For journals, the following publication policies are applied by Bentham Science.
COPYRIGHT
Authors who publish in Bentham Science print & online journals will transfer copyright to their work
to Bentham Science Publishers. Submission of a manuscript to the respective journals implies that all
authors have read and agreed to the content of the Copyright Letter or the Terms and Conditions. It is a
condition of publication that manuscripts submitted to this journal have not been published and will not
be simultaneously submitted or published elsewhere. Plagiarism is strictly forbidden, and by submitting
the article for publication the authors agree that the publishers have the legal right to take
appropriate action against the authors, if plagiarism or fabricated information is discovered. By
submitting a manuscript, the authors agree that the copyright of their article is transferred to the
publishers if and when the article is accepted for publication. Once submitted to the journal, the
author will not withdraw their manuscript at any stage prior to publication.
It is mandatory that a signed copyright letter also be submitted along with the manuscript by the author
to whom correspondence is to be addressed. The article should not contain any such material or
information that maybe 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 collaborated with the Copyright Clearance Center to meet our customer's licensing,
besides rights & permission needs.
The Copyright Clearance Center's RightsLink® service makes it faster and easier to secure permission from
Bentham Science's journal titles. Visit Journals by
Title and locate the desired content. Then go to the article's abstract and click on "Rights and
Permissions" to open the RightsLink's page. If authors can't 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 managing the inclusion of third-party content as an author/editor of a
work.
We refer to 'third party content' as any work that authors haven't developed themselves and have
copied
or adapted from other sources. Text, figures, photographs, tables, screenshots, and other items may
be
included.
Unless the figure is in the public domain (copyright-free) or permitted for use under Creative
Commons or
other open licenses, the author must get permission from the copyright holder(s).
Published/reproduced material should not be included unless written permission has been obtained from
the
copyright holder, which should be forwarded to the Editorial Office in case of acceptance of the
article
for publication.
Open Access Articles
Articles 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),
which permits unrestricted distribution and reproduction in any medium, ensuring that the work is
properly cited. For more details, please visit Open
Access Policy
ARCHIVING POLICIES
Self-Archiving
Following are the important features of the self-archiving policy of Bentham Science journals:
Authors can deposit the first draft of a submitted article on their personal websites or
their institution's repositories for personal use, internal institutional use, or for permitted
scholarly posting only.
Authors may deposit the ACCEPTED VERSION of the peer-reviewed article on
their personal websites, their institution's repository or the non-commercial repositories, PMC
and
arXiv, after 12 MONTHS of publication on the journal website. For personal use,
internal institutional use, or for permitted scholarly posting only.
In case of (b) above, an acknowledgement must be given to the original source of
publication
and a link must be inserted to the published article on the journal's/publisher's website. The
link
to the original source of publication should be provided by inserting the DOI number of the
article
in the following sentence: "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 NIH, Wellcome Trust or any other Open Access Mandate,
authors
are allowed the archiving of published versions of manuscripts in the nominated institutional
repositories, after the mandatory embargo period. Authors should first contact the Editorial
Office
of the journal for information about depositing a copy of the manuscript to a repository.
Consistent
with the copyright agreement, Bentham Science does not allow archiving of FINAL PUBLISHED
VERSION of
manuscripts unless under an Open Access mandate as above. Archiving, under any of the above
mentioned Open Access mandates, is done under the terms of the Creative Commons License CC
BY-NC-ND
4.0 - Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International.
There is no embargo on the archiving of articles published under the OPEN ACCESS
PLUS category. Authors are allowed deposition of such articles on institutional,
non-commercial repositories and personal websites immediately after publication on the journal
website. This is done under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Public
License CC-BY 4.0.
In case of any form of archiving, an acknowledgement must be given to the original
source of
publication and a link must be inserted to the published article on the journal's/publisher's
website. The link to the original source of publication should be provided by inserting the DOI
number of the article in the following sentence: "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 agreement with Portico to have a
long-term preservation of the content published in its journals.
