readers or authors directly, such publishers often require funding from external sources.
Benefits of Open Access
Increased Accessibility: Open access removes financial barriers, ensuring that anyone with internet access can read and benefit from research findings. This promotes the dissemination of knowledge to a broader audience, including researchers, students, policymakers, and the general public.
Enhanced Visibility and Impact: Open access publications often have higher visibility and citation rates compared to traditional subscription-based articles. Increased accessibility leads to wider readership and greater opportunities for researchers to gain recognition and have their work cited.
Accelerated Scientific Progress: Open access facilitates faster dissemination of research findings, enabling other researchers to build upon existing knowledge and accelerate scientific progress. It fosters collaboration, innovation, and interdisciplinary research.
Public Engagement and Societal Impact: Open access promotes engagement between the scientific community and the general public. It allows policymakers, educators, and practitioners to access the latest research, leading to evidence-based decision-making and real-world applications of scientific knowledge.
Preservation and Long-Term Access: Open access publications are often archived in digital repositories, ensuring their long-term preservation and accessibility. This safeguards research output from the risk of loss or damage, contributing to the cumulative nature of scientific knowledge.
Open Access License
Creative Commons Attribution License: All articles published by Gavin Publishers are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). This license allows for unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction of the work in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
For all Open Access articles, authors retain the copyright to their work.
By submitting their work to FFSP authors agree to the following:
Rights Granted to the Public:
- reproduce and Share the Licensed Material, in whole or in part; and
- produce, reproduce, and Share Adapted Material.
Use of articles published by FFSP are required to:
- Give Credit: Properly credit the original authors and the journals.
- Indicate License: Clearly state the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license in any reuse or redistribution of the work.
- Respect Integrity: Ensure that the original work is not misrepresented or altered in a way that harms the reputation of the authors or the publisher.
Research ethics
Human and Animal Rights Policy
Human Research
If human subjects were used in the experiments, authors must identify the committee or organization (e.g., author’s Institutional Ethics Review Board) approving the experiments in the Materials and Methods section of the manuscript, which should also detail ethics approval information such as the name of the granting committee or organization and the approval identifiers, i.e., reference numbers. Our journal requires that authors provide a proof of research ethics or ethics statement along with the submission. In the case that ethics approval identifiers are not available, written approval from the granting committee or organization must be provided as confidential supplementary file.
In the manuscript, include a statement in the Materials and Methods section confirming that the experiments were carried out in adherence to the ethical principles set out in the WMA Declaration of Helsinki or other relevant institutional and national guidelines and regulations, and that informed consent was obtained from all human subjects. For investigations undertaken on human subjects, the manner in which the informed consent was obtained from the study participants (i.e., oral or written) should be stated clearly as well.
The authors should inform the study participants of the purpose(s) of publication, the possible risks and benefits as a result of the experiment, and the patient's right to withhold or withdraw consent. Consent should be obtained from the parent(s) or legal guardian(s) if the study participant is a minor.
Authors are obliged to declare and clearly specify any restrictions on the availability or the use of human data in the manuscript.
Patient Anonymity and Privacy
Human subjects have a right to privacy that should not be violated without informed consent. Identifying information or patient identifiers, including patient names, initials, date of birth, contacts, medical record numbers, hospital numbers, and geographical location, should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, or pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. Efforts must be made by the authors to at least mask or conceal any identifying information of the patients that appear in writing or within photograph.
Authors are obliged to explain to the patient if revealing the patient’s identity cannot be fully avoided, e.g., an image of an identifiable body part like the face has to be published in the report. The relevant identifying information to be published, e.g., the image, must be shown to the patient, and consent for publication taken for the use of that information in the publication. If the patient dies, then consent must be obtained from next of kin or legal representative. We shall consider author version of consent form for publication if all the essential items as shown in our sample consent form were included.
All submissions will be checked for documentation of patient consent for publication and for any potentially identifying information. Submissions that include identifying patient.
Animal Research
For studies describing testing on regulated animals (i.e., all live vertebrates and/or higher invertebrates), authors must identify the committee or organization (e.g., author’s Institutional Ethics Review Board) approving the experiments in the Materials and Methods section of the manuscript, which should also detail ethics approval information such as the name of the granting committee or organization and the approval identifiers, i.e., reference numbers. For research conducted on non-regulated animals, a statement should be made as to why ethical approval was not required. Our journal requires that authors provide a proof of research ethics or ethics statement along with the submission. In the case that ethics approval identifiers are not available, written approval from the granting committee or organization must be provided as confidential supplemental file.
Authors are encouraged to follow the ARRIVE guidelines while reporting animal research. In the manuscripts, any additional guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals that were used in the experiment should be indicated. Briefly, the authors should also include animal details (e.g., species, gender, age, weight), animal housing conditions and husbandry information, and relevant steps taken to ameliorate pain and suffering of the animals in the Materials and Methods section.
Specifically, experiments on non-human primates must be performed in accordance with the recommendations set out in the Weatherall report (The Use of Non-Human Primates in Research).
Application of Cell Lines
To ensure research reproducibility, authors must declare what cell lines were used in their experiment and the source or origin of all cell lines utilized. It is advisable to provide information regarding the authentication of cell lines and testing for mycoplasma contamination.
