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Contents:

Introduction

Becaris Publishing Ltd Becaris Publishing Ltd publishes online-only, open access journals, including:

Becaris Publishing endorses the ‘Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly work in Medical Journals’, issued by the International Committee for Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), the 'Principles of transparency and best practice in scholarly publishing' (joint statement from the Committee on Publication Ethics [COPE], DOAJ, the Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association [OASPA] and the World Association of Medical Editors [WAME]), and the 2022 update of the Good Publication Practice (GPP 2022) guidelines. Becaris journals also follow the recommendations of the COPE.

Becaris Publishing is part of the Coalition for Diversity and Inclusion in Scholarly Communications (C4DISC). As part of this, we follow their Joint Statement of Principles, which can be viewed here: https://c4disc.org/principles/.

Any individuals who have any queries or concerns regarding the editorial policies of Becaris journals should contact the Editorial Director, Laura Dormer.

Editorial Boards & editorial contacts

Becaris journals are supported by an international Editorial Board, consisting of recognized experts in the subject areas of the relevant journal. The Editorial Board members are listed here for the Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research and here for the Journal of Patient Centricity (and via the 'About' menu on the respective journal pages).

The Journal Editors can be contacted here:

Members of journal Editorial Boards are selected by the Journal Editor based on their expertise in topics relevant to the journal’s scope. This is based on a variety of factors, such as their publication record, conference presentations, affiliation with a center of excellence, and involvement with professional societies in the field of the journal. Members may also be suggested by existing members of the Editorial Board, or be drawn from past authors and peer reviewers. 

The journals also strive to select a diverse range of individuals to serve on the Editorial Boards (see the C4DISC Joint Statement of Principles).

Open access

Becaris journals are open access, and articles are published under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND license as standard, which allows dissemination on an open access basis, but does not permit commercial exploitation or the creation of derivative works without permission. Authors wishing to publish under a different license type should contact the Journal Editor to discuss further.

For further information on article sharing and re-use, see our Sharing & self-archive policy. Details are also included on the Open Access License Form completed by authors prior to publication.

Compliance with funder open or public access policies

Although Becaris journals' default open access license is the CC BY-NC-ND license, where the funder requires it, articles can be published under a different Creative Commons license (i.e., the CC BY license in the case of cOAlition S funders).

Funding bodies:

Please note, the funders listed in the above websites may not be exhaustive; should you have requirements related to a funder that is not listed above, please contact the Journal Editor to discuss further.

Contributions where a CC-BY license is preferred but not mandated

Where a CC-BY license is preferred but not mandated, please indicate this on the Open Access License Form (additional fees will apply, as noted here).

Article processing charge & fees for additional services

Becaris journals are open access, with all articles requiring payment of an open access article processing charge (APC) on acceptance for publication. All articles are subject to our standard peer review process and will be accepted or rejected based on their own merit.

An optional Rapid Review service can also be selected by authors during submission, which requires an additional fee.

Full pricing information can be found here.

Authorship & author responsibilities

Becaris journals follow the recommendations of the ICMJE as regards authorship. Authorship should be based on the following four criteria:

  1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
  2. Drafting the work or reviewing it critically for important intellectual content; AND
  3. Final approval of the version to be published; AND
  4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Contributors who do not fulfill all four criteria should be listed in the acknowledgements section.

Becaris Publishing is supportive of diverse authorship groups and collaboration. We support the ICMJE recommendations that individuals who meet the first authorship criterion should be given the opportunity to meet the other criteria wherever possible, and strongly encourage collaboration and co-authorship with colleagues in the locations where the research is conducted. Where data are presented from low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) without local authors, the submitting author will be asked to provide reasoning for this; authors should be aware that this could lead to rejection. 

Please view our Author Guidelines for further information on specific authorship policies, including:

  • Artificial intelligence-assisted technologies
  • Fair accreditation of authorship
  • Patient authorship
  • Group authorship
  • Changes to authorship
  • Guidance on author sequence
  • Guidance on a change of affiliation during writing

Disclosure & competing interest policy

Authors must state explicitly whether financial and/or material support was received (including sources of funding) for the research reported or the creation of the manuscript. Support for an individual's contribution for the work should be reported as such. Authors declaring no financial/material support are required to publish a statement to that effect within the article. Authors must disclose whether they have received writing assistance and identify the sources of funding for such assistance.

