Publication Ethics

1. Research Ethics

1.1 Research Involving Humans

Forum Multimedia Publishing requires that all manuscripts involving human subjects, human material, or human data follow the Declaration of Helsinki. Before the research begins, all protocols must obtain ethical approval from the local Institutional Review Board (IRB) or other appropriate research ethics committee (REC) to confirm that the research meets national and international guidelines for human research. This must be detailed in all manuscripts reporting such research, including the name of the ethics committee, the data of approval, and the appropriate reference number. Also, manuscriptsinvolving human participants must confirm that informed consent for participation was obtained from each participant. For participants under the age of 18, informed consent was obtained from their parents or legal guardians.

An exception to this requirement may be made if the IRB deems it unnecessary or if a study has been granted an exemption by the Ethics Committee. In such cases, the authors should provide a full explanation in the manuscript. If an exemption is granted for a study, the name of the ethics committee that provided the exemption should also be included. However, if the investigator is in doubt, they should seek advice from the appropriate authorities before proceeding with the study.

If the study is a clinical trial, authors should include the trial registration number (TRN) and the date of registration in the last line of the manuscript abstract. Appropriate public registries are those listed on the ICMJE website and the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform. If the manuscript reports a clinical trial that has not been prospectively registered, Forum Multimedia Publishing encourages authors to register retrospectively to ensure complete publication of all results. In this case, the TRN, the date of registration, and the words "retrospective registration" should be included in the manuscript.

1.2 Research Involving Animal Experiments

Forum Multimedia Publishing requires that all manuscripts that include animal experiments need to:

• confirm that legal and ethical requirements have been met with regard to the humane treatment of animals described in the study; authors must also document informed consent from the client or owner and adherence to a high standard (best practice) of veterinary care.
• specify in the Materials or Methods section the ethical review committee approval process and the international, national, and/or institutional guidelines followed.

If a study was granted an exemption from requiring ethics approval, this should also be detailed in the manuscript (including the name of the ethics committee that granted the exemption and the reasons for the exemption).      

The Editor will take into consideration animal welfare issues and reserves the right to reject a manuscript, especially if the research involves protocols that are inconsistent with commonly accepted norms of animal research or if the severity of the experimental procedure does not appear to be justified by the value of the work presented. A statement detailing compliance with relevant guidelines (e.g., the revised Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 in the UK and Directive 2010/63/EU in Europe) and/or ethical approval (including the name of the ethics committee and the reference number where appropriate) must be included in the manuscript. This also applies to field studies and other non-experimental research on animals. When rodents are used as in vivo cancer models, the tumor burden should not exceed the recommendations of the Guidelines for Endpoints in Animal Study Proposals.

Manuscripts describing animal research must include a justification for the use of animals, and for the particular species used. The species' name should also be stated in the article title. They should also provide details of animal welfare, including information about housing, feeding, and environmental enrichment, a description of steps taken to minimize suffering, humane endpoints, and method of euthanasia. These procedures must be carried out in accordance with applicable veterinary guidelines, such as the American Veterinary Medical Association. If the study has any implication for the 3Rs (replacement, reduction, and refinement), these should be discussed in enough detail so that readers can implement the 3Rs in similar experiments.

1.3 Research Involving Cell Lines

Forum Multimedia Publishing requires that for manuscripts involving cell line studies, the following information be included in the Materials and Methods section of their manuscripts:

(1) Provide the source, supplier, date of acquisition, and catalog number (if available) of all specific cell lines used in the study.

(2) Details of institutional review board or ethics committee approval if the cell line is a newly established cell line of human origin; the authors will also need to confirm written informed consent.

(3) Confirm that the cell line used has been tested for mycoplasma.

(4) Confirmation that the cell line used has been authenticated and a description of the method of identification.

