The key features of the open access (OA) publishing model, namely free access to articles supported by a one-time author payment, have manifested many new challenges in the field of science and medicine communication, particularly in relation to protecting the integrity of peer-review publishing. Our publishing philosophy at the Baishideng Publishing Group (BPG) is to discover and disseminate salient and timely knowledge. We handle ethical issues in accordance with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines, which are continuously applied to the development and revision of our own codes of conduct, policies, and processes.

As a publisher of OA journals, our duties and responsibilities remain as: (1) Following the core practices for peer-review publishers; (2) Publishing peer reviewed articles in a standardized, open and transparent manner; (3) Disclosing important publishing information; (4) Establishing and implementing a reasonable publishing expenditure and pricing system as well as a comprehensive academic quality management system and an efficient management system to avoid plagiarism and citation manipulation; and (5) Proclaiming and demonstrating our determination in and dedication to controlling the highest quality in editing and publishing. 

2.1 Following the COPE Core Practices for Publishers: The manuscript publishing process of the BPG is founded upon a clear definition of the relationship between authors, peer reviewers and our staff. That foundation is strengthened by consistent respect for the privacy of the authors and peer reviewers, protection of intellectual property and copyright, and fostering of editorial independence. 

2.2 Following the COPE Core Practices for Journal Editors: The manuscript editing process of the BPG begins with ensuring that editors understand their general duties and responsibilities, so that they may efficiently and effectively recognize manuscripts that fit the views and scope of the journal that they represent. This knowledge will also promote their activities and motivations to meet the needs of readers and authors, to constantly improve the journal they represent. The manuscript editing process has systematic steps in place to assure the quality of the material selected for publication. Each step is rooted in the core values of championing freedom of expression, maintaining integrity of the academic record, ensuring the business needs do not compromise intellectual and ethical standards, and publishing corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed. 

2.3 Editorial Independence: The Editor-in-Chief, Executive Associate Editor-in-Chief, or Associate Editor are responsible for all final decisions regarding each paper submitted, as well as the topics and contents of each issue. Neither the journal owners nor BPG may interfere with the decisions of the editorial office. Editors are expected to assist the Editor-in-Chief, Executive Associate Editor-in-Chief, or Associate Editor by contributing reasonable and constructive comments and suggestions. 

2.4 Following the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA) Best Practices: All of our journals are published according to the basic guide to best practices in licensing and attribution in open access publishing developed by the OASPA. 

2.5 Following the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations: All of our 46 English-language journals are edited according to the recommendations for conduct, reporting, editing and publication of scholarly work in medical journals developed by the ICMJE. 

2.6 Following Academic Rules and Norms: All of our 46 English-language journals follow the academic rules and norms. Authors must provide human/animal rights statement(s) as appropriate, including institutional review board statement and institutional animal care and use committee statement, informed consent statement, clinical trial registration statement, biostatistics statement, conflict-of-interest statement, and data sharing statement. These statements (and confirmatory documents, where applicable) are published online together with the manuscript. For information on the academic rules and norms, please visit our website at http://www.wjgnet.com/bpg/GerInfo/243.  

3.1 Peer Review Process: All of our 46 English-language journals use single-blind peer review. In order to standardize the manuscript peer-review activity of Editorial Board Members and Peer Reviewers, BPG has adopted a registration system for Editorial Board Members and Peer Reviewers, built upon our primary goal of publishing only credible, high-quality studies following peer review. The peer-review process, by which an academic manuscript is reviewed by experts in the relevant field, i.e. external reviewers, before a decision is made on whether to publish the manuscript or not, is core to the collective efforts of BPG journals’ Editorial Board Members and Peer Reviewers. For more information on the manuscript peer review process, please visit our website at http://www.wjgnet.com/bpg/GerInfo/241. 

3.2 Editorial Process: The manuscript decision process of BPG’s 46 English-language journals includes the following three major steps: First decision, Acceptance, and Accepted for Publication. For more information on the editorial process, please visit our website at https://www.wjgnet.com/bpg/Gerinfo/316.

3.3 Editorial Team/Contact: BPG possesses a professional editing and publishing team. For more information on the BPG management team, please visit our website at http://www.wjgnet.com/bpg/members.htm. For contact details, please visit our website at http://www.wjgnet.com/bpg/contact.htm.

3.4 Appeals and Complaints: BPG takes each appeal and complaint seriously. To better respond to people when appeals and complaints are raised, BPG handles these appeals and complaints in consultation with all relevant guidelines published by COPE and in alignment with BPG’s Policies on Handling Appeals and Complaints. 

