Archives: Questions

IOP Publishing is a member of the Committee for Publication Ethics (COPE), and apply the principles of publication ethics outlined in the COPE Core Practices.

Referencing

Authors have a responsibility to fully acknowledge the work of others (be it published or unpublished) that is used in their research and to cite publications that have influenced the direction and course of their study. Information obtained in private correspondence or conversation should only be used with the explicit permission of the individuals involved. Information obtained whilst providing confidential services, such as refereeing research articles or grant applications, should not be used without permission of the original author.

All sources for the article must be clearly disclosed and permissions obtained from the original authors (and original publishers if they hold the copyright) for any figures or significant extracts that are to be reproduced or quoted. Collection of such permissions is the responsibility of the authors.

References should be helpful to the reader and advance the article, so authors should ensure they are relevant, recent and easy to find.

Citation manipulation

Authors should ensure that citations add value and are not unfairly bias towards an individual, group or organisation. Only sources drawn upon in the work should be referenced, and citations should support the points which they reference.

The practice of including superfluous references to the authors own work, or the works of others, merely to promote and inflate citation scores is unethical. IOP Publishing regularly screens submissions for this practice. Any authors under pressure to include irrelevant citations should report this to ResearchIntegrity@ioppublishing.org.

Plagiarism

Submitted articles must be the authors’ own work, expressed in their own words. Plagiarism constitutes unethical scientific behaviour and is never acceptable. Plagiarism ranges from the unreferenced use of others’ ideas, to replication (without sufficient attribution or use of quotation marks) of sections of text from other sources, to submission of a complete paper under ‘new’ authorship. IOP Publishing routinely screens submissions for originality via iThenticate, industry standard plagiarism detection software.

Duplicate publication

Duplicate publication is the production of multiple papers with the same, or essentially the same, content by the same authors and is viewed as unacceptable. Submitted research articles must be novel and original.

In the case of articles that expand upon previously published conference proceedings, or conference write-ups that discuss work already published in an earlier paper, some limited exceptions to this rule may apply. However, in these cases authors should consult with the journal staff before submission. In all instances, articles must clearly cite their sources and present some new contribution to the published literature otherwise such articles will be rejected.

Multiple publications arising from a single research project should be clearly identified as such and the primary publication should be referenced. Translations and adaptations for different audiences should be clearly identified as such, should acknowledge the original source, and should respect relevant copyright conventions and permission requirements. If in doubt, authors should seek permission from the original publisher before republishing any work.

Text recycling

Text recycling occurs when authors publish sections of the same text in more than one of their own publications. Authors should always be clear and cite any re-used text in the manuscript, respecting relevant copyright conventions and permission requirements. Authors should state in their cover letter if there are sections of the article that have already been published elsewhere. We acknowledge there are some instances where text recycling may be acceptable, and others where it is unacceptable. All text recycling will be investigated and considered on an individual basis by our Editors.

Parallel submission

It is also unethical to submit the same, or essentially the same, article to a second primary research journal whilst it remains under active consideration by another.

To aid us in detecting any submissions that do not meet the above requirements, we regularly use plagiarism-detection software to screen articles.

IOP Publishing follows the authorship criteria set out by the International Council of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). Within this, for someone to be considered an author of a work, they must meet all 4 of the following criteria: 

• Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND 
• Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND 
• Final approval of the version to be published; AND 
• 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. 

All named authors should be able to identify which co-authors worked on specific parts of the work. In addition, authors should have confidence in the integrity of the contributions of their co-authors. Authorship should never be bought, sold, or otherwise traded. We reserve the right to request evidence supporting authorship contribution, and reserve the right to reject any work which is suspected to have been bought, sold or otherwise traded.

It’s important all authors agree prior to submission the authorship of their paper, the order in which author names are presented, and ensure all those, and only those, who meet this criteria are included as authors. Acquisition of funding, collection of data or general supervision of the research group does not constitute authorship. 

