Editors
Editors disclose personal, professional, financial, institutional, collaborative, competitive and supervisory conflicts and recuse themselves when appropriate.
Research integrity · JAPST
Editorial policies
These policies define how JAPST screens submissions, conducts peer review, manages competing interests and maintains the published record.
- Peer review
- Single-blind by default
- Double-blind
- Available on request
- License
- CC BY 4.0
- Contact
- [email protected]
Release profile
01
Editorial assessment and peer review
Editorial decisions remain independent of fees, services, sponsorship, memberships and journal roles.
Initial screening
All submissions undergo initial editorial screening. Manuscripts that meet the journal's scope and minimum requirements proceed to independent peer review.
Review model
Peer review: Single-blind by default; double-blind review is available on request.
Manuscripts that proceed to external peer review are normally evaluated by at least two independent subject-matter experts.
Decision criteria
Editorial decisions are based on scope, scientific quality, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, reporting quality, and relevance to the journal.
Editorial independence
Fees, funding, sponsorship, paid services, memberships, editorship and reviewing do not influence peer review or acceptance. Editorial staff may reject a manuscript before external review when it is outside scope, incomplete or does not meet minimum ethical or reporting requirements.
02
Roles, conflicts and recusal
Authors, reviewers and editors must disclose interests that could affect, or appear to affect, impartiality.
Editor-authored submissions
An editor does not select reviewers or make decisions on the editor's own manuscript. Another qualified editor oversees the process independently.
Reviewers
Reviewers disclose conflicts promptly, decline when impartial review is not possible, protect confidentiality and provide evidence-based, respectful reports.
Authors and sponsors
Commercial relationships, employment, consulting, patents, equity, manufacturer affiliations, industry funding and the sponsor's role in design, analysis and reporting must be disclosed.
Special Issues
Guest editors follow the same conflict, recusal and confidentiality rules. Final decisions remain under independent JAPST editorial oversight.
Appeals
A reasoned appeal is assessed by an editor who was not involved in the original decision when independence requires reassignment.
03
Authorship, originality and pharmaceutical research integrity
The record must identify who is accountable for the work and provide enough evidence to evaluate the pharmaceutical science, technology or practice claim.
Authorship and contributions
Authorship requires substantial contribution, approval of the submitted version and accountability for the work. Contributor roles, acknowledgments, funding and competing interests must be stated.
Originality and prior dissemination
Simultaneous submission, plagiarism, fabrication, falsification and undisclosed redundant publication are prohibited. A disclosed preprint is not treated as prior journal publication.
Research misconduct
Suspected manipulation, undisclosed overlap, authorship disputes or other integrity concerns are assessed under the journal's editorial process and may be escalated to institutions or other appropriate bodies.
Methods and materials
- Analytical and bioanalytical methods state their intended use and validation evidence; pharmacological studies state dose, exposure, controls and outcome measures
- Formulations, stability conditions, manufacturing variables and controls are reported sufficiently for evaluation and reproduction
- Active ingredients, excipients, standards, medicinal natural products, biological materials and cell lines identify provenance and stable identifiers when relevant
- Statistical methods, exclusions, replication and uncertainty are reported transparently; clinical and practice studies address relevant confounding and case reports distinguish temporal association from established causation
Image integrity
Image adjustments must not obscure, remove, duplicate or invent information. Original files and processing details may be requested during review or after publication.
04
Human, animal, clinical and data responsibilities
Approval, consent, registration and access statements must match the study design and the material reported.
Human research and consent
Human research requires approval from an appropriate ethics body and informed consent where applicable. Identifiable information, images and case details require consent for publication.
Animal research
Animal studies require institutional ethics or welfare approval and reporting of species, procedures, humane endpoints and measures taken to reduce harm.
Clinical-trial registration
Interventional clinical trials must be registered in an accepted public trial registry at or before the first participant provides consent for enrollment. The registry name, registration number, and registration date must be reported in the manuscript.
Data, code and materials
Every empirical research manuscript must include a data-availability statement. Restricted data must state the reason, access conditions and responsible access route.
05
AI use and confidentiality
Human authors, reviewers and editors remain responsible for accuracy, originality, confidentiality and judgment.
Authors
AI tools cannot qualify as authors. Authors must disclose material use of AI-assisted tools in text, analysis, code, data, images or figures and remain accountable for accuracy, originality, citations and permissions.
Reviewers and editors
Reviewers must obtain journal permission before using AI to assist with a review. Any permitted use must be disclosed, and confidential manuscript content must not be uploaded where confidentiality cannot be assured.
Editors apply the same confidentiality standard, and AI cannot replace independent editorial judgment.
06
Corrections, retractions, concerns and complaints
Post-publication actions are linked to the affected article so readers can follow the status of the version of record.
Corrections
Errors that do not invalidate the central findings may be addressed through a linked correction that identifies what changed.
Expressions of concern
A linked expression of concern may be issued while a serious unresolved question is investigated.
Retractions
A retraction notice identifies the affected article and the reason for the action while the scholarly record remains accessible.
Appeals, complaints and integrity escalation
Authors may submit a reasoned appeal, and concerns about editorial conduct or research integrity may be sent to [email protected]. The matter is reassigned where independent assessment is required.
Copyright and license
Authors retain copyright, and published articles are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. See the Copyright and License page for the complete terms.
The journal's withdrawal-charge terms are stated on the Article Processing Charges page.
Prepare a policy-complete manuscript
The author instructions translate these policies into files, declarations and reporting requirements.
Read the author instructions
Digital preservation
This journal’s content is committed to Portico, a not-for-profit digital-preservation archive run by ITHAKA (the organization behind JSTOR). As articles are deposited they enter Portico’s permanent archive, so the scholarly record stays available for the long term — even if a title one day ceases to publish. Read our preservation policy.