Editorial Policies

For journals, the following publication policies are applied by Bentham Science.

Copyright

Authors who publish in Bentham Science print & online journals are required to transfer copyright of their work to Bentham Science Publishers. By submitting a manuscript, the authors confirm that all contributors have read and agreed to the terms outlined in the Copyright Letter or Terms and Conditions. As a condition of publication, submitted manuscripts to this journal must be original, unpublished and will not be simultaneously under consideration by any other journal at the time of submission. Plagiarism is strictly forbidden, and by submitting their manuscripts, authors agree that the publisher has the legal right to take appropriate action if plagiarism or fabricated information is discovered. By submitting a manuscript, the authors also agree that the copyright of their article will be transferred to the publisher upon acceptance for publication. Once submitted to the journal, a manuscript cannot be withdrawn at any stage prior to publication.

It is mandatory for the corresponding author to submit a signed copyright letter along with the manuscript. The submitted article must not contain any material or information that may be unlawful, defamatory, fabricated, plagiarized, or which would, if published, in any way whatsoever, violate the terms and conditions as laid down in the copyright agreement. For more details, please visit Rights and Permissions

Permission to Reuse Bentham Content

Bentham Science has partnered with the Copyright Clearance Center to facilitate licensing, rights and permissions for its publications.

The Copyright Clearance Center's RightsLink^® service provides a fast and efficient way to secure permission for content from Bentham Science journals. To request permissions, visit the Journals by Title section, locate the desired content, navigate to the article’s abstract, and click on "Rights and Permissions" to access the RightsLink® page. If authors are unable to find the content they are looking for or can't get the rights they need, please contact us at [email protected]

Third-Party Permissions

Authors are responsible for obtaining the necessary permissions for any third-party content included in their work as authors or editors. We refer to 'Third party content', any work that authors have not created themselves and have copied or adapted from other sources. This includes text, figures, photographs, tables, screenshots, and other graphical elements.

Unless a figure is in the public domain (copyright-free) or licensed for use under Creative Commons or other open-access licenses, authors must obtain explicit permission from the copyright holder(s) before including it in their manuscript.

Published or reproduced material should not be included in a manuscript without written permission from the copyright holder. Upon acceptance of the article, authors must forward the obtained permissions to the Editorial Office.

Open Access Articles

Gold Open Access articles published at Bentham Science are licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode). This license permits unrestricted distribution and reproduction in any medium, ensuring that the original work is properly cited. For more details, please visit Open Access Policy

Archiving Policies

Self-Archiving

The self-archiving policy of Bentham Science journals includes the following key provisions:

Authors may deposit the first draft of a submitted article on their personal websites or institutional repositories for personal use, internal institutional use, or for permitted scholarly posting only.
Authors may deposit the ACCEPTED VERSION of their peer-reviewed article on their personal websites, institutional repositories or non-commercial repositories such as PMC and arXiv, after 12 MONTHS from the article’s publication on the journal’s website. This is permitted only for personal use, internal institutional use, or scholarly posting.
In case of (2) above, authors must acknowledge the original source of publication by providing a link to the published article on the journal's/publisher's website. The DOI number of the article must be included using the following format: "The published manuscript is available at EurekaSelect via https://www.eurekaselect.com/openurl/content.php?genre=article&doi=insert DOI"
If the research is funded by organizations such as the NIH, Wellcome Trust or other Open Access Mandates, authors may archive the published version of their manuscripts in designated institutional repositories, after the mandatory embargo period. Authors should first contact the Editorial Office of the journal for guidance on depositing a copy of the manuscript in a repository. Consistent with the copyright agreement, Bentham Science does not permit the archiving of the FINAL PUBLISHED VERSION of a manuscript unless under an Open Access mandate. Archiving, under any of the above-mentioned Open Access mandates is only allowed and must comply with the Creative Commons License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 - Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International.
Articles published under the GOLD OPEN ACCESS category have no embargo on archiving. Authors may deposit such articles on institutional repositories, non-commercial repositories and personal websites immediately after publication on the journal’s website. This is done under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License CC-BY 4.0.
For all forms of archiving, authors must acknowledge the original source of publication and provide a direct link to the published article on the journal's/publisher's website. The DOI number should be included using the following format: "The published manuscript is available at EurekaSelect via https://www.eurekaselect.com/openurl/content.php?genre=article&doi=insert DOI"

LONG-TERM ARCHIVING OF BENTHAM SCIENCE CONTENT

To ensure permanent access to our publications, Bentham Science has an partnered with Portico for the long-term preservation of all content published in its journals.