3.5 Article Processing Charge: Information on the article processing charge (APC) for articles published by BPG and on waiving of the APC are provided on the journal’s home page. For information about the APC, please visit our website at https://www.wjgnet.com/bpg/gerinfo/242.

3.6 Copyright: For all articles published by BPG, the copyright is retained by the authors. BPG applies the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. No commercial re-use. See permissions. Published by BPG. 

3.7 Publication Misconduct: Publication misconduct includes plagiarism, citation manipulation, and data falsification. Immediately upon identification of any form of publication misconduct, BPG directly addresses it according to our policy of dealing with publication misconduct. For more information on our policy of dealing with publication misconduct, please visit our website at http://www.wjgnet.com/bpg/gerinfo/208.

3.8 Ownership and Management: All 47 journals published by BPG, including 1 Chinese-language journal and 46 English-language journals, are owned by BPG. All of these journals are now published in the United States and registered in the United States National Library of Medicine. The editing and publishing of the 47 journals are managed by BPG. For more information on 47 BPG journals, please visit our website at https://www.wjgnet.com/bpg/journals.htm. 

3.9 Journal Website: The website home pages of the 47 BPG journals display important information on the journal aims and scope (i.e. ‘about the journal’), advertising and sponsorship, all issues, allegations of misconduct, appeals and complaints, APC, conflict-of-interest statement, copyright license agreement, correction and retraction, current issue, E-bound journals, editorial board members, editorial process, E-journals, ethics committee, ethics statements, guidelines for authors, high impact articles, open-access, peer-review process, permissions, post-publication debate, publication ethics, publication misconduct, and how to submit a manuscript.

3.10 Journal Name: The names of the 47 journals published by BPG are registered at issn.org [website of the International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) International Centre], with ISSN numbers obtained. 

3.11 Conflict-of-interest: BPG has formulated a policy for managing conflicts of interest for authors, editorial board members, peer reviewers, and our staff. A conflict-of-interest statement is required for all article and study types. Once any undeclared conflict of interest is found by reviewers, the manuscript is required to be sent back to the Editorial Office immediately. For more information on the conflict-of-interest statement, please visit our website at http://www.wjgnet.com/bpg/GerInfo/236.

3.12 Online Access to Articles: All of the 47 journals published by BPG are published as OA Journals. Readers can read and download all of the published articles for free.

3.13 Revenue Sources: All of the 47 journals published by BPG adopt the OA publishing model. The revenue sources are the APC, exclusive journal database cooperation agreement, copyright permission, and reprints. For more information on the revenue sources, please visit our website at http://www.wjgnet.com/bpg/gerinfo/265.

3.14 Advertising and Sponsorship: All of BPG Journals uphold editorial, academic, and professional independence as a fundamental principle. They do not allow advertising or sponsorship to influence editorial decisions. The contents of the BPG Journals are independently decided from the advertising planned for the BPG Journals and are not made available to advertisers prior to their publications. The BPG Journals do not accept subsidies or permanent sponsorship from public or private institutions. They consistently strive to meet independent scientific standards, oppos any form of internal benefit, and maintain a commitment free from political or commercial interests. The BPG Journals’ editorial decisions are not subject to compromise by lobbying groups or specific scientific circles. Advertising policies include the business identifier (trademark, logo, and/or unique name) of the advertiser must be prominently displayed in all advertisements appearing in publications of the BPG. The content of all advertisements must be clearly germane to the practice of medicine. The advertiser warrants that all information and representations in advertisements, as well as the pharmaceutical products being advertised, are in compliance with all applicable laws, rules and regulations in the country where the advertisement will be seen. Advertisements for pharmaceutical products, including drug products under new drug application review, that are subject to US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) oversight must comply with FDA regulations regarding advertising and promotion. It is strictly forbidden to place product advertisements alongside editorial content that references the same product on the same medium. Advertisements must be clearly distinguishable from editorial content and readily identifiable as such. Advertisements must be truthful and accurate, and must not be misleading or offensive. BPG retains full and final authority to approve print and online advertisements and to enforce advertising policies. BPG declines to publish advertisements for products proven to be harmful to human health. BPG takes all complaints or criticisms regarding published advertisements seriously and evaluates them carefully. If an advertisement is found to be unlawful or misleading, BPG reserves the right to remove it at any time. For more information on the advertising and sponsorship, please visit our website at https://www.wjgnet.com/bpg/Nav/32.

