Publication Ethics

Comprehensive Oncology is dedicated to maintaining the highest ethical standards in the publication of scholarly research. All participants in the publication process—authors, reviewers, and editors—are expected to adhere to the following guidelines to ensure the integrity, credibility, and transparency of the journal.

Author Responsibilities

  • Originality: Authors must ensure that their work is original and not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Manuscripts should not include material that has been published previously without proper citation.
  • Proper Citation: All sources of data, text, and ideas must be appropriately credited. Authors should provide full disclosure of all sources of funding and any potential conflicts of interest.
  • Accuracy and Integrity: Authors are responsible for the accuracy of their data and conclusions. They must promptly correct any significant errors or inaccuracies identified post-publication.
  • Authorship: All individuals who have made substantial contributions to the work should be listed as authors. Others who contributed in ways not meeting authorship criteria should be acknowledged.

Reviewer Responsibilities

  • Confidentiality: Reviewers must keep manuscripts confidential and not disclose details of the review process or the manuscript content to others.
  • Objective Assessment: Reviews should be conducted impartially, and feedback should be constructive. Reviewers should avoid personal biases and provide clear, objective evaluations based on the manuscript’s scientific merit.
  • Conflict of Interest: Reviewers must disclose any conflicts of interest that could affect their impartiality. They should recuse themselves from reviewing if a conflict of interest is present.
  • Timeliness: Reviewers are expected to complete their evaluations within the agreed timeframe to facilitate timely processing of manuscripts.

Editor Responsibilities

  • Fairness and Integrity: Editors should evaluate manuscripts based solely on their scientific merit, without discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnic origin, or political beliefs.
  • Confidentiality: Editors must handle all manuscripts confidentially and not use any unpublished data for personal advantage.
  • Decision-Making: Editors are responsible for making decisions regarding manuscript acceptance, revision, or rejection based on reviewer feedback and the manuscript’s relevance to the journal’s scope.
  • Conflict of Interest: Editors must declare any conflicts of interest and recuse themselves from handling manuscripts where such conflicts are present.

Conflicts of Interest

All authors, reviewers, and editors are required to disclose any financial or non-financial conflicts of interest that may influence their work. Conflicts of interest can include financial relationships, personal connections, or other factors that may impact objectivity. Failure to disclose conflicts may result in manuscript rejection or other actions as deemed appropriate.

Ethical Approval

Authors must obtain ethical approval from relevant ethics committees or institutional review boards (IRBs) for research involving human or animal subjects. The manuscript must clearly state the name of the approving institution and the ethics approval number. Clinical trials must be registered in a publicly accessible database before patient enrolment.

Reproducing Published Material from Other Publishers

Authors must seek permission to reproduce any material previously published elsewhere, including text, figures, and data. Proper citation of the original source is required, and authors should provide confirmation of permission to reproduce such material.

Publication Misconduct

Comprehensive Oncology follows a zero-tolerance policy for publication misconduct, including but not limited to plagiarism, data fabrication, data falsification, duplicate publication, and improper authorship. All manuscripts are checked for plagiarism. If misconduct is detected, the journal will follow COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) guidelines, which may include manuscript rejection, retraction, public notification, and notification to the authors’ institutions. Authors found guilty of misconduct may face additional sanctions and legal consequences if warranted.