Peer Review

Bentham Science Publishers follows the double-blind peer review procedure for all manuscript submissions to its journals.

Each submitted article undergoes an extensive peer review process, involving consultation with the journal’s editorial board and independent external reviewers (usually three). All manuscripts and chapters are assessed, and the Editor-in-Chief makes the final decision based on the feedback from all peer reviewers. This decision is then communicated to the author(s).

Submissions from the Editor-in-Chief, Co-Editor, or Editorial Board Members undergo independent peer review and are assigned to another Editor for an impartial decision. For further details, please refer to the complete guidelines at: https://benthamscience.com/pages/peer-reviews

Use of Generative AI and AI-assisted Technologies in the Peer Review Process

Since the use of AI technology has increased, it has brought challenges regarding the originality of peer reviews for submitted manuscripts. Bentham Science has been striving to improve its policies accordingly. With time, we will continue to update our policies to support our reviewers, authors, and editors.

The quality of the peer review of submitted articles has been our top priority. The reviewers are advised not to use AI technologies or any other related assisting resources to generate review reports that could compromise the integrity and confidentiality of the reports.

Conflict of Interest

All financial contributions and any potential conflicts of interest must be clearly disclosed under the heading “Conflict of Interest”. Authors are required list the source(s) of funding for the study, ensuring transparency. This information should be provided for each author. For more details, please visit: Conflict Of Interest

Confidentiality:

Bentham Science Publishers upholds the confidentiality of all submitted manuscripts and their content. Editors are advised not to disclose any information regarding submitted manuscripts before publication.

The peer review process is entirely confidential. Bentham Science follows a double-blind peer review process, ensuring that the identities of both the reviewers and authors remain undisclosed to each other. This guarantees anonymity and maintains confidentiality throughout the entire review process.

Reviewers are required to keep the whole peer-review process completely confidential. If a reviewer needs assistance from a colleague, they must first seek permission from the Editor-in-Chief (EiC) or senior editor and take permission before doing so.

Reviewers must not disclose any information related to the manuscript to anyone before its publication.

PLAGIARISM PREVENTION

Plagiarism is defined as copying or paraphrasing another writer's work - whether text, results, or observations - and presenting it as one's own without proper citation of the original source. Authors must properly acknowledge and cite references to the work of other researchers in their manuscripts. They should also ensure that all sources are authentic and that there are no discrepancies in the manuscript’s content.

Bentham Science maintains a rigorous approach to identifying potential plagiarism by utilizing various software solutions to detect textual overlapping and similarity in submitted manuscripts. These softwares cross-check content against an extensive database of periodicals, online materials, and published articles. The softwares generate a similarity report, which quantifies the percentage of content that matches existing published material. Each similarity report undergoes further scrutiny to assess potential plagiarism according to Bentham Science's Editorial Policies. The final report includes an overall percentage of reused content, which is evaluated before any editorial decisions are made.

The Credibility of Sources- Acknowledgments

An author’s study must be original. If the manuscript references credible sources, the author must cite all of them. Authors are strongly encouraged to use plagiarism checking softwares before submitting their manuscripts to ensure that there are no instances of plagiarism. Authors must also obtain proper consent from individuals referenced in the study and acknowledge the contributions of co-authors.

Bentham Science has different editorial policies for authors who have more than one publication. In accordance with these policies, authors must clearly specify the sources of any previously published material in their latest submission. For further details, please refer to the Concurrent Publication / Simultaneous Submission section.