PEER REVIEW
Bentham Science Publishers follows the double-blind peer review procedure for submissions of all
manuscripts to its journals.
All submitted articles are subjected to an extensive peer review in consultation with members of the
journal’s editorial board and independent external referees (usually three reviewers). All
manuscripts/chapters are assessed rapidly and the decision based on all the peer reviewers' comments,
taken by the journal’s Editor-in-Chief, is then conveyed to the author(s).
Submissions from the Editor-in-Chief/Co-Editor/Editorial Board Members will undergo independent peer
review and will be submitted to another Editor for his decision on acceptance. For further details,
please visit 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 its own challenges regarding the
originality of the review of 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.
Confidentiality
Bentham Science Publishers maintains the confidentiality of the submitted manuscript and its content.
The
editors are advised not to disclose any information on submitted manuscripts before their
publication.
The peer review of a manuscript is a confidential process. Bentham follows a double-blind peer review
process where the identities of both the reviewer and author are kept undisclosed to each other,
ensuring anonymity and maintaining confidentiality throughout the entire review procedure.
Reviewers should keep the whole process completely confidential. They should consult the EIC/senior
editor and take permission before consulting another colleague for help in the peer-review of the
submitted manuscript.
Reviewers should not disclose any information whatsoever to anyone before the publication of the
manuscript.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
Financial contributions and any potential conflict of interest must be clearly acknowledged under the
heading ‘Conflict of Interest’. Authors must list the source(s) of funding for the study. This should be
done for each author. For more details, please visit: Conflict Of Interest
PLAGIARISM PREVENTION
Plagiarism means copying or paraphrasing another writer's content, be it a text, a result or an
observation, and stating it as one's own, without citing a reference to the original source. Therefore,
authors should acknowledge and cite references to the work of other scientists in their manuscripts. The
author should ensure that all the sources are authentic and that there is no discrepancy in the content
of the manuscript.
Bentham Science is vigilant in checking and identifying the primary sources of the data within the
content by using the iThenticate software to
detect instances of overlapping and similarity of text in
submitted manuscripts. iThenticate software
verifies the content against a database of periodicals,
materials on the Internet, and a comprehensive article database. The software generates a similarity
report in percentage that matches the article in process and the published material. This similarity is
further scrutinized for suspected plagiarism according to the publisher's Editorial Policies. The
generated report comprises the overall percentage of the content reused.
The Credibility of Sources- Acknowledgements
The study of an author has to be original. If there are credible sources of the content referred to
in the manuscript, the author needs to cite all of them. Authors are advised to use iThenticate
before submitting a manuscript to ensure that there are no instances of plagiarism. Authors are
required to provide proper consent from the individuals and contributions of other authors should be
acknowledged.
Bentham Science has different editorial policies for authors who have more than one publication.
Following those policies, the authors need to specify the sources of the submission in their recent
work. For further details, please visit the following link of Editorial Policies for Concurrent
Publication/Simultaneous Submission at https://benthamscience.com/pages/editorial-policies-main
Bentham Science strictly follows COPE guidelines to detect plagiarism. For clearer insight, authors
may refer to the flowcharts provided by COPE by clicking here or visiting the COPE website.
FABRICATING AND STATING FALSE INFORMATION
To ensure the scholarly integrity of every article, Bentham Science will publish post-publication
notices. The authors of the published articles, or those who have submitted the manuscripts with false
information, or fabricated the supporting data or images, will be liable for sanctions, and their papers
will be retracted. For further details, please visit 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.
Articles submitted to a journal which have not been published and will not be simultaneously submitted
elsewhere for publication can be considered for publication. Preprints are usually deposited on the
author's own web page in an institutional repository, or on a preprint server. However, they are not
considered as ahead-of-print or early access publications.
Preprint archiving on any recognized, non-profit preprint server is entirely supported and encouraged by
the BSP. Preprints deposited in designated preprint repositories at the same time as, or before,
submission to a journal are not considered as prior, citable publications by the BSP Journals.