3.15 Publication Frequency: For all of the 47 journals published by BPG, the publication frequency is indicated on each journal’s respective website. For information on publication frequency, please visit our website at https://www.wjgnet.com/bpg/GerInfo/271.

3.16 Archiving Policy: BPG allows authors of its open access journals to self-archive their articles. Authors are permitted to deposit the accepted manuscript and the final published article (including both the PDF and the online version) in institutional repositories, disciplinary repositories, or personal websites, thereby enabling the public to freely access and download the work. All self-archived content is subject to the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. 

3.17 Direct Marketing: All of the 47 journals published by BPG propagandize themselves or invite manuscripts through important international congresses in the relevant field or the BPG highly influential scientists database. 

4.1 Peer Review Report: All Peer Review Reports, including the Re-Review Reports and Editor-in-Chief’s Review Report, are released online together with the manuscript. The names and country/territory of peer reviewers and the peer review report’s classifications for academic quality and language quality are released as footnotes in the HTML version. 

4.2 Answering Reviewers: The authors’ response to reviewers is released online together with the manuscript. 

4.3 Study Approval Report for Studies Involving Human Participants, Organ Transplantations or Animals: The documents confirming the Institutional Review Board Statement and Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee Statement provided by the authors’ institution are released online together with the manuscript. For human organ transplantation studies, the authors must provide a statement that affirms their experiments were performed with prior obtainment of informed consent from each participant, along with the name of the institution(s)/clinic(s)/department(s) from which the organ(s)/tissue(s) were obtained. 

4.4 Clinical Trial Registration Statement: The clinical trial registration statement provided by the authors is released online together with the manuscript. 

4.5 Biostatistics Statement: The biostatistics review certificate provided by the authors is released online together with the manuscript. 

4.6 Conflict-of-interest Statement: The conflict-of-interest statement provided by the authors is indicated in the article. 

4.7 Author Contributions: The author contributions statement provided by the authors is published in the article. 

4.8 Copyright Assignment: The copyright license agreement, signed by all of the authors, is released online together with the manuscript. 

4.9 Academic Misconduct Detection Report (CrossCheck Report): The iThenticate detection reports are released online together with the manuscript.  

Reasonable APC can be calculated based on the following expenditures:

5.1 Renting an office.

5.2 Purchasing server and broadband service.

5.3 Employing the general managers, editors; and paying the review fees.

5.4 Training of all staff.

5.5 Creating all edited and published documents, including guidelines for authors and guidelines for manuscript preparation and the editing and publishing process.

5.6 Developing and maintaining the electronic system for manuscript submission, peer review, and production.

5.7 Developing and maintaining the journal website and the publication release system.

5.8 Developing and maintaining the editorial board members database.

5.9 Developing and maintaining the highly influential scientists database.

5.10 Costs for editors to attend important international academic conferences and publishing industry conferences. 

6.1 Technical Quality Management by the Editor: The editor from the Editorial Office controls the technical quality of manuscripts by conducting initial checks of the manuscript submission, including retrieval of the authors’ submission histories, detection of duplicate publication, overview of the submitted manuscript and its registered information, and culminating in formal confirmation of manuscript receipt. Manuscripts meeting the editorial standards are forwarded to the Editor-in-Chief, an Executive Associate Editor-in-Chief, or an Associate Editor for an academic quality assessment, leading to an initial review: Send for external peer review or reject. 

6.2 Academic Quality Management by the Peer Reviewers: The external peer reviewers control academic quality through their participation in and adherence to the manuscript peer review process. 

6.3 Editing Quality Management by the Editor: The editor from the Editorial Office controls the editing quality according to the manuscript editing process. The manuscript editing process includes the following steps: The editor conducts the iThenticate screening for detection of plagiarism in the manuscript; the editor checks whether the language of the manuscript meets the standard; the editor sequentially checks the title, author information, author contributions, funding information, corresponding author information, academic rules and norms, abstract, key words, core tip, main headings of the text, references, line drawings, images, tables, abbreviations, and units and statistical expressions in the manuscript; the editor checks all the files authors have submitted; the editor edits the revised manuscript and sends the edited manuscript and all related documents to the Editorial Office director for further review. 

6.4 Editing Quality Management by the Editorial Office Director: The Editorial Office Director controls editing quality according to the manuscript finalization process. The manuscript finalization process includes the following steps: The Editorial Office Director checks and reviews the edited manuscript and all its related documents submitted by the editor; and then the Editorial Office director assigns the manuscript to the Editor-in-Chief, Executive Associate Editor-in-Chief, or Associate Editor for evaluation of the academic quality. 