Other individuals who have contributed to the study in a lesser capacity should be acknowledged, subject to their consent to be named (we may not ask you to provide evidence of this, but please keep a copy for your records), but not cited as authors. Please ensure you declare in the acknowledgments if an individual or organisation has supported with any portions of the work that have been outsourced (such as for translation work, support with experiments etc). Please note, the acknowledgements should not be used to misleadingly imply a contribution or endorsement by individuals who have not, in fact, been involved with the work or given an endorsement.  

We strongly encourage authors to make specific attributions of contribution and responsibility in the acknowledgements of the article. Authors may wish to use a taxonomy such as CRediT to describe the contributions of each author. 

We understand some research fields follow long standing prescribed authorship practices for recognised ‘big science’ collaborations, which may differ from the above. Corresponding authors of relevant articles will be asked to confirm upon submission if their paper follows these established practices, and this will be assessed at the journal level according to the accepted practices within that field of study.

If an unresolvable authorship dispute arises, the institution(s) where the work was undertaken should be asked to investigate. IOP Publishing will not arbitrate in cases where there is disagreement over authorship. IOP Publishing has the right to remove your article from the review process until a resolution can be agreed, or issue an expression of concern to the work whilst the investigation is ongoing. 

Responsibility of the submitting author 

It is the submitting author’s responsibility to ensure that all named authors have consented to submission to the journal, approved the submitted version of the article, and all further revisions.  

It is the submitting author’s responsibility to ensure the paper is not under consideration by any other journal at the time of submission.  

It is the submitting author’s responsibility to ensure the contact details for all co-authors are correctly entered into the submission system, and are correct at the time of submission. 

Responsibility of the corresponding author 

The contact details of the corresponding author are displayed on the final published manuscript, and the corresponding author handles all post-acceptance enquiries, including reader and media requests. Communications during the submission, peer review and production process will be directed to this author.

Changes in authorship 

Any changes to authorship during the peer review process must be approved by all authors of the paper, and all authors must confirm to the journal that they give their consent and made a genuine intellectual contribution to the paper.

In addition, you must explain to the journal the reasons behind the change in authorship based on the guidelines above. If additional authors are being added to the manuscript, you will need to provide evidence of their significant contribution to the work.

Proof of contribution includes but is not limited to:

• Earlier drafts of the manuscript with the requested author’s edits
• Laboratory reports with requested author’s name
• Email exchanges directly related to the manuscript or relevant experiments
• WhatsApp Chats directly related to the manuscript or relevant experiments
• Logbooks
• Research notes

It is the responsibility of the authors to ensure that evidence proving their contributions to the manuscript is kept during the submission process and can be provided at request.

IOP Publishing reserves the right to refuse requests if there is reason to doubt the legitimacy of the request.

Changes to authorship are not permitted after publication. For the avoidance of doubt, publication includes the accepted version of the manuscript going online.

Changing a corresponding author

IOP Publishing’s policy is that the corresponding author cannot be changed once they have been initially nominated at submission. 

The only exception to this policy is where the corresponding author’s circumstances have materially changed so they are clearly no longer available to fulfill the role at publication. Examples of when the corresponding author is no longer available to fulfill the role at publication include:

• corresponding author has gone on parental leave; 
• corresponding author has retired; 
• corresponding author has left academia; 
• corresponding author has gone on sabbatical; 
• corresponding author is on long-term sick leave; or 
• corresponding author has died 

This must be confirmed in writing by the relevant institutions (for outgoing and incoming corresponding authors) at the time of request. 

For clarity, the corresponding author can never be changed in order to gain funding or discounts/waivers, or to comply with sanctions or mandates for funding already received. It is expected that the author group will discuss and agree author roles, taking into account any funding requirements before submitting a manuscript to IOP Publishing. 