Generation of de novo cell lines derived from human tissue must be approved by the relevant ethics committee (or author’s Institutional Ethics Review Board). Authors must identify the committee or organization (e.g. author’s Institutional Ethics Review Board) approving the experiments in the Materials and Methods section of the manuscript, which should also detail ethics approval information such as the name of the granting committee or organization and the approval identifiers, i.e., reference numbers. Our journal requires that authors provide a proof of research ethics or ethics statement along with the submission. In the case that ethics approval identifiers are not available, written approval from the granting committee or organization must be provided as confidential supplementary file. Authors must confirm that they obtained the consent from the donor or next of kin for deriving a cell line from the donor.
Research involving plants
Experimental research and field studies on plants (either cultivated or wild), including the collection of plant material, must comply with relevant institutional, national, and international guidelines and legislation.
Manuscripts should include a statement specifying the appropriate permissions and/or licences for collection of plant or seed specimens. We recommend that authors comply with the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
For each submitted manuscript supporting genetic information and origin must be provided. For research manuscripts involving rare and non-model plants (other than, e.g., Arabidopsis thaliana, Nicotiana benthamiana, Oriza sativa, or many other typical model plants), voucher specimens must be deposited in an accessible herbarium or museum. Vouchers may be requested for review by future investigators to verify the identity of the material used in the study (especially if taxonomic rearrangements occur in the future). They should include details of the populations sampled on the site of collection (GPS coordinates), date of collection, and document the part(s) used in the study where appropriate. For rare, threatened or endangered species this can be waived but it is necessary for the author to describe this in the cover letter.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is not acceptable in FFSP journals. Plagiarism includes copying text, ideas, images, or data from your own publications and others, without giving credit to the original source.
Some fields require reporting that is formulaic in structure or that is likely to produce plots and figures that are similar in format, without presenting an plagiarism. It is acceptable for a student to duplicate work from their thesis or dissertation, if it has not been peer-reviewed and publish online.
All FFSP submissions are checked for plagiarism using the industry-standard software iThenticate. If plagiarism is detected during the peer review process, the manuscript may be rejected. If plagiarism is detected after publication, an investigation will take place and action will be taken in accordance with our policies.
Preprint
Authors can submit articles that have been published on preprint platforms such as rXiv.org and TechRxiv to journals, as long as the papers are not under peer-review elsewhere and are formatted and styled according to journal’s requirements. We suggest authors disclose in cover letter if the submitted works have already been uploaded onto a pre-print server. If the authorship is changed, the authors must provide an explanation. After the paper is published, we suggest the authors replace the posted preprint article with the publicated version with our journal information with the DOI.
Conference Extension Paper
Any extended conference paper submitted to FFSP journal, whether for a regular or a special issue, must contain at least 50% of new material to be considered suitable for peer review. This is to ensure that the new submission is of improved quality to meet the journal's requirements. The new material may include new text, figures, and data to ensure that there is some additional information of value to the research community.
Updating Published Papers
FFSP acknowledges its responsibility to correct scientifically relevant errors or ethical issues that have been brought to our attention. The published papers with errors that may impact their scientific interpretation.
Corrections
Once approved by the Editorial Office and Editors-in-Chief (EiCs), there will be a mark indicating that the paper has a correction. The new corection will linked to the original paper. Notification will be sent to all relevant indexing databases to ensure that they update their records as well.
Retractions
Retraction is a mechanism for correcting the literature and alerting readers to articles that have such seriously flawed or erroneous content or data that their findings and conclusions cannot be relied upon. Unreliable content or data can result from honest error, naive mistakes, or research or publication misconduct. The purpose of retraction is to correct the literature and ensure its integrity, not to punish the authors.
Retraction might be warranted if:
unethical research practices, compromised peer review, or undisclosed conflicts of interest are identified that could bias interpretation of the work or recommendations by peer reviewers;
there is clear evidence of major errors, irregularities in the data or images, or any form of misrepresentation (eg, fraud, identity theft, or fictitious authorship) that compromise the reliability of the findings;
findings have been published elsewhere without proper attribution, permission, or justification, or material or data have been used without proper authorisation.
Expression of Concern
When an investigation is ongoing or the evidence is inconclusive, an Expression of Concern may be published. The purpose of an Expression of Concern is to notify readers of concerns in situations where investigations have not yet been completed or prove to be inconclusive.
Conflict of Interest Policy
For authors
FFSP requires all authors to declare all competing interests in relation to their work. All submissions must include a ‘Conflict of Interest’ section at the end of the manuscript listing all competing interests (financial and non-financial). Where authors have no competing interests, the statement should read “The author(s) declare(s) that they have no competing interests”. The Editor may ask for further information relating to competing interests.
For Editors
We recommend that you review the journal’s Instructions to Authors to ensure they are up to date with current guidelines. As the editor, you are responsible for everything published in your journal, and you should therefore take all reasonable steps to ensure the quality of this material, recognising that journals and sections within journals will have different aims and standards.
Decisions to accept or reject a paper for publication should be based only on the paper’s importance, originality and clarity, and the study’s relevance to the remit of the journal.
The editors could publish their papers in the journals, but the peer review is handled independently of the editors.
For reviewers
Reviewers should declare competing interests arising from dealing with and reviewing the assigned submission. For the double-blind peer review in most of our journals and assume that the author identity has been completely masked to the best of our effort. For the single-blind peer review journal, the reviewer should immediately inform the handling editor if they have the Conflict of Interest with the manuscript.