As stated by ICMJE, disclosure of potential conflicts of interest is distinct and extends beyond direct support for the work. In addition to disclosing direct financial/material support as described above, authors must also state explicitly whether financial and/or nonfinancial relationships exist that potentially conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. Authors must certify that they have disclosed relationships in which they (or a close family member): is employed, is a contractor, provides services, or has otherwise collaborated in commercial or scientific pursuits – even in the absence of direct monetary remuneration. Stock holdings and issued or pending patents of an author or family member should also be disclosed. This list is not exclusive of other forms of financial involvement. A 36-month disclosure window should be used. Details of relevant competing interests must be declared in the ‘Disclosure’ section of the manuscript for all listed authors. Authors declaring no competing interests are required to publish a statement to that effect within the article.

External peer reviewers must disclose any competing interests that could bias their opinions of the manuscript, and they should disqualify themselves from reviewing specific manuscripts if they believe it appropriate. Should any such competing interest be declared, the Journal Editor will judge whether the reviewer’s comments should be recognized or will interpret the reviewer’s comments in the context of any such declaration.

Becaris journals endorse the ‘Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly work in Medical Journals’, issued by the ICMJE, regarding conflicts of interest, including those related to Authors, Peer Reviewers, and Editors and Journal Staff.

Research ethics policies

Becaris journals follow the recommendations of COPE.

All submissions containing original data should include an ‘Ethical Conduct of Research’ statement.

For studies involving data relating to human or animal experimental investigations:

  • Appropriate institutional review board (IRB) and/or independent ethics committee approval should be obtained and described within the article, as per the ICMJE recommendations on ‘Protection of Research Participants’. Where a waiver for such an approval has been granted, a statement to this effect should be included.
  • For investigations involving human subjects, informed consent should be obtained from the participants involved, and an explanation of how this was obtained included in the manuscript. See also Patients’ rights to privacy.
  • For investigations including animal subjects, details of how institutional/national standards for the care and use of laboratory animals were followed should be included in the manuscript.

Authors should be prepared to provide relevant documentation when requested by the Editor.

For those investigators who do not have formal ethics review committees, the principles outlined in the Helsinki Declaration should be followed and a statement to this effect included in the manuscript.

Anonymized surveys and other research that were legally exempt from full review should be identified as such and the specific regulation cited.

Patients’ rights to privacy

Patients have a right to privacy that should not be infringed without informed consent. Identifying information should not be included unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or legal guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. Informed consent for this purpose requires that the patient be shown the manuscript to be published. When informed consent has been obtained it should be indicated in the manuscript.

In attempting to maintain patient anonymity, identifying details should be omitted where they are not essential. However, patient data should never be amended or falsified. Informed consent should be obtained whenever there is any doubt that anonymity can be assured.

Clinical trial & real-world study registration

Becaris journals prefer to publish clinical trials/real-world evidence studies that have been included in a registry that is accessible to the public at no charge, is electronically searchable, is open to prospective registrants and is managed by a not-for-profit organization, such as ClinicalTrials.gov (sponsored by the United States National Library of Medicine). Where trial and study registry identifiers are available, these should be included at the end of the abstract and also listed the first time the authors mention the trial/study in the manuscript. Unregistered trials/studies should be declared as such, and a reasonable rationale provided.

To promote the transparent reporting and increase trust in the findings of real-world evidence studies, Becaris journals encourage authors to preregister their study protocols (for example in the OSF-hosted Real World Evidence Registry, HMA-EMA Catalogue of real-world data sources and studies, or on ClinicalTrials.gov). A link to the protocol/registration number should be included in the article methods section, where available.

Whilst reviewers will take registration status into account, all well designed and presented trials/studies and corresponding data will be considered for publication.

Use of personal communications & unpublished data     

Where an individual is identified within an article as a source of information in a personal communication or as a source for unpublished data, authors should include a signed statement of permission from the individual(s) concerned and specify the date of communication.