Forum Multimedia Publishing strongly encourages authors to submit a detailed methodology describing the maintenance and culture of the cell lines according to international guidelines for good cell culture practices (basic techniques, mycoplasma contamination, number of passages, etc.). In addition, information on misidentified or cross-contaminated cell lines must be cross-checked with the International Cell Line Accreditation Committee and the ExPASy Cellosaurus database to exclude known contamination or misidentification with other cell lines. If cell lines have been previously reported as contaminated or misidentified, the STR profiles of the cell lines used in the study must be available for evaluation by the journal editor.

Examples 1 (For established cell lines) :

The human XXX line XXX™ cells were received from XXX on XX/XX/XXXX. The rat XXX cell line XXXX (catalog number: XXX) was procured from XXX on XX/XX/XXXX. All cell lines were maintained at 37 ℃ in a XXX atmosphere and were mycoplasma-free (XXXX Mycoplasma Detection Kit). We performed cell line authentication using the short tandem repeat (STR) analysis method and cross-checked the results with the International Cell Line Authentication Committee and the ExPASy Cellosaurus database to ensure that the cell lines were correctly identified.

Examples 2 (For de novo (new) cell lines) :

XXX cells were extracted from XXX tissue, which was carried out in accordance with the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Ethics Committee of XXX (Protocol No. xx). And We performed cell line authentication using the short tandem repeat (STR) analysis method and cross-checked the results with the International Cell Line Authentication Committee and the ExPASy Cellosaurus database to ensure that the cell lines were correctly identified.

2. Data Sharing and Data Accessibility

Forum Multimedia Publishing strongly encourages authors to provide all data on which the manuscript’s conclusions are based (for all original research articles), unless these data have been provided to the reader in full as part of the submitted article. The following are some examples of data availability statements:

• The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available in the [NAME] repository, [PERSISTENT WEB LINK TO DATASETS].
• All data points generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.
• The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to [REASON WHY DATA ARE NOT PUBLIC] but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
• Data sharing is not applicable to this article, as no datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.
• The data that support the findings of this study are available from [THIRD PARTY NAME] but restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for the current study, and so are not publicly available. Data are available from the authors upon reasonable request and with permission of [THIRD PARTY NAME].
• The data are not publicly available due to [restrictions e.g. their containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants].

A data availability statement provides readers with a standardized format for understanding the availability of the data on should deposit their datasets in publicly available repositories, if available, rather than on personal or laboratory websites. Forum Multimedia Publishing strongly recommends that authors publish datasets using a DOI, as this helps facilitate persistent links from research articles to datasets. Please refer to FAIRsharing.org or re3data.org for a list of data repositories, including information about accreditation and services; the choice of repository is at the discretion of the authors, but the data must be freely available to readers.

3. Conflict of Interest

According to ICMJE recommendation, all participants in the peer-review and publication process—not only authors but also peer reviewers, editors, and editorial board members of journals—must consider and disclose their relationships and activities when fulfilling their roles in the process of article review and publication.

3.1 For authors

A competing interest exists when the authors’ interpretation of data or presentation of information may be influenced by, or may be perceived to be influenced by, their personal, political, academic relationships or financial relationship with other people or organizations, such as reimbursement for salaries, equipment or supplies, or a personal belief that may influence their objectivity and motivation, and consequently affect the data interpretation. This can include competing patents, grants, funding, employment, personal relationships and strong ethical beliefs, among other factors. Such conflicts must be declared, as they may affect the integrity or reliability of the science in the study, as well as that of otherwise unassociated studies in the same journal. The statements of competing interests for public funding sources, including government agencies, charitable or academic institutions, is best to be included.

Full disclosure of the competing interests is to be made in the cover letter and manuscript at the time of submission, in addition, each author also should submit a separate form and is responsible for the accuracy and completeness of the submitted information, even if the author judges that it has not influenced the work. If no conflict exists, this must also be stated clearly in the manuscript as follows: “Competing interests: the authors declare that they have no competing interests”. All authors should confirm its accuracy. If there is a conflict, please include it in a “Competing interest” section. Examples of conflict of interest statements include: This study was supported by the University of XXX under grant number XXX, and the authors declare that they received no intervention from the funding agency during the trial period, that they had full access to all the data in this study, and that they fully agree to "take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.". Authors may be asked to confirm or update, or provide further details regarding such disclosure statements following acceptance of the manuscript. Further details regarding requirements for conflict of interest statements are provided in the ICMJE policy.