Bentham Science strictly adheres to COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) guidelines for detecting plagiarism. Authors seeking further clarification may refer to the COPE flowcharts by clicking here or visiting the COPE website.

Fabricating and Stating False Information

To uphold the scholarly integrity of its publications, Bentham Science issues post-publication notices. Authors who submit manuscripts containing false information, or fabricated data or images, whether in published or submitted articles, will be subject to sanctions, and their papers will be retracted. For further details, please refer to the complete guidelines at: https://benthamscience.com/fabricating-stating-false-information

Preprint Policy

A preprint is an early version of an article that has not yet been accepted for publication in a journal.

Manuscripts submitted to a journal that have not been previously published and are not under simultaneous submission elsewhere may be considered for publication. Preprints are typically deposited on the author's personal webpage, in an institutional repository, or on a preprint server. However, they are not classified as ahead-of-print or early-access publications.

Bentham Science fully supports and encourages the archiving of preprints on any recognized, non-profit preprint server. Articles deposited in designated preprint repositories either before or at the time of submission to a journal are not considered prior, citable publications by Bentham Science.

HUMAN AND ANIMAL RIGHTS

Research Involving Humans

All clinical investigations must be conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki principles. For manuscripts reporting data from studies involving human participants, formal review and approval by an appropriate institutional review board or ethics committee are required.

Patient Consent

Compliance with the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors www.icmje.org) is strongly recommended, particularly in accordance with patient consent for research participation. Authors must ensure adherence to applicable laws and regulations governing the privacy and security of personal information, including, but not limited to, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 ("HIPAA") and other U.S. federal and state confidentiality laws, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (EU) 2016/679 and corresponding member state legislation, Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), India's Information Technology Act and related Privacy Rules, (together "Data Protection and Privacy Laws") etc.

It is the responsibility of authors to ensure that:

Patients' names, initials, or hospital numbers must not be mentioned anywhere in the manuscript (including figures).
Authors are responsible for obtaining signed consent-to-disclose forms for any recognizable patients appearing in photographs, videos, or other identifiable content that may be published in the Journal, in derivative works, or on the journal’s web site. Authors must also provide the manuscript to the recognizable patient for review before submission.
The consent-to-disclose form must clearly indicate the intended use of the patient’s information (e.g. publication in medical literature, in print and online), with the understanding that both patients and the public will have access. It must also include the patient's or legal guardian’s signature along with a statement that they have had the opportunity to review the identifying materials and the accompanying manuscript.
If the manuscript contains identifiable data, such as personal details, audio or video materials, etc., explicit consent should be obtained from the individual. In the case of children, consent must be obtained from the parent or the legal guardian.
A clear statement regarding ethical approval and consent-to-disclose form must be included in the copyright letter and as a stand-alone paragraph at the end of the manuscript - particularly for human studies. The statement must confirm that written informed consent was obtained from each participant or their legal guardian. The original consent forms should be retained by the corresponding author or gu/arantor and must be available upon request. Editors may request authors to provide the original forms by fax or email.
All case reports require proper consent to be obtained from patients before publication.

Editors may also request that authors provide formal documentation of the review and recommendation from the institutional review board or ethics committee responsible for study oversight. Editors reserve the right to reject manuscripts that do not comply with the above-mentioned requirements. The author will be held fully responsible for false statements or failure to adhere to these ethical standards.

Non-identifiable Images

Anonymous images that do not directly or indirectly identify an individual - such as X-rays, ultrasound images, pathology slides or laparoscopic images – do not require formal consent, provided they contain no identifying marks or text.

However, if consent is not obtained, merely concealing the identity using eye bars or blurring the face is not acceptable.

Research Involving Animals

For research involving animals, authors must indicate whether the procedures followed comply with the standards outlined in the eighth edition of the "Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals" (grants.nih.gov/grants/olaw/guide-for-the-care-and-use-of-laboratory-animals_prepub.pdf published by the National Academy of Sciences, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C.).

