B-Dent Journal, Faculty of Dentistry, Baiturrahmah University, Padang, West Sumatra is a peer-reviewed national journal. This statement clarifies the ethical behaviour of all parties involved in the act of pub-listing an article in this journal, including the author(s), the Editor in Chief, the Editorial Board, the peer-reviewe and the publisher.
For research manuscripts involving experiments on live vertebrates and/or higher invertebrates, the corresponding author must confirm that all experiments were performed in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations. The manuscript must include a statement identifying the institute and/or licensing committee approving the experiments, including any relevant details. Manuscripts that reveal a lack proper ethical consideration for human subjects or experimental animals will not be accepted for publication.
For experiments that involve human subjects, authors must identify the committee that approved the experiments and include in their submission a statement confirming that informed consent was obtained from all subjects. Authors using phase II and phase III randomized controlled trials in their study should refer to the CONSORT Statement for recommendations which facilitates complete and transparent reporting of trial findings. JBD follows the guidelines from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) regarding all aspects of publication ethics and, in particular, how to handle cases of research and publication misconduct. The authors must declare that all experiments on human subjects were conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and that all procedures were performed with the adequate understanding and written consent of the subjects. The authors must also certify that formal approval to conduct the experiments described was obtained from the human subjects review board of their institution and could be provided upon request.
All animal experiments should be conducted in accordance with institutional and national guidelines for the care and use of experimental animals, and the authors should clearly indicate in the manuscript that such guidelines have been followed. Manuscripts should be accompanied by a statement that all efforts were made to minimize animal suffering, to minimize the number of animals used, and to utilize alternatives to in vivo techniques, if available. Studies involving animals should obey the International Guiding Principles for Biomedical Research as developed by the Council for International Organization of Medical Sciences (CIOMS).
The JBD adapts the COPE guidelines to satisfy the high-quality standards of ethics for authors, editors, and reviewers:
Duties of Authors
- Author(s) should affirm that the material has not been previously published and that they have not transferred elsewhere any rights to the article.
- Author(s) should ensure the originality of the work and that they have properly cited others’ work in accordance with the reference format.
- Author(s) should not engage in plagiarism or in self-plagiarism.
- Author(s) should ensure that they follow the authorship criteria based on the description explained in the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).
- Author(s) should suggest no personal information that might make the identity of the patient recognizable in any form of description, photograph or pedigree. When photographs of the patient were essential and indispensable as scientific information, the author(s) have received consent in written form and have clearly stated as much.
- In the case of experimenting on humans, the authors have certified that the research process is in accordance with the ethical standards of the Helsinki Declaration and the domestic and foreign committees that preside over the human experiment. If any doubts are raised whether the research proceeded in accordance with the declaration, the author(s) should explain it. In the case of experimenting on animals, the authors have certified that they followed the domestic and foreign guidelines related to experimentation on animals in a laboratory.
- Author(s) should provide the editor with the data and details of the work if there are suspicions of data falsification or fabrication.
- Author(s) should clarify everything that may cause a conflict of interests such as work, research expenses, consultant expenses, and intellectual property.
Duties of Editors
- Editors are responsible for every article published in JBD.
- Editors should help authors to follow the instructions for authors according to ICMJE.
- Editors may communicate with other editors or reviewers in making the final decision.
- An editor must evaluate the manuscript objectively for publication, judging each on its quality without considering the nationality, ethnicity, political beliefs, race, religion, gender, seniority, or institutional affiliation of the authors. Editors should decline any assignment when there is a potential for conflict of interest.
- Editors must ensure the document sent to the reviewers does not contain information on the author, and vice versa.
- Editors’ decisions should be provided to the authors accompanied by the reviewers’ comments unless they contain offensive or libelous remarks.
- Editors should respect requests from authors that an individual should not review the submission if such requests are well reasoned and practicable.
- Editors and all staff members should guarantee the confidentiality of the submitted manuscript.
- Editors will be guided by the COPE flowcharts if there is suspected misconduct or disputed authorship.
Duties of Reviewers
- Reviewers should comment on ethical questions and possible research and publication misconduct.
- Reviewers will perform the work in a timely manner and should notify the editor if they cannot complete the work.
- Reviewers must keep the confidentiality of the manuscript.
- Reviewers should not agree to review manuscripts in which there is a potential conflict of interest between them and any of the authors.