HUMAN AND ANIMAL RIGHTS
Research Involving Humans
All clinical investigations should be conducted according to the Declaration of Helsinki
principles.
For all 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
recommended, in accordance with the patient’s consent for research or participation in a study as
per
the applicable laws and regulations regarding the privacy and/or 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 laws relating to confidentiality and security of personally
distinguishable evidence, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (EU) 2016/679 and member
state
implementing legislation, Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act,
India's
Information Technology Act and related Privacy Rules, (together "Data Protection and Privacy Laws").
It is the responsibility of the author to ensure that:
Patients' names, initials, or hospital numbers are not mentioned anywhere in the manuscript
(including figures).
Authors are responsible for obtaining the patient consent-to-disclose forms for all
recognizable
patients in photographs, videos, or other information that may be published in the Journal,
in
derivative works, or on the journal’s website and for providing the manuscript to the
recognizable patient for review before submission.
The consent-to-disclose form should indicate specific use (publication in the medical
literature
in print and online, with the understanding that patients and the public will have access)
of
the patient's information and any images in figures or videos, and must contain the
patient's
signature or that of a legal guardian along with a statement that the patient or legal
guardian
has been offered the opportunity to review the identifying materials and the accompanying
manuscript.
If the manuscript has an individuals’ data, such as personal details, audio-video
material,
etc., consent should be obtained from that individual. In case of children, consent should be
obtained from the parent or the legal guardian.
A specific declaration of such approval and consent-to-disclose form must be made in the
copyright letter and in a stand-alone paragraph at the end of the article especially in the
case
of human studies where inclusion of a statement regarding obtaining the written informed
consent
from each subject or subject's guardian is a must. The original should be retained by the
guarantor or the corresponding author. Editors may request to provide the original forms by
fax
or email.
All such case reports require proper consent to be obtained from patients before publishing.
Editors may request that authors provide documentation of the formal review and recommendation from
the
institutional review board or ethics committee responsible for oversight of the study. The editors
reserve the right to reject manuscripts that do not comply with the above-mentioned requirements.
The
author will be held responsible for false statements or failure to fulfill the above-mentioned
requirements.
Non-Identifiable Images
Anonymous images, that do not identify the individual directly or indirectly, such as through any
identifying marks or text, do not require formal consent, for example, X-rays, ultrasound images,
pathology slides or laparoscopic images.
In case consent is not obtained, concealing the identity through eye bars or blurring the face would
not
be acceptable.
Research Involving Animals
For research involving animals, the authors should indicate whether the procedures followed were in
accordance with the standards set forth in the eighth edition of “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 carried out in accordance with the NC3Rs ARRIVE Guidelines. For In
Vivo Experiments, please visit https://www.nc3rs.org.uk/arrive-guidelines
Authors should clearly state the name of the approval committee, highlighting that legal and ethical
approvals were obtained prior to initiation of the research work carried out on animals, and that
the
experiments were performed in accordance with the relevant guidelines and regulations stated below.
US authors should 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 should conform to Directive
2010/63/EU.
Research on animals should adhere to ethical guidelines of the International Council for
Laboratory Animal Science (ICLAS) ethical
guidelines.
The manuscript should clearly include a declaration of compliance with the relevant
guidelines
(e.g. the revised Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 in the UK and Directive
2010/63/EU in
Europe) and/or relevant permissions or licenses obtained by 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 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 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: Whenever possible, replace animals with alternatives.
- Reduce: Reducing the number of animals used and
- Refine: Refining experimental settings can reduce animal damage.
Authors are encouraged to follow the ARRIVE guidelines (Reporting in Vivo Experiments) for reporting experiments involving live animals.
An example of 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 (either cultivated or wild), should comply with international
guidelines. The manuscript should include a declaration of compliance of field studies with relevant
guidelines and/or relevant permissions or licenses obtained by 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
Any unusual risks associated with the use of any chemicals, procedures, or equipment used in the work
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 strive to promote gender and sex equity in research and adhere to the guidelines of Sex and Gender
Equity in Research (SAGER) to ensure inclusivity and rigor of the 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 in order to improve the rigor and relevance of
our publications.