6.5 Academic Quality Management by the Editor-in-Chief, Executive Associate Editor-in-Chief, or Associate Editor: The Editor-in-Chief, Executive Associate Editor-in-Chief, or Associate Editor controls the academic quality according to the following work flow: (1) Initial review of the scientific merit, innovativeness, and potential academic misconduct of the manuscript, leading to an initial decision (send for external peer review or reject); and (2) “Acceptance” involving thorough review of all of the documents submitted by the authors with the revised manuscript, re-evaluation of the innovativeness and importance of the manuscript, and determination of a decision (acceptance or rejection) based on re-review comments. 

6.6 Publishing Quality Management by the Editorial Office Director: The Editorial Office director controls the publishing quality according to the following work flow: Review of all the documents relevant to the academic rules and norms, the Peer Review Report, the authors’ comments in their Response to Reviewers, the academic misconduct detection report, and the language editing certificate provided by non-native speakers of English; checks to ensure that the manuscript’s editing meets the quality standard; and completion of the task list to approve the decision of "Accepted for Publication" for the manuscript. 

6.7 Publishing Quality Management by the Language Editor: The language editor conducts language editing and controls the manuscript’s language quality according to the following work flow: Confirmation of the manuscript’s language quality classification that has been made by peer reviewers and the editor-in-chief; verification of the language editing certificate; and editing of the entire text. In general, the BPG expects manuscripts submitted by non-native English-speaking authors (for example, Chinese authors) to have been edited by a native English-speaking editor and then confirmed by an editor with knowledge of the original language (for example, a Chinese-speaking English-language editor) to ensure the language quality. 

6.8 Publishing Quality Management by the Production Editor: The production editor controls the publishing quality according to the following work flow: Preparation of the manuscript layout, including the figures and tables; proofreading and revision; return to the authors to check and verify the PDF proof; return to the responsible production editor for revision according to the authors’ comments on the PDF proof; preparation and proofreading of the complete electronic version of the manuscript; provision to the Production Department Director for their proofreading of the electronic version of the manuscript; return to the production editor for preparation and release of the online version; and preparation of the online version for PubMed Central/Web of Science archiving. 

6.9 Publishing Quality Management by the Production Department Director: The Production Department Director controls the publishing quality according to the following work flow: Checks of the journal cover, journal table of contents, and the text, tables, figures, references, documents relevant to the academic rules and norms, and page numbers/article numbers of the electronic version for each manuscript. The PDF and HTML versions of all articles are verified to meet the overall publishing quality standards. 

6.10 Post-Publication Debate: All of BPG journals allow debate post publication through Correspondence. BPG handles post-publication debate in consultation with all relevant guidelines published by COPE and in alignment with our Guidelines on Methods of Post-Publication Debate. 

6.11 Correction and Retraction: In accordance with COPE guidelines, the editorial team exercises independent judgment in matters concerning the retraction, correction, or issuance of expressions of concern for published articles. Should an article be determined to involve academic misconduct, retraction proceedings will be initiated. Errors attributable to the authors will result in the publication of a correction, while those originating from the journal itself will be addressed through an erratum. Furthermore, if questions arise regarding the scientific integrity of an article, the Editorial Office may issue an expression of concern. For information on correction and retraction, please visit our website at https://www.wjgnet.com/bpg/GerInfo/286. 

For all of the 46 English-language journals edited and published by BPG, we strictly control the risk of academic misconduct from the time of manuscript submission. Academic misconduct includes plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, duplicate submission/multiple submissions, overlapping publication, and inappropriate authorship. We take the following measures to control risk of academic misconduct: 

7.1 Academic Rules and Norms: All manuscripts submitted to our journals must follow BPG’s academic rules and norms. For information on the academic rules and norms, please visit our website at http://www.wjgnet.com/bpg/GerInfo/243. 

7.2 Ethics Committee of BPG: To better handle ethics-related affairs of BPG journals, BPG has established its own Ethics Committee, which holds the specific responsibility for all ethical issues of BPG journals. For information on the Ethics Committee of BPG, please visit our website at https://www.wjgnet.com/bpg/GerInfo/317. 

7.3 Bing Search of the Manuscript Title: The editor from the Editorial Office performs a Bing search of the title of the manuscript before the manuscript is sent for peer review. The purpose of this is to check whether there is duplicate publication or plagiarism. 