Data & materials transparency & sharing

Becaris journals strongly encourage authors to share study protocols, data and any other materials that support the findings within a manuscript, where it is ethical to do so. Authors are encouraged to consult the FAIR Principles (guidelines to improve the Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reuse of digital assets).

The ICMJE requires that all manuscripts that report the results of clinical trials must contain a data sharing statement, as described on their website here: https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/publishing-and-editorial-issues/clinical-trial-registration.html. Please see the Author Disclosure Form for further information.

Becaris journals encourage authors of manuscripts that report the results of real-world evidence studies to include a data transparency statement, as described by Wang and Pottegard here: Developing a transparency framework for real-world evidence studies: an interview with Shirley Wang and Anton Pottegård. The full publication outlining these recommendations is here: Building transparency and reproducibility into the practice of pharmacoepidemiology and outcomes research. This statement should address five key domains:

  1. Protocol – whether and where a prespecified study protocol exists
  2. Preregistration – if the study was preregistered (e.g., on the Real World Evidence Registry, ClinicalTrials.gov, etc.)
  3. Data – the availability of underlying data (e.g., deidentified patient data, synthetic datasets)
  4. Code sharing – the availability of analytic code (e.g., via GitHub).
  5. Reporting checklists – the completion of relevant checklists (e.g., STROBE, RECORD-PE).

Authors should be able to provide additional relevant original data underpinning their research, if requested by the Editor or reviewers.

Data deposition: Authors are encouraged to share underlying data and code, where this is possible. We also encourage the deposition of data/materials to a discipline-specific, community-recognized repository where one exists, or a generalist repository if no suitable specific resource is available, in order to aid in the future replication of methods or the completion of follow-on studies. Repositories can be found via sites such as re3data.org. Where data have been deposited in a public repository, authors should state at the end of the abstract the dataset name, repository name and number.

Artificial intelligence-assisted technologies

Becaris journals follow the recommendations of the ICMJE as regards artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted technologies and the 'WAME Recommendations on Chatbots and Generative Artificial Intelligence in Relation to Scholarly Publications'.

Specific guidance for use of AI-assisted technologies by authors and peer reviewers can be found on our Author Guidelines and Reviewer Guidelines pages.

Submission

For details on how to submit an article, please view our Author Guidelines.

Receipt of all manuscripts will be acknowledged automatically on submission, and authors will be notified within 2 working days as to whether the article is to progress to external review. See Peer review policy for details on the initial screening and peer review process.

Submissions are treated as confidential, and the Editor will not share information about manuscripts with anyone other than the appropriate authors and reviewers. The journal will not make use of AI-assisted technologies in any way that may violate this confidentiality.

Becaris journals welcome unsolicited proposals for articles. In the first instance, a pre-submission email should be sent to the Journal Editor, outlining the scope of the paper you wish to submit before formally submitting your article via our online submission system. Becaris journals also have an active commissioning program whereby the Journal Editor, under the advice of the Editorial Board, solicits articles directly for publication.

Publication extenders

Becaris journals support the inclusion of publication extenders (referred to in GPP 2022 as enhanced content) as part of an article submission, including:

  • Graphical abstracts
  • Infographics
  • Videos (video abstracts, animations, etc.)
  • Plain language summaries (including within article, as supplementary materials, and as standalone publications)

Publication extenders are peer reviewed, and must:

  • Be consistent with that of the underlying publication and must not be promotional in language, tone, or style
  • Be developed following the same ethical and quality principles as the main publication

Peer review policy

Initial internal screening

Once a manuscript has been received in-house, it will undergo initial internal screening by the Journal Editor. In all cases this will include checking:

  • The article is within scope and relevant to the journal audience
  • The novelty of the work, including screening with plagiarism detection software
  • The clarity of presentation
  • That the journal’s research ethics policies have been adhered to

The Journal Editor will endeavor to make the first decision on whether a paper will proceed further in the publication process as quickly as possible after receipt.

