Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement
Our Dermatology Online is committed to maintaining high standards of publication ethics and to protecting the integrity of the scholarly record.
The journal expects authors, editors, reviewers, and other participants in the publication process to act honestly, transparently, and responsibly.
This Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement applies to all manuscripts and published content handled by Our Dermatology Online.
The journal’s procedures are informed by recognised principles of publication ethics, including the guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
1. Editorial Independence
Editorial decisions are based on the scientific quality, originality, relevance, methodological soundness, and ethical acceptability of submitted work.
Editorial decisions are not based on:
- the nationality, ethnicity, gender, religion, political views, or institutional affiliation of authors;
- commercial considerations;
- the ability or willingness of authors to purchase optional services;
- personal relationships between authors and editors;
- the outcome of similarity or AI-detection screening alone.
The use of optional paid services, including fast-track processing or author-requested technical corrections, does not influence peer review or the editorial decision.
The Editor-in-Chief has final responsibility for editorial decisions, subject to the journal’s procedures concerning conflicts of interest, complaints, and appeals.
2. Responsibilities of Authors
Authors are responsible for ensuring that manuscripts submitted to the journal are accurate, original, ethically conducted, and appropriately documented.
Authors must:
- ensure that the submitted work is original;
- provide an accurate account of the research;
- ensure that data and results are presented honestly;
- appropriately acknowledge the work of others;
- provide accurate references;
- disclose relevant conflicts of interest;
- comply with applicable research-ethics requirements;
- obtain appropriate approvals and consents where required;
- protect patient confidentiality;
- disclose substantive use of generative AI or other automated tools in accordance with the journal’s AI Policy;
- ensure that all listed authors meet appropriate authorship criteria;
- obtain agreement from all authors concerning the submitted manuscript;
- disclose relevant previous publication or submission of substantially related material.
Authors remain responsible for all content submitted to the journal, including content produced or modified with the assistance of automated tools.
3. Authorship and Contributorship
Authorship should reflect a substantive contribution to the work and responsibility for the submitted publication.
All individuals who qualify for authorship should be included as authors.
Individuals who contributed to the work but do not qualify for authorship may be acknowledged where appropriate and with their permission.
The corresponding author is responsible for communication with the journal and should ensure that:
- all listed authors have approved the submitted version;
- all authors are aware of the submission;
- the author list is accurate;
- relevant contributions are appropriately described;
- any authorship changes are properly explained and agreed upon.
Changes to authorship after submission or publication require an appropriate explanation and, where applicable, agreement from the affected authors.
The journal may request additional information when an authorship dispute arises.
4. Originality and Duplicate Publication
Manuscripts submitted to Our Dermatology Online should not be under consideration for publication by another journal at the same time.
Authors must disclose any closely related manuscripts, publications, preprints, translations, conference papers, or other publicly available versions that may overlap substantially with the submitted work.
Duplicate publication, redundant publication, and substantial undisclosed text or data reuse are not acceptable.
Where legitimate reuse is necessary, it must be appropriately disclosed and cited.
5. Plagiarism and Textual Similarity
The journal does not accept plagiarism or inappropriate appropriation of another person’s work.
Submitted manuscripts may be screened using Plagramme as part of the journal’s similarity and plagiarism-screening process.
Similarity screening is an editorial aid and does not by itself establish plagiarism or research misconduct.
The editorial team evaluates potentially significant overlap in context.
Where substantial or inappropriate overlap is identified, the journal may request an explanation from the authors and may take further action when warranted.
Depending on the circumstances, the journal may:
- request revision or clarification;
- reject the manuscript;
- conduct a further investigation;
- contact an appropriate institution or authority;
- take post-publication action if the article has already been published.
6. Fabrication, Falsification, and Research Misconduct
The journal does not tolerate:
- fabrication of data or results;
- falsification or manipulation of research data;
- inappropriate manipulation of images;
- deceptive presentation of research findings;
- fraudulent research practices;
- manipulation of the peer-review process;
- other forms of serious research misconduct.