Research work on animals should be conducted in accordance with the NC3Rs ARRIVE Guidelines. For details on In Vivo Experiments, please visit https://www.nc3rs.org.uk/arrive-guidelines

Authors must explicitly state the name of the approval committee, highlighting that legal and ethical approvals were obtained prior to commencement of the research carried out on animals. Additionally, authors should confirm that all experiments were conducted in accordance with the relevant guidelines and regulations specified below:

US authors must cite compliance with the US National Research Council's "Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals".
The US Public Health Service's "Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals" and "Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals".
UK authors should conform to UK legislation under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 Amendment Regulations (SI 2012/3039).
European authors outside the UK must adhere to Directive 2010/63/EU.
Research involving animals should comply with the ethical guidelines of The Basel Declaration and the International Council for Laboratory Animal Science (ICLAS) ethical guidelines.
The manuscript must include a clear declaration of compliance with relevant guidelines such as the revised Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 in the UK and Directive 2010/63/EU in Europe, and/or relevant permissions or licenses obtained under the IUCN Policy Statement on Research Involving Species at Risk of Extinction and the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

Animal Ethics Guidelines for Studies Involving Animal Subjects

Ethics Approval Exemption:
If a study is exempted from ethics approval, authors must indicate the reasons for exemption in the ethical statement.

Following is an example of an Ethical Statements:

"This study involving animal subjects is exempted from ethics approval for [specific reasons]. The exemption was evaluated and authorized by [Full name of ethics committee], ensuring adherence to ethical standards”.

Client-Owned Animals:
Client-owned animals (non-commercially available animals such as pets or livestock) should be studied exercising best practices in veterinary care. Authors must confirm that the owner(s) (or their legal representatives) have provided written consent for this purpose.

Following is an example of an Ethical Statements:

"The animal study was evaluated and authorized by [Full name of the ethics committee]. The owners provided written informed consent for their animals' involvement in this study, ensuring ethical treatment and compliance with standards."

International Standards and 3Rs Principle:
Studies involving animals must comply with internationally accepted standards and adhere to the 3Rs principles (Replace, Reduce, Refine).

Replace: Replacing animals with alternatives whenever possible.
Reduce: Reducing the number of animals used.
Refine: Refining experimental settings can reduce animal damage.

Authors must follow the ARRIVE guidelines (Reporting in Vivo Experiments) for reporting experiments involving live animals.

Example of an Ethical Statements:

"This study adheres to internationally accepted standards for animal research, following the 3Rs principle. The ARRIVE guidelines were employed for reporting experiments involving live animals, promoting ethical research practices."

Euthanasia Protocols:
Studies on euthanasia, including chloral hydrate, ether, and chloroform overdose, are severely discouraged. Authors should include an in-depth description of any anesthetic, surgical, or euthanasia procedures conducted throughout the study.

If the experimental details explained in the study violate the standard animal research procedure, editors may seek extra documentation, such as approval forms and relevant literature citations.

Research Involving Plants

All experimental research on plants, whether cultivated or wild, must comply with international guidelines. The manuscript should include a declaration of compliance for field studies, confirming adherance to relevant guidelines and detailing any permissions or licenses obtained under the IUCN Policy Statement on Research Involving Species at Risk of Extinction and the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

Hazard Study

Authors must explicitly state any unusual risks associated with the use of chemicals, procedures, or equipment involved in the study. This information must be explicitly stated by the author in the manuscript, preferably in both the “Materials and Methods” section and the “Declaration” section. For more information, visit The World Medical Association (https://www.wma.net/what-we-do/public-health/chemicals)

SEX AND GENDER EQUITY IN RESEARCH (SAGER) GUIDELINES

We are committed to promoting gender and sex equity in research and adhere to the Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER) guidelines to ensure inclusivity and scientific rigor in all published work. All authors submitting research papers are required to follow the Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER) guidelines. These guidelines are intended to encourage the inclusion of sex and gender considerations in research to improve the rigor and relevance of our publications.