External peer review

Through a rigorous peer review process, Becaris journals aim to ensure that articles are unbiased, scientifically accurate and relevant to the journal’s audience. Articles deemed suitable for consideration following the above internal screening will proceed to external double-anonymized peer review, dependent on article type (see Author Guidelines for more details on the review process for specific article types).

All Original Research Articles (including full studies, short reports, meta-analyses, etc.), Review/Systematic Review Articles, Perspectives, and any other articles deemed necessary by the Journal Editor, are peer reviewed by two or more members of the Editorial Board or other external specialists selected on the basis of experience and expertise. Authors are obliged to participate in the peer review process. Review is performed on a double-anonymized basis – the identities of peer reviewers and authors are kept confidential. Peer reviewers must disclose potential conflicts of interests that may affect their ability to provide an unbiased appraisal (see Disclosure & conflict of interest policy).

The Journal Editor will endeavor to ensure external peer review of a manuscript is completed as quickly as possible; however, there are sometimes delays in this process outside of the Editor's control. The Journal Editor will respond to all author queries regarding the status of their manuscript in a timely manner.

Submissions received from members of a Becaris journal Editorial Board undergo the same double-anonymized peer review as other content, with external reviewers assigned by the in-house Journal Editor based on their expertise. No Editorial Board member will be involved at any stage in the decision to publish an article they have contributed to.

Please note, double-anonymized peer review cannot be guaranteed where a paper has been previously posted to a preprint server.

Peer reviewers complete a reviewer report via SciPR, our submission and review site, to provide general comments to the editor and both general and specific comments to the author(s). Peer Review Guidelines are also available via our website, including information on the journal's policies on the use of artificial intelligence-assisted technologies in peer review. 

Peer reviewers are offered an honorarium in exchange for completion of their review. Where reviewers are unable or prefer not to accept an honorarium, the same amount is donated to a charity of the month nominated by Becaris Publishing.

Where an author believes that the Journal Editor has made an error in declining a paper, they may submit an appeal. The appeal letter should clearly state the reasons why the author(s) considers the decision to be incorrect and provide detailed, specific responses to any comments relating to the rejection of the article. Further advice from members of the journal’s Editorial Board and/or other external experts will be sought regarding eligibility for re-review.

Revision

Most manuscripts require some degree of revision prior to acceptance. Authors should provide two copies of the revised manuscript – one of which should be highlighted to show where changes have been made. A detailed Author Response to the reviewers’ comments is also required. Manuscripts may be accepted at this point or may be subject to further peer review. The final decision on acceptability for publication lies with the Journal Editor.

Manuscript withdrawal

Authors may submit a request for withdrawal of their manuscript in good faith. The Journal Editor will respond to all such requests in a timely manner; however, in line with ICMJE recommendations, authors should consider the manuscript withdrawn even without receipt of a confirmation.

Embargo policy

Following the acceptance of articles for publication, authors (and their institutions, etc.) are welcome to publicize the publication; authors wishing to do so should advise the Journal Editor of the details beforehand.

No publicity relating to publication in a Becaris journal should be carried out while the manuscript is under consideration. However, prior publicity linked to presentations at meetings does not jeopardize publication.

In cases where data may be of overwhelming public health importance, the above policy may be waived. Should this be the case, the appropriate authorities responsible for public health should decide whether to disseminate information to physicians and the media in advance, and should be responsible for this decision. The Journal Editor should be informed if these circumstances apply. Ethical standards for individual publications do not alter during public health or other emergencies.

Any queries relating to publicity of manuscripts should be directed to the Journal Editor.

Social media

Becaris journals may share articles via the journal or publisher social media accounts, unless requested otherwise by authors. Authors may provide suggested wording for social media posts, if this is compliant with their organization’s policies; however, the Journal Editor reserves the right to suggest alterations to this. Becaris journals may provide suggested draft text of social posts to the author(s) for review – authors should only comment on this if this is compliant with their organization’s policies.

Authors of all articles should familiarize themselves with any relevant organizational/institutional/geographical policies regarding the sharing of their articles on social media before posting/sharing posts about their articles themselves, via personal or institutional accounts.