Where credible concerns arise, the journal will assess the matter and may request an explanation or supporting documentation from the authors.
Where appropriate, the journal may contact the relevant institution, research organisation, ethics committee, or other competent authority.
The journal may also take appropriate action concerning the published record.
7. Conflicts of Interest
Authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose relationships or circumstances that could reasonably be perceived as influencing their judgement.
Potential conflicts may include:
- financial relationships;
- employment or consultancy;
- personal relationships;
- academic competition;
- institutional interests;
- intellectual property interests;
- other circumstances that could affect objectivity.
Editors and reviewers must not participate in the assessment of a manuscript where a relevant conflict of interest exists.
Authors are responsible for providing accurate conflict-of-interest information at submission.
If a relevant conflict is discovered after publication, the journal may publish a correction or take other appropriate action.
8. Peer Review Ethics
Our Dermatology Online uses a double-blind peer-review process.
Each research article is normally evaluated by at least two independent reviewers, subject to the journal’s stated editorial procedures.
Reviewers must:
- maintain confidentiality;
- provide objective and constructive comments;
- disclose relevant conflicts of interest;
- assess the manuscript independently;
- identify relevant published work where appropriate;
- alert the editor to suspected plagiarism or other serious ethical concerns;
- avoid using unpublished information from the manuscript for personal or professional advantage.
Reviewers must not disclose the contents of a manuscript or their review to third parties.
Reviewers should not use generative AI systems to generate substantive peer-review assessments because of confidentiality and accuracy risks.
Further information is provided in the journal’s Peer Review Process and Reviewer Guidelines.
9. Editorial Responsibilities
Editors are responsible for ensuring that manuscripts are assessed fairly and according to the journal’s published procedures.
Editors should:
- protect the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts;
- select appropriate reviewers;
- consider conflicts of interest;
- ensure that peer review is conducted appropriately;
- make decisions based on scholarly and ethical considerations;
- respond appropriately to allegations of misconduct;
- correct the published record when necessary;
- protect the rights and privacy of research participants;
- maintain editorial independence.
Editors must not use unpublished information from submitted manuscripts for personal or professional advantage.
Editors must not allow commercial considerations or optional paid services to influence editorial decisions.
10. Special Issues and Guest Editors
The Editor-in-Chief retains responsibility for the editorial integrity and content of the journal, including special issues and manuscripts handled by guest editors.
Special-issue manuscripts must follow the journal’s standard editorial and peer-review requirements.
Guest editors must disclose relevant conflicts of interest and must not participate in the assessment of manuscripts where a conflict exists.
Manuscripts submitted by guest editors or members of the editorial team must be handled independently and subject to appropriate external peer review.
11. Ethical Oversight of Research
Authors are responsible for ensuring that research involving human participants, animals, biological material, or other ethically sensitive subjects complies with applicable laws, regulations, institutional requirements, and recognised ethical standards.
Where applicable, manuscripts should provide information concerning:
- ethics committee or institutional review board approval;
- approval or reference number;
- informed consent;
- registration of clinical trials or other relevant studies;
- other required ethical approvals.
If formal ethical approval was not required, authors should provide an appropriate statement where relevant.
12. Human and Animal Rights (PDF)
Our Dermatology Online requires research involving human participants or animals to comply with applicable ethical standards, institutional requirements, and relevant laws and regulations.
Research Involving Human Participants
Research involving human participants must be conducted in accordance with recognised ethical principles and applicable institutional and national requirements.
Where applicable, manuscripts should provide information concerning approval by an appropriate ethics committee, institutional review board, or other competent body.
The manuscript should identify:
- the name of the ethics committee or institutional review board, where appropriate;
- the approval or reference number, where applicable;
- the date of approval, where appropriate.
Where formal ethical approval was not required, authors should provide an appropriate statement explaining this determination when relevant.
Authors are responsible for obtaining informed consent from research participants where required.
