Editorial responsibility
Editors assess manuscripts on scholarly merit, journal fit, research integrity, and relevance. Editorial decisions should be independent from commercial, institutional, or personal influence.
Authorship and contributorship
- All listed authors should have made a meaningful scholarly contribution.
- All authors should approve the submitted and accepted versions.
- Changes in authorship after submission require written agreement from all affected authors.
- Contributions, funding, acknowledgments, and conflicts of interest should be disclosed.
Animal ethics and welfare
Animal studies must state the approving ethics committee, approval number when available, or exemption rationale. Research should follow humane handling, welfare, and national or institutional standards.
Human participant and owner consent
Studies involving human participants, owners, farmers, or confidential clinical information should include consent and ethics details as appropriate. Case reports should protect privacy and include owner consent when identifiable information is present.
Plagiarism, duplicate publication, and image integrity
- Manuscripts may be screened for similarity and duplicate publication.
- Text, data, images, and figures must not be fabricated, falsified, or manipulated in a misleading way.
- Previously published material requires proper citation and permission where required.
Data availability
Authors should provide a data availability statement. When data cannot be shared, the reason should be stated, such as privacy, biosecurity, legal, or ethical restrictions.
Corrections, expressions of concern, and retractions
Post-publication concerns will be assessed by the editorial office. Corrections, expressions of concern, or retractions may be issued when necessary to preserve the scholarly record.