Authors of company-sponsored articles should follow the recommendations on social media use detailed in relevant industry guidance (including, but not limited to the PMCPA Social Media Guidance 2023, the IFPMA-EFPIA Joint Note for Guidance on Social Media and Digital Channels [September 2022], and the GPP 2022 guidelines).

Author name change policy

In cases where an author wishes their name to be changed on their article(s) post-publication, they should contact the Journal Editor to request the change (no documentation is required). The journal will then update and republish the article(s), as well as re-sending the article(s’) meta-data to the relevant indexing services. Please note, although the journal will act promptly to address name change requests, the speed at which indexing services update the information is out of our control.

We recognize that there are many reasons why it might be necessary to change a listed author’s name post-publication (including, but not limited to, a publication error, or to ensure alignment with gender identity or a change in marital status). We also recognize that the reasons for a name change may be of a private nature. As such, the journal will not issue a correction notice for name changes, nor will any co-authors of the article(s) in question be notified.

Policies for the handling of article corrections, retractions & editorial expressions of concern

Mistakes by either editor or author should be identified wherever possible and an erratum or corrigendum published at the earliest opportunity. In more extreme circumstances, a retraction may be necessary (see Scientific misconduct, expressions of concern & retraction). Should a reader believe they have identified a mistake in a published article, they are encouraged to get in touch with the Journal Editor as soon as possible. We will attempt to contact the author of the original article to confirm any error brought to our attention by readers, and publish an appropriate erratum or corrigendum at the earliest opportunity. Authors are obliged to participate in this process. Please note, while the journal will make every effort to correct errors that are of scientific importance or critical to the understanding of the article, corrections will only be carried out at the discretion of the Editor, in line with industry best practice. It is therefore important for authors to check they are happy with the article proof before it is published, as minor errors (such as spelling errors) introduced by the author(s) cannot always be corrected at a later date.

Becaris journals follow the recommendations of COPE, including their 'Retraction Guidelines'.

Duplicate publication/submission & plagiarism

All manuscripts submitted to Becaris journals are considered for publication on the understanding that they have not been published previously elsewhere or are under consideration for publication elsewhere. The journals may, however, consider republication of a paper previously published in a language other than English, subject to prominent disclosure of the original source and with any necessary permission. Authors will be asked to certify that the manuscript represents valid work and that neither this manuscript nor one with substantially similar content under their authorship has been published or is being considered for publication elsewhere.

Where specific findings from a particular study have been previously published (in a Becaris journal or elsewhere), we will not consider manuscripts reporting the same findings, except where:

  • the results are substantially reanalyzed, reinterpreted for a different audience, or translated into another language;
  • the primary publication is clearly acknowledged and cited, and the trial registration number (where available) of the original research is included; and
  • the publication is clearly presented as an analysis derived from the primary publication results or marked as a translation, with appropriate permission obtained from the previous publisher and copyright laws upheld.

All submitted articles will be evaluated using plagiarism detection software, which compares the submitted manuscript with full text articles from all major journal databases and the internet. Articles found to contain an excessive proportion of content previously published, as determined by the Journal Editor, either pre- or post-publication will be dealt with according to best practice (see Scientific misconduct, expressions of concern & retraction).

The use of published or unpublished ideas, words or other intellectual property derived from other sources without attribution or permission, and representation of such as those of the author(s) is regarded as scientific misconduct and will be addressed as such.

Scientific misconduct, expressions of concern & retraction

As stated by the ICMJE: “Scientific misconduct in research and non-research publications includes but is not necessarily limited to data fabrication; data falsification including deceptive manipulation of images; purposeful failure to disclose relationships and activities; and plagiarism”. If misconduct by authors or reviewers is suspected, either pre- or post-publication, action will be taken. An explanation will be sought from the party or parties considered to be involved. If the response is unsatisfactory, then an appropriate authority will be asked to investigate fully. Becaris will make all reasonable attempts to obtain a resolution in any such eventuality and correct the record or archive as necessary (publishing an expression of concern and/or a retraction of the article as required).