The SAGER guidelines for reporting sex and gender information in methodology or study design, data
analysis, results, and interpretation of findings are strongly encouraged. Authors of review articles
are advised to address the methods used for selecting, locating, extracting, and synthesizing data;
systematic reviews are required to do so.
RESEARCH CONDUCTED IN SPECIAL OR CRITICAL SITUATIONS
Bentham Science expects all contributors to respect values of justice, benevolence, and autonomy when
conducting research. We understand that certain situations such as medical emergencies or
humanitarian crises may differ from non-emergency scenarios. Bentham Science recommends that
research efforts should not hurt human subjects/respondents or the researchers, and should be
conducted with sufficient scientific rigor as permissible in these situations, respectively. Care
should be taken to address potential problems faced by persons who may be victims of disasters or
involved in a medical emergency. These are vulnerable individuals and their privacy and dignity
should be respected. Researchers should make note of this in their research and identify potential
issues in their work that may arise because of such situations. Research directed in emergency
circumstances should be to the greatest advantage of survivors involved in the research and with the
goal of minimizing any future casualties. For guidance, the essential requirements of research in
emergency situation are the preservation of human life, wellbeing and security, along with the
rights to protection, privacy and confidentiality of subjects.
UNETHICAL BEHAVIOR
Unethical behavior and misconduct may be pointed out by anyone to the Editor and Publisher with
sufficient evidences. The Editor, in consultation with the Publisher, will initiate investigation
against this Unethical misconduct, complete the procedure till an unbiased decision is reached, and
maintain confidentiality throughout the process of the investigation. The Author should be given the
opportunity to reply to all minor or major accusations.
In case of serious breaches, the employer may be informed where appropriate, by the Editor/Publisher,
after reviewing all available information and evidences or after seeking help from experts in that
field.
Conclusion
Author(s) and Reviewers must be informed in case of misinterpretation or mishandling of
International Acceptable Standards
A strict notice should be sent to the author and reviewer to avoid future unethical
misconduct
An Editorial on the reported misconduct should be published or official notice of unethical
behavior should be posted on the website
Official letter about this misconduct should be issued to the Head of Departments, Funding
Agencies of the accused author and the reviewer, as well as Abstracting & Indexing
Agencies.
Where required, retraction and withdrawal of publication may be undertaken from the
Publisher’s journal in discussion with the Head of the Department of the author or reviewer,
and other higher authorities should be informed
The Publisher may impose restrictions for some period on future publications from the
accused author in the journals
Consent for Publication
If the manuscript has an individuals’ data, such as personal detail, audio-video material etc.,
consent should be obtained from that individual. In case of children, consent should be obtained
from the parent or the legal guardian.
A specific declaration of such approval and consent-to-disclose form must be made in the copyright
letter and in a stand-alone paragraph at the end of the article especially in the case of human
studies where inclusion of a statement regarding obtaining the written informed consent from each
subject or subject's guardian is a must. The original should be retained by the guarantor or
corresponding author. Editors may request to provide the original forms by fax or email.
All such case reports should be followed by a proper consent prior to publishing.
PROOF CORRECTIONS
Authors will receive page proofs of their accepted paper before publications. To avoid delays in
publication, proofs should be checked immediately for typographical errors and returned within 48 hours.
Major changes are not acceptable at the proof stage.
The corresponding author will be solely responsible for ensuring that the revised version of the
manuscript incorporating all the submitted corrections receives the approval of all the co-authors of
the manuscript.
ERRATA OR A CORRIGENDA AND CORRECTIONS IN PUBLISHED ARTICLES
Authors and readers are encouraged to notify the Editor-in-Chief if they find errors in published
content, authors’ names and affiliations or if they have reasons for concern over the legitimacy of a
publication. In such cases the journal will publish an ERRATUM or a CORRIGENDUM, in consultation with
Editor-in-Chief and authors of the article, and/or replace or retract the article.