For case reports, case series, clinical images, and other material that may contain identifiable patient information, authors must comply with the journal’s Patient Consent and Case Reports policy.
Patient privacy and confidentiality must be protected throughout the research and publication process.
Research Involving Animals
Research involving animals must comply with applicable institutional, national, and international requirements concerning the ethical treatment and welfare of animals.
Where applicable, authors should provide information concerning approval by the relevant animal ethics committee or institutional body, including the approval or reference number where appropriate.
Authors should describe measures taken to minimise animal suffering and the number of animals used where relevant to the study.
The journal expects authors to follow recognised standards and applicable regulations for the humane treatment of animals used in research.
Where applicable, manuscripts should identify the relevant institutional or national guidelines followed by the authors.
Ethical Compliance
The journal may request additional information concerning ethical approval, informed consent, animal welfare, or research procedures when necessary to assess compliance with ethical requirements.
Manuscripts may be rejected if the journal determines that research involving humans or animals does not meet appropriate ethical standards.
If a significant ethical concern is identified after publication, the journal may investigate the matter and take appropriate action in accordance with its Corrections and Retractions and publication-ethics policies.
13. Patient Consent and Privacy
Patient privacy must be protected in all published material.
For case reports, case series, clinical images, and other material containing potentially identifiable patient information, authors must comply with the journal’s Patient Consent and Case Reports policy.
Where required, appropriate informed consent for publication must be obtained.
Authors must remove unnecessary identifying information and must not assume that removal of a patient’s name alone is sufficient to achieve anonymity.
The published article should include an appropriate patient-consent statement where required.
14. Artificial Intelligence and Automated Tools
The journal permits responsible use of AI and automated tools in scholarly publishing.
Authors must disclose substantive use of generative AI in preparing a manuscript, except for straightforward language correction, editing, translation, or formatting.
AI systems cannot be listed as authors.
Authors remain responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, references, and ethical compliance of their work.
The journal uses Plagramme for similarity and plagiarism screening and may use its AI-detection functionality as an additional editorial screening signal.
Automated AI-detection results are not considered definitive evidence of AI use, misconduct, or authorship practices.
Any substantive concern identified through automated screening must be assessed by a human editor.
The journal does not make editorial decisions solely on the basis of an automated AI-detection result.
Further requirements are provided in the journal’s AI Policy.
15. Data Integrity and Reproducibility
Authors are responsible for the integrity and accuracy of data presented in their manuscripts.
Data, methods, images, and other research materials must not be fabricated, falsified, or misleadingly presented.
Where appropriate and ethically permissible, authors are encouraged to provide sufficient methodological information to allow readers to understand and assess the research.
Requests concerning data or methodological clarification may be directed to the corresponding author.
Where data cannot be shared because of ethical, privacy, legal, or other legitimate restrictions, authors should explain the relevant limitation where appropriate.
16. Intellectual Property and Copyright
Authors are responsible for ensuring that submitted material does not infringe the intellectual-property rights of others.
All published scholarly content is subject to the journal’s stated copyright and licensing terms.
The journal’s open-access and licensing arrangements are described separately on the Open Access Policy and Copyright and Licensing pages.
The journal does not use copyright terms that contradict its stated open-access licence.
17. Complaints and Appeals
The journal provides a formal procedure for complaints concerning editorial processes, peer review, publication ethics, authorship, conflicts of interest, author charges, or other aspects of journal operations.
Authors may appeal an editorial decision when they believe that a significant factual or procedural error affected the decision.
Complaints and appeals should be submitted to:
Complaints and appeals are assessed fairly and confidentially.
An editor who has a relevant conflict of interest must not participate in the assessment of the matter.
The complete procedure is provided in the journal’s Complaints and Appeals policy.
18. Allegations of Misconduct
The journal takes allegations of research or publication misconduct seriously, whether they are raised before or after publication.