Disclaimer: Whilst every effort is made to ensure that no inaccurate or misleading data, opinions or statements appear in the journal, we wish to make it clear that the data and opinions that appear in Becaris journals are the responsibility of the contributor concerned. Accordingly, the Publisher, Editorial Board and their respective employees, officers and agents accept no liability whatsoever for the consequences of any inaccurate or misleading data, opinions or statements.

Archiving

Becaris appreciates the importance of preserving our published content in the long term. We deposit all article files with CLOCKSS, a not-for-profit venture to ensure the long-term survival of web-based scholarly publications.

Sharing & self-archive policy

Becaris journals are supportive of self archiving. Articles are published under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND license as standard, which means anyone is free to:

  • Share – copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format

Under the following terms:

  • Attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
  • NonCommercial – You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
  • NoDerivatives – If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.

Provided that authors give appropriate acknowledgment to the journal and publisher, and cite the full bibliographic reference for the article, when it is published (under a CC BY-NC-ND license), authors may:

  • Share print or electronic copies of an article with colleagues
  • Post the authors final version and version of record on:
    • Personal websites
    • An employer’s website
    • Non-commercial public servers in their subject area
  • Use all or part an article and abstract in personal compilations or other scholarly publications of their own work (and may receive a royalty or other payment for such work)
  • Use an article within their employer’s institution or company for educational or research purposes, including use in course packs

Electronic versions of an accepted article should include a link to the published version of the article together with the following: ‘For full bibliographic citation, please refer to the version available at https://becarispublishing.com'.

Third parties are entitled to use an article, in whole or in part, in accordance with the conditions outlined in the CC BY-NC-ND license (see information above).

Please contact [email protected] to request permissions outside of these circumstances.

Under certain circumstances, for example, when required by an author’s funder (see Compliance with funder open or public access policies), certain articles may be published under a Creative Commons CC BY license. For these articles, the terms of this license apply.

For further details visit https://creativecommons.org/.

Preprints

Becaris journals will consider manuscripts that have previously been posted on preprint servers, as long as the manuscript is not being considered elsewhere, as per our standard policy. Authors are also welcome to post their article to a preprint server whilst it is under consideration by a Becaris journal. Authors are encouraged to select a preprint server that clearly identifies preprints as non-peer-reviewed work and includes conflict of interest statements. Authors should also be aware that the journal cannot guarantee double-anonymized peer review of papers that have been previously posted as preprints. We advise authors to inform the Journal Editor as to where the manuscript has been posted, and to update the preprint should it be accepted for publication (where this is possible).

Text & data mining

Becaris journals appreciate the value of Text and Data Mining (TDM) for researchers, and grants TDM rights to open access content, governed by the terms of the Creative Commons license relating to the relevant article. Open access content published under a CC BY license can be text- and data-mined for commercial and non-commercial purposes. Open access content published under a CC BY-NC-ND license can be text- and data-mined for non-commercial purposes only.

Those interested in TDM for commercial purposes should contact us here: [email protected].

Journal sponsored content & advertising policy

Becaris journals will consider the inclusion of content sponsored by third parties. This content will always be clearly identifiable as such, and the journal’s editorial team has full and final authority for approving this content for inclusion.

Becaris journals will consider advertising and sponsorship opportunities, as a means to provide value to our readers. It is important to us that this is carried out in a responsible way, and we follow the recommendations of the ICMJE in this regard.

Becaris journals are electronic (online-only), with no print version. The following policies apply:

  • All advertising must be an accurate description of the product or service, legal, decent, truthful, honest and socially responsible (not encouraging illegal, unsafe or anti-social behavior).
  • Advertisements must comply with the relevant laws, regulations and industry codes for the geographic area in which they appear (including those related to the advertisement of medicines).
  • Advertising has no influence over editorial decisions, with advertising and editorial being managed by two separate departments.
  • A journal’s editorial team has full and final authority for approving advertisements and for enforcing advertising policy.
  • A journal’s editorial team will consider all criticisms of advertisements for publication, in the same way as any other journal content.
  • Advertisements will not be juxtaposed with editorial content on the same product.
  • Advertisements/sponsored content will always be clearly identifiable as such.
  • Advertisements will not be carried for products proven to be seriously harmful to health.