3.2 For reviewers

External peer reviewers must disclose any conflicts of interest 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 if they will interpret the reviewer’s comments in the context of any such declaration.

3.3 For Editors

Forum Multimedia Publishing requires that editorial staff or editors not be involved in processing their own submissions. The Editor or members of the Editorial Board may occasionally submit their own manuscripts for possible publication in the journal. In these cases, the peer review process will be managed by alternative members of the Board. Submissions will be assigned to at least two independent outside reviewers. The submitting Editor/Board member will have no involvement in the decision-making process. Decisions will be made by other Editorial Board Members who do not have a conflict of interest with the author.

Guest Editors should not hold conflicts of interest with authors whose work they are assessing (e.g., from the same institution or collaborate closely) or relevant to the article topic. If there are any potential conflicts of interest, the Editor-in-Chief or a suitable Editorial Board member will make final acceptance decisions for submitted papers.

If an editor is one of the authors, please use the following wording: "Given [his/her/their] role as [Guest] Editor [in Chief], <NAME of Editor> had no involvement in the peer review of this article and has no access to information regarding its peer review. Full responsibility for the editorial process for this article was delegated to <NAME of delegated editor>".

For any non-research articles such as commentaries or Editorials written by editors or members of the Editorial Board, an impartial editor will be responsible for evaluating the piece and deciding whether it should be peer reviewed or not. In the case of peer review, a process similar to reviewing for original articles will be followed.

4. Funding

In this section, all financial and material support for the research and the work should be clearly and completely identified. At the time of submission, information on the funding source (including grant identification) must also be completed via the online manuscript submission and review system. 

Funding from the National Institute of Health (NIH）

National Institute of Health (NIH) requires all manuscripts accepted for publication on or after April 7, 2008 which report research, that is funded in whole or in part by the NIH, to be submitted into PubMed Central (PMC). If you are funded by NIH, we are happy to assist you in depositing the author’s published version of your article in PMC.

5. Citations

Research articles and non-research articles (e.g., Opinion, Review and Commentary articles) must cite appropriate and relevant literature in support of the claims made. Authors should consider the following guidelines when preparing their manuscript:

• Any statement in the manuscript that relies on external sources of information (i.e., not the authors’ own new ideas or findings) should use a citation.
• Authors should not copy references from other publications.
• Authors should ensure that their citations are accurate (i.e., they should ensure the citation supports the statement made in their manuscript and should not misrepresent another work by citing it if it does not support the point the authors wish to make).
• Authors should not cite sources that they have not read.
• Forum Multimedia Publishing does not allow citation manipulation to inappropriately increase the number of citations of the authors’ own work, journals they are associated with (including Forum Multimedia Publishing journals), citation rings, their friends and colleagues, their institution, etc.
• Self-citation is necessary when the submission is closely related to the authors’ previous work, but the authors’ own articles must not be cited for generic statements or to the exclusion of other research groups.
• Authors should cite sources that have undergone peer review where possible and indicate when non-peer-reviewed articles such as preprints are cited.
• Authors should not cite advertisements or advertorial material.

6. Sex and Gender in Research

We encourage our authors to follow the Sex and Gender Equity in Research – SAGER – guidelines and to include sex and gender considerations where relevant. Authors should use the terms sex (biological attribute) and gender (shaped by social and cultural circumstances) carefully to avoid confusing both terms. Article titles and/or abstracts should indicate clearly what sex(es) the study applies to. Authors should also describe in the background whether sex and/or gender differences may be expected; report how sex and/or gender were accounted for in the design of the study; provide disaggregated data by sex and/or gender, where appropriate; and discuss respective results. If a sex and/or gender analysis was not conducted, the rationale should be given in the Discussion. We suggest that our authors consult the full guidelines before submission.