ARTICLE WITHDRAWAL
Articles in Press (articles that have been accepted for publication or published as E-pub Ahead of
Schedule but which have not been formally published with volume/issue/page information) that include
errors, or are determined to violate the publishing ethics guidelines such as multiple submission, fake
claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data or the like, may be “Withdrawn” from the
journal. Withdrawal means that the article files are removed and replaced with a PDF stating that the
article has been withdrawn from the journal in accordance with BSP Editorial Policies.
ARTICLE RETRACTION
If any manuscripts are published, having certain assigned information of volume/issue/page number, and it
is found that there are infringements of professional ethical codes in their content, such as
plagiarism, excess similarity with some other article, fraudulent use of data, etc., then such
manuscripts are retracted.
A retraction note entitled “Retraction: [article title]” (for example Retraction: ABC experiment
involving XYZ species) is published in the paginated part of the next scheduled issue of the
journal and is also listed in the table of contents.
The retraction note is approved by the Editor-in-Chief of the concerned journal.
A link to the original article is displayed in the online (electronic) version.
A screen containing the note of retraction appears before the electronic version of the article
present on the website. On the screen, a link for the complete article is present, i.e. to
access the retracted article.
The link/webpage of the original article remains unchanged, however a watermark is shaded on its
downloadable PDF document, in order to explicitly give the message that the article was
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 journal have not been
published and will not be simultaneously submitted or published elsewhere. Plagiarism is strictly
forbidden, and by submitting the article for publication the authors agree that the publishers have the
legal right to take appropriate action against the authors, if plagiarism or fabricated information is
discovered.
Abstracts and posters of conferences, results presented at meetings (for example, to inform investigators
or participants about findings), results databases (data 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 publication.
Authors who wish to publish translations of the articles that have been published elsewhere should ensure
that they have appropriate permission(s), indicate clearly that the material has been translated and
re-published, and indicate clearly the original source of the material. The Editor-in-Chief may request
copies of related publications if he/she is concerned about overlap and possible redundancy.
APPEALS AND COMPLAINTS
Generally, the editorial decisions are not reverted. However, authors who think that their manuscript was
rejected due to a misunderstanding or mistake may seek an explanation for the decision. Appeals must
give sound reasoning and compelling evidence against the criticism raised in the rejection letter. A
difference of opinion as to the interest, novelty, or suitability of the manuscript for the journal will
not be considered as an appeal. The EIC and other relevant editors will consider the appeal and the
decision thereafter taken by the journal will be deemed final. Acceptance of the manuscript is not
guaranteed even if the journal agrees to reconsider the manuscript, and the reconsideration process may
involve previous or new reviewers or editors and substantive revision.
Authors who wish to make a complaint should refer them to the Editor-in-Chief of the journal concerned.
Complaints to the Publisher may be emailed to [email protected]
HANDLING POST-PUBLICATION MATTERS:
To maintain the integrity of scientific research, Bentham Science carries out investigations regarding
the concerns raised by authors and/or readers. However, authors are always provided a chance to respond
to all complaints/comments. We may require reviewers to go over the original data and consult with
experts involved, in order to solve and conclude the investigation.
Post Publication Discussions may be published online after review and are usually accompanied by a
response from the original authors. For more details, please visit: Post-Publication Discussions and Corrections.
DISCLAIMER
Responsibility for the content published by Bentham Science Publishers in any of its journals,
including any opinions expressed therein, rests exclusively with the author(s) of such content. To the
maximum extent permitted by applicable law, BSP (on its own behalf, and on behalf of its staff and
members of its editorial board) disclaims responsibility for any and all 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 in the same) referred to in the content of any of
BSP’s journals. Any dispute arising, including any claim shall be governed exclusively by the laws of
the United Arab Emirates, as applied in the Emirate of Sharjah.