RESEARCH CONDUCTED IN SPECIAL OR CRITICAL SITUATIONS

Bentham Science expects all contributors to uphold the values of justice, benevolence, and autonomy when conducting research. We understand that certain situations such as medical emergencies or humanitarian crises present unique challenges compared to non-emergency scenarios. Bentham Science recommends that research efforts should be conducted with scientific rigor, ensuring that they do not hurt human subjects, respondents or researchers. Special care must be taken to address potential ethical and practical concerns faced by individuals who may be victims of disasters or involved in a medical emergencies. These individuals are often vulnerable, and their privacy, dignity and well-being must be respected and protected. Researchers must acknowledge these considerations in their work and proactively identify potential ethical and logistical issues that may arise due to such circumstances. Research conducted in emergency situations should aim to maximize benefits for the survivors involved while striving to minimize future casualties. For guidance, research in emergency settings must prioritize the preservation of human life, wellbeing and security, along with the protection, privacy and confidentiality of subjects.

UNETHICAL BEHAVIOR

Unethical behavior and misconduct may be reported to the Editor or Publisher by any individual, provided that sufficient evidence is submitted. Upon receiving a complaint, the Editor, in consultation with the Publisher, will initiate a thorough and impartial investigation against any misconduct. The process will be conducted confidentially, ensuring fairness until an unbiased decision is reached. The author will be given a fair opportunity to respond to any minor or major allegations made against them.

In cases of serious breaches, the Editor or Publisher may, where appropriate, inform the author’s employer after carefully reviewing all available evidence and consulting experts in the relevant field, if necessary.

Conclusion

Author(s) and Reviewers must be informed if there has been any misinterpretation or mishandling of International Acceptable Standards.
A formal notice should be issued to the author and reviewer, warning them to avoid future unethical misconduct.
An Editorial addressing the reported misconduct should be published or an official notice of unethical behavior should be posted on the journal’s website.
An official letter detailing the misconduct should be sent to the author’s and reviewer’s Head of Departments, Funding Agencies, and Abstracting & Indexing Agencies.
If necessary, the retraction or withdrawal of the publication may be initiated in consultation with the author’s or reviewer’s Head of the Department and other relevant higher authorities.
The Publisher may impose temporary restrictions on the accused author’s future publications in the journal.

Consent for Publication

If a manuscript contains an individual’s data, such as personal details, audio-video material, or other identifiable information, explicit consent must be obtained from the individual. In the case of children, consent must be obtained from a parent or legal guardian.

A clear declaration of this approval and consent-to-disclose form must be included in the copyright letter and in a stand-alone paragraph at the end of the article. This is especially important for human studies where it is mandatory to include a statement confirming that written informed consent was obtained from each subject or their legal guardian. The original `consent forms should be retained by the guarantor or corresponding author. Editors may request copies of the original forms via fax or email if needed.

All such case reports should be followed by proper consent prior to publishing.

Guidelines for Citing Retracted References:

Authors must ensure the accuracy and integrity of the references they cite, including verifying whether any article they intend to cite has been retracted. Citing retracted articles can compromise the credibility of a manuscript and should only be done when absolutely necessary for the context of the discussion.

For more information, please refer to the detailed instructions available in the Author Guidelines section.

PROOF CORRECTIONS

Authors will receive page proofs of their accepted paper prior to publication. To avoid delays in publication, authors must review proofs immediately for any typographical errors and return them within 48 hours. Major revisions are not permitted at the proof stage.

The corresponding author is solely responsible for ensuring that the revised version of the manuscript, incorporating all the submitted corrections, has been approved by all co-authors before final submission.

Errata or a Corrigenda and Corrections in Published Articles

Authors and readers are encouraged to promptly notify the Editor-in-Chief if they identify any errors in published content, including authors’ names, affiliations or concerns regarding the legitimacy of a publication. In such cases the journal will issue an ERRATUM or a CORRIGENDUM, in consultation with the Editor-in-Chief and the article’s authors. If necessary, the journal may also replace or retract the article to maintain the integrity and accuracy of the publication.