7.4 iThenticate Detection of the Complete Manuscript: Before the manuscript is sent for further review, the editor from the Editorial Office performs iThenticate detection of the revised manuscript returned by the authors. The iThenticate Detection Report will be published online together with the manuscript. 

7.5 Crossover Peer Review: In order to prevent potential academic misconduct that may arise from authors and peer reviewers from the same institution knowing one another and/or colluding, the editor from the Editorial Office chooses peer reviewers from an institution different from that of the authors. 

7.6 Manuscript Withdrawal: In our manuscript acceptance letter and Copyright Transfer document, we remind authors that the manuscript will be withdrawn and the authors will be punished immediately upon discovery of plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, duplicate submission/multiple submissions, overlapping publication, or inappropriate authorship. 

7.7 Citation Manipulation: In order to prevent citation manipulation, the editor from the Editorial Office and Editorial Office director check whether the manuscript’s citations meet the rules and norms; for example, self-citation and citation of other journals published by BPG are considered. Upon discovery of citation manipulation, the manuscript will be rejected/withdrawn. 

7.8 Allegations of Misconduct: To better respond to people when concerns about a published article are raised, for example, concerns about the soundness of published data, plagiarism, figure manipulation, or other forms of misconduct, BPG handles these allegations in consultation with the relevant guidelines published by COPE and in alignment with BPG’s Policies on Handling Allegations from Whistleblowers. 

All journals published by BPG adhere to the policies on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools established by international academic organizations, including the COPE, WAME, and ICMJE. The following outlines BPG’s policies regarding the rejection of AI authorship, as well as the use of AI in peer review and editorial processes. 

8.1 Rejection of AI Authorship: In accordance with ICMJE’s policy on “Defining the Role of Authors and Contributors”, authorship criteria are designed to ensure that authorship is attributed to individuals who deserve recognition and can take responsibility for the work. Since AI tools (such as ChatGPT or other large language models) cannot meet these criteria, they are not eligible to be listed as authors, nor should they be cited as such. Authors assume full responsibility for the content of their manuscripts, including any content generated with the assistance of AI tools, and are accountable for any breaches of publication ethics. If AI tools are used to generate content in a manuscript, such use must be clearly disclosed, with the exception of using AI tools solely for grammar correction. Failure to disclose the use of AI tools, once identified, will be considered academic misconduct and may result in manuscript retraction. To ensure transparency in the publication process, BPG journals require authors to disclose, during the revision stage, whether AI tools were used to generate the abstract, main text, figures, or tables of their manuscripts via the “INTELLIGENT MANUSCRIPT FORMAT EDITOR” feature in the F6Publishing system. If authors confirm that AI tools were used to generate content, such use should be described in the methods section (or the corresponding section) of the manuscript. 

8.2 Use of AI in Peer Review: Editorial board members and peer reviewers are prohibited from using AI tools to generate peer review reports. However, they may use AI tools to assist in checking and correcting grammar and other non-content-related errors (such as spelling, capitalization, and punctuation) in peer review reports, as well as to help detect potential academic misconduct, such as plagiarism and duplicate publication. Additionally, peer reviewers must strictly maintain the confidentiality of manuscripts and are forbidden from uploading any manuscript content to any AI tools. Specifically, AI tools are permitted as supplementary aids but not as substitutes for human judgment. To ensure compliance during the peer review process, BPG journals include a reminder regarding the “Policy on AI Usage” in the invitation emails sent to Editorial Board Members and peer reviewers, and require them to explicitly disclose, via the F6Publishing system, whether AI tools were used to generate the peer review report (by responding to the question: “Are your review comments generated by AI tools?”). The Editorial Office will verify, using a combination of manual checks and technical tools, whether a peer review report contains content generated by AI tools. If it is determined that a reviewer used AI tools to generate all or part of a peer review report, that reviewer will be flagged and excluded from the journal’s peer reviewer database, and the relevant peer review report will be deemed invalid. 

8.3 Use of AI in Editorial Decisions: Editors play a crucial role in the editorial decision-making process. During this process, Editors are responsible for verifying whether authors have disclosed their use of large language models and AI tools, and how such tools were employed. For instance, the use of AI for spell-checking and grammar correction is generally considered acceptable. Editors are not permitted to upload any manuscript content into AI tools, as doing so would violate BPG’s confidentiality policy. For information on the Artificial Intelligence Tool Usage Policy, please visit our website at https://www.wjgnet.com/bpg/gerinfo/324.