7. Promoting Equity, Diversity and Inclusiveness

Forum Multimedia Publishing is an online publication platform of scientific communication for global researchers, and publishes original works without regard to gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, geographic/regional background, religion, or socio-economic status. Our publisher encourages the Editors-in-Chief to invite and appoint diverse experts to our journal’s Editorial Boards.

8. Borders and Territories

Forum Multimedia Publishing remains neutral with respect to any jurisdictional claims expressed or implied in all published maps and institutional affiliations. At the same time, Forum Multimedia Publishing expects that all manuscripts submitted to Forum Multimedia Publishing that deal with the description of territories should comply with international treaties and conventions.

9. Misconduct

Forum Multimedia Publishing follows the recommendations of COPE and WAME and adheres to their guidelines on misconduct. Forum Multimedia Publishing will pursue cases of suspected research and publication misconduct, including but not limited to the following:

9.1 Multiple, Duplicate, Concurrent Publication/Simultaneous Submission

Forum Multimedia Publishing requires that all manuscripts submitted to our journals must be original. Upon submission of a manuscript, the authors confirm that no similar manuscript has been or will be submitted to any other journal for publication while the article is still under consideration by Forum Multimedia Publishing. It is considered unethical to submit an identical or highly similar manuscript to more than one journal at the same time. Multiple submissions of the same paper can damage the reputation of journals if published in more than one journal and waste the time of editors and reviewers. Duplicate publications or redundant publications (re-packaging in different words of data already published by the same authors) will be rejected. If the authors are found to have more than one duplicate submission, Forum Multimedia Publishing will follow the COPE guidelines on Redundant Publications and will report this breach to their institution.

9.2 Plagiarism and Other Fraud

Forum Multimedia Publishing requires that authors are responsible for declaring the originality of their manuscripts. All manuscripts are rigorously evaluated at the time of submission using the text similarity detection system iThenticate and routine checks of all images in the manuscript. Therefore, Forum Multimedia Publishing expects all authors to retain their original data and documentation at the time of submission in order to help the journal evaluate the manuscript thoroughly (if this is not provided in a timely manner, this may cause a delay in evaluation until the issue is resolved).

If we discover the possibility of plagiarism in a manuscript, Forum Multimedia Publishing will follow the COPE (flowchart 1 or flowchart 2) and ICMJE guidelines for each manuscript suspected of unethical publishing practices. In the meantime, manuscripts suspected of plagiarism will not be considered for publication. In cases where papers have been published, they may also be corrected or formally retracted, depending on the extent of any plagiarism.

9.3 Image Manipulation

All digital images in manuscripts being considered for publication will be scrutinized for any indication of manipulation that does not meet the following guidelines. Violations of the guidelines described below may result in delays in processing or rejection of the manuscript, or retraction of the published article:

• Any particular feature in the image must not be enhanced, obscured, moved, removed, or introduced.
• Different parts from the same gel or field of view, or combinations of images from different gels, areas, or exposures, must be clearly stated in the arrangement of the figure and in the legend.
• Processing (e.g., changing brightness and contrast) is appropriate only when it is applied uniformly over the entire image and applied equally to the controls. Contrast should not be adjusted to make data disappear. Over-operation, such as emphasizing one area of the image at the expense of other areas (e.g., by using a biased threshold setting selection), is inappropriate, as is emphasizing experimental data relative to the control.
• Nonlinear adjustments (e.g., changing gamma settings) must be disclosed in the figure legends.
• All papers published in Forum Multimedia Publishing are required to submit raw unprocessed images of gels and protein blots with the final accepted version. These unprocessed images should be posted in the Supplementary Information. Any issues raised during or after the peer review process will be submitted to the editor, who may request raw data from the authors for comparison with the prepared figures. Failure to provide raw data may result in rejection of the manuscript or, in the case of published articles, retraction of the manuscript. Any manipulation that affects the interpretation of the data will result in rejection or retraction. Cases of suspected misconduct will be reported to the authors’ institution.
• The use of retouching tools, such as cloning and repair tools in Photoshop, or any function that intentionally obscures manipulation, is unacceptable.

 

Updated on December 24, 2025