Confidentiality and Ethics
At the Annals of Clinical Hypertension (ACH), confidentiality and adherence to ethical standards are central to the integrity of the editorial and peer review process. Authors, reviewers, and editors alike share responsibility in maintaining the confidentiality of submissions and upholding ethical conduct throughout the publishing cycle. This policy sets out the guiding principles that ensure transparency, fairness, and trust in scholarly communication.
Manuscripts submitted to ACH are considered privileged documents. Editors and reviewers are bound by strict confidentiality agreements to ensure that unpublished material is not disclosed, discussed, or misused. This principle extends to data, figures, and supplementary materials.
1. Responsibilities of Editors
- Editors must restrict manuscript access only to individuals directly involved in the editorial and peer review process.
- Information from manuscripts cannot be shared for personal research or institutional benefit.
- Editorial decisions must remain independent of personal or professional relationships with authors.
2. Responsibilities of Reviewers
- Reviewers must treat all manuscripts as confidential documents.
- Content must not be shared, reproduced, or cited before publication.
- Any potential conflicts of interest must be disclosed immediately to the editorial office.
Authors are expected to respect the confidentiality of the peer review process by not attempting to identify reviewers or influence the editorial process. Communication about manuscripts should be conducted only through the designated editorial office.
3. Ethical Standards in Publication
ACH is committed to publishing only high-quality, ethically sound research. All stakeholders must adhere to the following ethical requirements:
- Plagiarism: Submissions are screened with iThenticate; plagiarized content is rejected.
- Data Integrity: Authors must ensure data accuracy and be prepared to provide raw data for verification.
- Conflict of Interest: All financial and non-financial interests must be disclosed transparently.
- Human and Animal Rights: Studies must comply with international ethical standards (e.g., Declaration of Helsinki) and provide appropriate ethics approvals.
- Informed Consent: Authors must secure consent for patient data or images used in their manuscripts.
- Suspected ethical violations (plagiarism, fabrication, duplicate publication) are investigated following COPE guidelines.
- Sanctions may include manuscript rejection, retraction of published articles, or notification to the authors’ institutions.
- Corrections, errata, or retractions are published transparently when errors or misconduct are confirmed.
4. Transparency and Accountability
ACH maintains transparency by publishing clear policies on authorship, data integrity, conflicts of interest, and correction of the literature. Editors and reviewers are accountable for maintaining confidentiality and ensuring ethical publication practices.
Breaches of confidentiality or ethical misconduct undermine the trust that ACH seeks to uphold. All parties must remain vigilant in protecting the integrity of the peer review and publication process.