pISSN 3022-6783
eISSN 3022-7712

Research & Publication Ethics

Editorial Policies Research & Publication Ethics

CTR adheres to the guidelines and best practices published by professional organizations, including ICMJE Recommendations and the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (https://doaj.org/bestpractice), and the Good Publication Practice Guideline for Medical Journals (https://www.kamje.or.kr/board/view?b_name=bo_publication&bo_id=13). Furthermore, all processes of handling research and publication misconduct(or when faced with cases of suspected misconduct) shall follow the applicable Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) flowchart (https://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts). Any attempts to duplicate publications or engage in plagiarism will lead to automatic rejection, may prejudice the acceptance of future submissions, and may be highlighted within the pages of the journal.

Statement of Informed Consent and Ethical Approval

Studies involving human subjects must retain copies of written informed consent. If the participant is unable to provide it, a legal guardian or parent may provide it instead. Authors may submit any legally recognized form used to obtain the patient's consent as a copy of the informed consent.
All clinical studies involving human participants must include a certificate, agreement, or approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB), and manuscripts reporting such research must include a statement detailing the name of the ethics committee and reference number where appropriate. For clinical studies involving animal subjects, a certificate, agreement, or approval from the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) is required. In case of questions about IRB/IACUC approval and study conduct, the editor or reviewers may request copies of these documents.

Conflicts of Interest Statement

All participants in the publication and peer review process—not only authors but also peer reviewers, editors, and Editorial Board members of the journal—must consider their conflicts of interest when fulfilling their roles in the process of article review and publication and must disclose all relationships that could be viewed as potential conflicts of interest. All authors should disclose their conflicts of interest, i.e., (1) financial relationships (such as employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony), (2) personal relationship, (3) academic competition, and (4) intellectual passion.
These conflicts of interest must be included on the title page. Authors should certify the disclosure of any conflict of interest with their signatures. Peer reviewers must disclose to editors any conflicts of interest that could bias their opinions of the manuscript, and should recuse themselves from reviewing specific manuscripts if the potential for bias exists. Editors who make final decisions about manuscripts should recuse themselves from editorial decisions if they have conflicts of interest or relationships that pose potential conflicts related to articles under consideration. Other editorial staff members who participate in editorial decisions must provide editors with a current description of their financial interests or other conflicts (as they might relate to editorial judgments) and recuse themselves from any decisions in which a conflict of interest exists. Further guidance is available from COPE (https://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines/editorial-board-participation).
If undisclosed conflict of interest is suspected in a submitted manuscript or published article, a committee composed of Editorial Board members will be held and discussed, and CTR will follow the process of the applicable COPE flowchart (https://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts).

Authorship

According to the ICMJE recommendation, authorship credit should be based on the following four criteria: (1) Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND (2) Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND (3) Final approval of the version to be published; AND (4) 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. Authors should meet all four criteria.

• A list of each author’s role should accompany the submitted paper. The contributions of all authors must be described using the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT; https://credit.niso.org/).


• Correction of authorship: Requests for changes in authorship (including the addition or removal of authors or a change in author order) after the initial manuscript submission and before acceptance of the paper should be made in writing to the editor, with a letter or email from all authors explaining the requested changes. The letter must be signed by all authors of the paper. Additionally, each author must complete the copyright assignment.


• Role of corresponding author: The corresponding author is primarily responsible for communication with the journal during manuscript submission, peer review, and publication. This author typically ensures that all of the journal's administrative requirements are met, including providing details of authorship, ethics committee approval, clinical trial registration documentation, and conflicts of interest forms and statements. The corresponding author is responsible for being available throughout the submission and peer review process to respond to editorial queries in a timely manner. This duty may be delegated to up to two authors. Additionally, after publication, the corresponding author should be available to address critiques of the work and cooperate with any requests from the journal for data, additional information, or clarification on the article.


• Recommendations for working with people with personal connections: Authors who intend to include minors (under the age of 19) or their family members (such as spouse, children, and relatives) in their research, including when publishing or presenting papers jointly with them, should clearly indicate this in the cover letter. For further information, please refer to the "Guidelines for Preventing Illegitimate Authorship" by the National Research Foundation of Korea (https://www.nrf.re.kr/eng/main).

Originality, Plagiarism, and Duplicate Publication

Redundant or duplicate publication refers to the publication of a paper that overlaps substantially with one already published. Upon receipt, submitted manuscripts are screened for possible plagiarism or duplicate publication using Crossref Similarity Check. If a paper that might be regarded as duplicate or redundant had already been published in another journal or submitted for publication, the author should notify the fact in advance at the time of submission. Under these conditions, any such work should be referred to and referenced in the new paper. The new manuscript should be submitted together with copies of the duplicate or redundant material to the editorial committee. If redundant or duplicate publication is attempted or occurs without such notification, the submitted manuscript will be rejected immediately. If the editor was not aware of the violations and of the fact that the article had already been published, the editor will announce in the journal that the submitted manuscript had already been published in a duplicate or redundant manner, without seeking the author’s explanation or approval.

Secondary Publication

Secondary publication of material published in other journals or online may be justifiable and beneficial, especially when intended to disseminate important information to the widest possible audience (e.g., guidelines produced by government agencies and professional organizations in the same or a different language). Secondary publication may also be justifiable in conditions provided by ICMJE Recommendations
(https://www.icmje.org/recommendations).

Process for Managing Research and Publication Misconduct

When the journal faces suspected cases of research and publication misconduct such as redundant (duplicate) publication, plagiarism, fraudulent or fabricated data, changes in authorship, a fraudulent undisclosed conflict of interest, ethical problems with a submitted manuscript, a reviewer who has appropriated an author’s idea or data, and complaints against editors, the resolution process will follow the flowchart provided by COPE (https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Flowcharts). The discussion and decision on the suspected cases are carried out by the Editorial Board and Research Ethics Council.

Editorial Responsibilities

The Editorial Board will continuously work to monitor and safeguard publication ethics: provision of guidelines for retracting articles; maintenance of the integrity of the academic record; preclusion of business needs from compromising intellectual and ethical standards; publication of corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when needed; and exclusion of plagiarism and fraudulent data. The editors maintain the following responsibilities: responsibility and authority to reject and accept articles; confirmation of no conflict of interest with respect to articles they reject or accept; promotion of publication of corrections or retractions when errors are found; and preservation of the anonymity of reviewers.

Research Ethics Council and Role of the Council

The Research Ethics Council, chaired by the CTR editor-in-chief, is responsible for upholding ethical standards in research published in CTR. The council investigates and reviews any issues related to ethical violations and reports the findings to the Korean Society for Transplantation Board of Directors. Additionally, the council members promote ethical practices by educating editors and authors. For more detailed information, please refer to the
CTR Research Ethics Council Regulations.

Current Issue

September, 2024
Vol.38 No.3
pISSN 3022-6783
eISSN 3022-7712

Most Read + more

Facilitators and barriers in the donor family interview process from the perspective of hospital staff: a cross-sectional study

Seyed Mohammad Reza Nejatollahi, Yazdan Abdolmohammadi, Sepideh Ahmadi, Arman Hasanzade, Fatemeh Hosseini, Arshia Mohseni, Shadi Shafaghi, Mojtaba Mokhber Dezfuli, Fariba Ghorbani

Korean J Transplant 2023;37(4): 241-249

+ more

Sotrovimab in solid organ transplant recipients with COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Behnam Amani, Rouhollah Shabestan, Kourosh Rajabkhah, Bahman Amani

Korean J Transplant 2023;37(4): 277-285

+ more

CTR

✕ CLOSE