Concerns may involve:
- plagiarism;
- duplicate or redundant publication;
- fabrication;
- falsification;
- image manipulation;
- authorship misconduct;
- undisclosed conflicts of interest;
- manipulation of peer review;
- inappropriate use of patient information;
- other serious breaches of research or publication ethics.
The journal may request information or documentation from authors and may consult relevant institutions or external experts where appropriate.
Where an investigation is necessary, the journal may follow applicable COPE guidance and established publication-ethics procedures.
19. Whistleblowers and Good-Faith Concerns
The journal welcomes credible concerns about possible publication or research misconduct.
Individuals raising concerns in good faith should not be subject to retaliation by the journal.
Where appropriate, the identity of a person reporting a concern will be kept confidential.
The journal may request sufficient information and evidence to allow a concern to be assessed responsibly.
20. Corrections and Retractions
The journal recognises its responsibility to maintain the accuracy and integrity of the published scholarly record.
When an error is identified, the journal will assess whether a correction, editorial notice, expression of concern, retraction, or other action is appropriate.
Post-publication action is based on the nature and significance of the issue and is not intended to conceal or erase the history of the scholarly record.
Detailed procedures are provided in the journal’s Corrections and Retractions policy.
21. Expressions of Concern
Where there is a credible concern about the reliability or integrity of a published article but the available evidence is not yet sufficient to support correction or retraction, the journal may publish an Expression of Concern.
An Expression of Concern may remain part of the published record while an investigation is ongoing or while additional information is being obtained.
The journal may update the record when the matter has been resolved.
22. Post-Publication Discussion
The journal recognises the value of responsible post-publication discussion and welcomes substantive scholarly communication concerning published work.
Readers who identify a potential error, ethical concern, or substantive issue with a published article may contact the editorial office at:
The journal will assess credible concerns and may take appropriate action in accordance with its post-publication policies.
23. Advertising and Commercial Influence
Commercial activities and optional paid services must not influence editorial decisions.
The journal may offer optional services, including fast-track processing or author-requested technical corrections, subject to the journal’s published Fees policy.
Payment for an optional service does not guarantee acceptance, favourable peer review, publication, or any particular editorial outcome.
24. Confidentiality
The journal respects the confidentiality of manuscripts, peer-review reports, editorial correspondence, and personal information obtained during the publication process.
Information will be disclosed only when necessary for legitimate editorial, ethical, legal, or research-integrity purposes.
Editors, reviewers, and authors are expected to respect the confidentiality of unpublished material.
25. Malpractice
Publication malpractice includes, but is not limited to:
- plagiarism;
- fabrication or falsification;
- duplicate publication;
- inappropriate manipulation of images or data;
- fraudulent authorship;
- undisclosed conflicts of interest;
- manipulation of peer review;
- deliberate misrepresentation of research;
- misuse of confidential information;
- publication of identifiable patient information without an appropriate ethical basis;
- other serious breaches of accepted publication ethics.
Where malpractice is suspected, the journal may investigate the matter and take proportionate action.
Possible actions include requesting clarification, correcting the record, rejecting a manuscript, retracting a published article, notifying an appropriate institution, or taking other measures justified by the circumstances.
26. Relationship to Other Journal Policies
This statement should be read together with the journal’s detailed policies and procedures, including:
- Editorial Policies
- Peer Review Process
- Reviewer Guidelines
- Complaints and Appeals
- Corrections and Retractions
- Patient Consent and Case Reports
- AI Policy
- Open Access Policy
- Copyright and Licensing
- Fees
- Archiving Policy
Where a detailed policy provides a specific procedure for a particular issue, that procedure applies.
27. Policy Review
Our Dermatology Online regularly reviews its publication-ethics policies and may update them to reflect developments in scholarly publishing, research ethics, technology, and recognised international guidance.
The journal aims to ensure that its policies remain transparent, accessible, and consistently applied.
Contact
For questions or concerns concerning publication ethics, research integrity, complaints, or appeals, please contact the editorial office:
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