Article Withdrawal

Articles in Press (articles that have been accepted for publication or published as E-pub Ahead of Schedule but have not yet been formally published with volume, issue, or page numbers) may be withdrawn if they contain errors or violate publishing ethics guidelines. Violations may include multiple submissions, false claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent data use, or other forms of misconduct. A withdrawal means that the article files will be removed and replaced with a PDF notice stating that the article has been withdrawn from the journal in accordance with Bentham Science’s Editorial Policies.

Article Retraction

If a published manuscript—one that has been assigned a volume, issue, and page number—is later found to violate professional ethical codes, such as plagiarism, excessive similarity to another article, or fraudulent data use, it will be retracted from the journal.

A retraction notice, titled “Retraction: [Article Title]” (for example Retraction: ABC experiment involving XYZ species) will be published in the paginated part of the next scheduled issue of the journal and listed in the table of contents.
A retraction screen containing the notice of retraction appears before accessing the electronic version of the article on the journals website. On the screen, a link for the complete article is present, i.e. to access the retracted article.
The original article’s webpage and link remains unchanged, however a watermark is added to the downloadable PDF document, explicitly indicating that the article has been retracted.

Further details are available at: https://benthamscience.com/research-misconduct

Concurrent Publication/Simultaneous Submission

It is a condition of publication that manuscripts submitted to the Bentham Science journals must be original, unpublished, and not simultaneously submitted or published elsewhere. Plagiarism is strictly prohibited, and by submitting an article for publication the authors acknowledge that the publishers have the legal right to take appropriate action if plagiarism or fabricated information is discovered.

Abstracts and posters presented at conferences, results shared in meetings (e.g., to inform investigators or participants about findings), and results databases (data presented without interpretation, discussion, context or conclusions in the form of tables and text to describe data/information where this is not easily presented in tabular form) are not considered prior publications.

Authors who wish to publish translated versions of articles that have been previously published elsewhere must ensure that they have appropriate permission(s), clearly indicating that the material has been translated and re-published, and provide full citation details of the original source. The Editor-in-Chief reserves the right to request copies of related publications to assess potential overlap and redundancy.

Appeals and Complaints

Editorial decisions are generally final and not subject to reversal. However, authors who believe their manuscript was rejected due to a misunderstanding or mistake may request an explanation for the decision. Appeals must provide strong reasoning and compelling evidence to refute the criticism raised in the rejection letter. A mere difference of opinion regarding the interest, novelty, or suitability of the manuscript for the journal will not be considered a valid basis for an appeal. The Editor-in-Chief, along with other relevant editors, will review the appeal and the subsequent decision taken by the journal will be final. Even if the journal agrees to reconsider the manuscript, acceptance is not guaranteed. The reconsideration process may involve the same or new reviewers or editors and may require substantive revisions.

Authors who wish to file a complaint should direct it to the Editor-in-Chief of the respective journal. Complaints to the Publisher may be sent via email to [email protected]

Handling Post-Publication Matters:

To uphold the integrity of scientific research, Bentham Science thoroughly investigates any concerns raised by authors or readers. However, authors are always given the opportunity to respond to any complaints or comments. Reviewers may be asked to re-evaluate the original data and consult with relevant experts to ensure a fair and conclusive resolution.

Post Publication Discussions may be published online after review and are typically accompanied by a response from the original authors. For more details, please visit: Post-Publication Discussions and Corrections.

Disclaimer

The responsibility for all content published by Bentham Science Publishers (BSP) in any of its journals, including any opinions expressed rests solely with the author(s). To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Bentham Science, its staff, and members of its editorial board disclaim responsibility for any injury and/or damage (whether financial or otherwise) to persons or property, resulting directly or indirectly from any ideas, methods, instructions, or products (including errors) referenced in any of BSP’s journals. Any dispute or claim arising from such content shall be governed by the laws of the United Arab Emirates, as applied in the Emirate of Sharjah.