This policy applies to all manuscripts in all journals either partly or wholly owned by IOPP Publishing, see full list. The following partner journals also apply this policy on their titles:

• European Journal of Physics (European Physical Society)
• Europhysics Letters (European Physical Society)
• Journal of Radiological Protection (Society for Radiological Protection)
• New Journal of Physics (Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft)
• Nonlinearity (London Mathematical Society)
• Physics in Medicine & Biology (Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine)
• Physiological Measurement (Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine)

Deceased authors 

In cases where an author has sadly passed away before a paper has been submitted, or during peer review, we require consent from a familial or legal proxy of the deceased for the paper to be reviewed for potential publication. Deceased authors are still eligible for co-authorship if they made a significant intellectual contribution to the article (see above).

Authors must not fabricate, falsify or misrepresent data or results. They should strive to be objective, unbiased and truthful in all aspects of their work.

Authors must be honest in making claims for the results and conclusions of their research. Making inflated claims for a project interferes with the objective evaluation of its results and applications, and can lead to an unfair and wasteful distribution of resources.

Authors should strive to avoid mistakes in research and exercise due diligence in presenting high quality work for publication. They should critically assess the likelihood of experimental, methodological and human errors and avoid self-deception and bias. Where possible they should conduct an internal review to assess the validity of their work before publication.

If an error occurs

It is, of course, recognised that errors will occur from time to time. When an error is discovered in published or submitted work, the mistake should be admitted and a corrigendum, erratum or retraction should be published. Corrections should be approved by all authors of the original article unless there is a particular reason why this is not possible. In these cases any dissent among the authors should be noted in the published correction.

Source materials

IOP Publishing does not require the raw data from an experiment to be submitted for publication, although some of our journals do offer the option to supply this data as supplementary information. However, we expect that all authors follow established best scientific practice and record (and retain) source material of experiments and research results, in an auditable manner that allows for scrutiny and verification by other scientists. Exceptions may be appropriate to preserve privacy or patent protection. There may also be specific instructions from your funding agency or university.

As part of IOP Publishing’s commitment to ensuring researchers get full credit for their work, IOP became a member of ORCID in August 2017, when IOP Publishing signed the Open Letter committing us to requiring ORCID iDs in the publishing process for our journals.

IOP’s ORCID integration was awarded four Collect and Connect badges: Authenticate, Collect, Display and Connect. This means we have achieved the minimum standard of implementation, ensuring the collection of ORCID IDs is efficient, adheres to best practices, and reduces the burden on researchers. To find out more about ORCID, visit https://orcid.org/.

 

Create or Connect your ORCID iD

We encourage all authors and referees to register for a free ORCID iD, or to associate your existing ORCID iD within your account on our submission system, ScholarOne. To register for your free ORCID iD, go to https://orcid.org/register and follow the instructions.

Once you have added your ORCID iD to your Scholar One account, your iD will be sent with other article metadata for any paper you publish to Crossref. Your ORCID record will then be automatically updated on publication (with your permission). Find out more about Crossref.

ScholarOne now supports login and account creation via your ORCID iD. See our help guide for further details.

How to add your ORCID iD to your Scholar One account

ORCID is dedicated to solving the longstanding problem that authors’ contributions can be hard to recognize in scholarly communication. This can be due to authors changing name or other authors having the same name. Providing the solution, ORCID has created a central registry of unique identifiers for individual researchers.

For more information on ORCID, visit https://orcid.org/

We offer ePub3, PDF, HTML, and MOBI (Kindle). Full-colour print copies are also available. All our ebook formats are media enriched, and contain embedded multimedia as standard.

Ebooks are primarily sold in collections to academic/corporate research institutes, where subscribers are able to download an electronic version of the book as part of their subscription—this model is great for students as the book collections come complete with perpetual access, are DRM free, and we do not impose a concurrent user limit, meaning researchers can access the content on whatever device they like, 24 hours a day! They are also available to purchase in both electronic and print on Amazon and other online retailers.

Books can range in length from as little as 80 pages up to several hundred pages, depending on the Collection to which you are submitting. Visit our Collection pages for specific page length limits.

Yes, we publish single-author, multiple-author and edited ebooks.