ISSN: XXXXXX-XX
Policies
Open Access Policy
Acta Pulmonologica is an open access journal, providing immediate and free access to all published content. The journal is committed to the principle that making research freely available to the public supports the global exchange of knowledge and advances scientific progress.
All articles published in Acta Pulmonologica are available online without subscription fees or access barriers. Users are permitted to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles without prior permission, provided that proper attribution is given to the original authors and the journal.
Authors retain the copyright of their work and grant Acta Pulmonologica the right of first publication. Articles are published under an open access license that allows non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Acta Pulmonologica does not impose embargo periods on published content. Open access to articles is granted immediately upon publication.
The journal supports ethical and responsible dissemination of research and ensures that open access publishing does not compromise editorial independence or the integrity of the peer-review process.
Plagiarism Statement
The editors of Acta Pulmonologica will screen all submitted manuscripts for plagiarism using Turnitin plagiarism checker. This journal does not accept any plagiarism in any manuscripts or it will be rejected immediately. The manuscript is passed if the similarity is less than 20%.
Copyright Statement
- Authors who publish with Acta Pulmonologica retain the copyright of their work and grant the journal the right of first publication.
- All articles published in Acta Pulmonologica are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). This license permits others to read, download, copy, distribute, print, and reproduce the work in any medium for non-commercial purposes, provided that appropriate credit is given to the original author(s) and the journal.
- The use of published content for commercial purposes is not permitted without prior written consent from the author(s) and the publisher.
- By submitting a manuscript to Acta Pulmonologica, authors confirm that the work is original, does not infringe upon any existing copyright, and that they have obtained permission for any copyrighted material included in the manuscript.
- This copyright policy is aligned with the journal’s Open Access Policy and supports the ethical and responsible dissemination of scientific knowledge.
Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement
Acta Pulmonologica is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the highest standards of academic integrity. All stakeholders—authors, editors, reviewers, and the publisher—must comply with this policy, which is based on the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) best practices.
1. For Editors
- Decision-Making: Editors have sole responsibility for deciding which manuscripts to publish based on scholarly merit, originality, and relevance. They must consult the editorial board and reviewers to prevent defamation, copyright infringement, and plagiarism.
- Fairness & Objectivity: Manuscripts are evaluated without regard to the author’s race, gender, orientation, beliefs, citizenship, or political philosophy.
- Confidentiality: Editors must ensure a blind review process. They will not disclose author or reviewer identities to one another and will keep all manuscript details confidential.
- Integrity & Conflicts: Editors must step down if a conflict of interest exists. They may not use unpublished data from submitted manuscripts for their own research without written consent from the author.
- Misconduct: Editors will take decisive action regarding ethical complaints or suspected misconduct following COPE procedures.
2. For Reviewers
- Contribution: Reviewers assist editors in making decisions and help authors improve their papers through constructive, objective feedback.
- Promptness: Reviewers must complete their work on time. If they are unqualified or unavailable, they must notify the editor and withdraw immediately.
- Confidentiality: Manuscripts must be treated as private documents and may not be shared or discussed with others without editorial authorization.
- Standards of Objectivity: Reviews must be free of personal criticism. Arguments should be clear, supported by evidence, and include relevant uncited literature.
- Conflict of Interest: Reviewers must decline manuscripts involving conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships with the authors or institutions.
3. For Authors
- Reporting Standards: Authors must present accurate data and an objective discussion. Fraudulent or intentionally inaccurate statements are unacceptable. Data must be detailed enough to allow others to replicate the work.
- Originality & Plagiarism: Work must be entirely original. The journal has a zero-tolerance policy for plagiarism, data fabrication, or image manipulation.
- Submission Policy: Multiple, redundant, or "salami" publications are prohibited. Authors cannot submit the same manuscript to more than one journal simultaneously.
- Authorship & Consent: Authorship is limited to those who made significant contributions. All co-authors must approve the final version and the submission.
- Ethical Research: Research involving humans or animals must comply with international standards, include ethics committee approval, and protect respondent privacy (no identifying photos without written consent).
- Disclosure: Authors must disclose all financial support and any substantive conflicts of interest.
- Error Correction: If a significant error is discovered after publication, the author must promptly notify the editor to retract or correct the paper.
Copy Editing and Proofreading
All accepted manuscripts submitted to Acta Pulmonologica undergo copy editing and proofreading as part of the editorial process to ensure clarity, consistency, and compliance with the journal’s publication standards.
Copy editing is conducted to improve language quality, grammar, terminology, formatting, and reference consistency without affecting the scientific content or conclusions of the manuscript.
Proofreading is performed after layout preparation and is limited to the correction of typographical, formatting, and minor factual errors. Authors are required to review and approve the final version within the specified timeframe. Substantive changes are not permitted at this stage.
Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy of the published content. Approval of the final proof constitutes acceptance of the version to be published.
Privacy Statement
The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.
Regarding patient privacy, this journal adheres to the highest ethical standards. For all research involving human subjects, authors must ensure that any personal identifiers (names, dates of birth, or medical record numbers) are removed or anonymized. Authors are responsible for obtaining written informed consent from patients for the publication of clinical details and images. Evidence of such consent must be made available to the editors upon request.
Article Withdrawal Policies
Definition of Article Withdrawal
Article withdrawal refers to the removal of a manuscript from the editorial process prior to publication. Withdrawal differs from retraction, which applies to articles that have already been published.
Author-Initiated Withdrawal
Authors may request withdrawal of their manuscript by submitting a written request to the editorial office, stating clear and valid reasons for withdrawal.
Withdrawal requests will be considered only if:
- The manuscript is still under review or editorial assessment, and
- The request is made before the manuscript is formally accepted for publication.
Once a manuscript has been accepted, withdrawal is permitted only under exceptional circumstances, such as proven ethical concerns or serious errors.
Editorial-Initiated Withdrawal
The editorial board reserves the right to withdraw a manuscript at any stage of the editorial process if:
- Evidence of plagiarism, duplicate submission, or other ethical misconduct is identified.
- The manuscript violates the journal’s ethical policies.
- Authors fail to respond to editorial or reviewer communications within a reasonable timeframe.
Consequences of Withdrawal
Unethical withdrawal, including withdrawal without valid justification after acceptance or withdrawal to submit the manuscript to another journal, may result in:
- Rejection of the manuscript.
- A temporary submission ban for the authors.
- Notification to the authors’ affiliated institutions, in cases of serious misconduct.
Post-Publication Policy
Requests to remove or withdraw articles after publication will not be granted. Post-publication issues will be addressed through corrections, expressions of concern, or retractions, in accordance with COPE guidelines.
Policy Compliance
Submission of a manuscript to Acta Pulmonologica implies that all authors have read, understood, and agreed to this Article Withdrawal Policy, as well as the journal’s Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement.
