IUCN/SSC Otter Specialist Group Bulletin

Editorial Policies

Modified from http://www.sciencemag.org/authors/science-journals-editorial-policies#conflict-of-interest

General policies

Open Access

There is no charge made to authors for publication of manuscripts, or to users to access them.  No fees of any kind are levied, or will be paid. 

Authorship

Authors must fulfill the criteria described below that are informed by the ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors) definition of authorship. Specifically,
  • Each author is expected to have made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work;
  • OR the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data;
  • OR creation of new software used in the work;
  • OR have drafted the work or substantially revised it;
  • AND has approved the submitted version (and any substantially modified version that involves the author’s contribution to the study;
  • AND agrees to be personally accountable for the author’s own contributions and for ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work, even ones in which the author was not personally involved, are appropriately investigated, resolved, and documented in the literature.
  • Exclusion from authorship of individuals who have made author-level contributions is not permitted for papers published in the IUCN OSG Bulletin. Other individuals who have participated in generation of the research paper but who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the acknowledgments section with a brief indication of the nature of their contribution.
  • In addition, corresponding authors are responsible that upon submission, they:
    • Ensure that all listed authors have received and approved the manuscript prior to submission.
    • Receive all substantive correspondence with editors as well as full reviews.
    • Verify that all data, materials (including reagents), and code, even those developed/provided by other authors, comply with the transparency and reproducibility standards of both the field and the journal.
    • Ensure that original data/materials/code upon which the submission is based are preserved and retrievable for reanalysis. Authors should indicate where original data is deposited; we encourage the use of data repositories.
    • Confirm that the presentation in the paper of the data/materials/code accurately reflects the original sources.
    • Ensure the entire author group is fully aware of and in compliance with best practices.
    • Be responsible for signing off on proofs

    Conflict of Interest

    • Reviewers form the cornerstone of the peer review process, and their evaluations ensure the quality of published research. Therefore, the editors seek reviewers who do not have conflicts of interest with the authors or reported research in the manuscripts they read. In addition to this precaution, reviewers are required to disclose any conflicts with the evaluation of the paper, and this information is taken into account by the editors when decisions are made.
    • Members of Editorial Board may be consulted by the editors at the initial evaluation of newly submitted manuscripts. They are required to declare any conflicts pertaining to particular submissions.

    Prior Publication and Presentations at Meetings

    • The editor uses a specific website to screen for plagiarism. In case of a positive outcome the manuscript will be rejected by default.
    • A paper will be accepted for publication if it is a substantially reduced, expanded or altered version of material previously published. Summaries of prior publications are also permitted.
    • Reports consisting of the substance of presentations at meetings are acceptable.

    Unpublished Data and Personal Communications

    • Citations to unpublished data and personal communications cannot be used to support significant claims in the paper.
    • We recognise that in field work, this kind of information may be the only available evidence. It may therefore be mentioned, used as a springboard for discussion, or part of a set of references that includes published citations as well.

    Security Concerns

    • In certain circumstances, where full disclosure of identity, address, or the provision of author images would either imperil the personal safety of the authors, or disadvantage future work, such as in monitoring wildlife crime, the editors are willing to permit suppression of some elements of author identity.

    Research standards

    • The IUCN OSG Bulletin supports the Transparency and Openness Promotion (TOP) guidelines to raise the quality of research published in Science and to increase transparency regarding the evidence on which conclusions are based.

    Statistical Analysis

    • Authors should describe statistical methods with enough detail to enable a knowledgeable reader with access to the original data to verify the results.
    • Authors should present results in complete and transparent fashion so that stated conclusions are backed by appropriate statistical evaluation and limitations of the study are frankly discussed.

    Data Deposition

    We strongly encourage all authors to deposit their data in a suitable data repository, and to add a citation to their manuscript to indicate where the data can be found. 

    Publication policies

    Timing of Publication

    • Because all work on the IUCN OSG Bulletin is voluntary and unpaid, we cannot guarantee when a manuscript will be published. We endeavour to do so as quickly as we can, but since there are a very small number of people who work on the IUCN OSG Bulletin, publication may be delayed.
    • If publication by a certain date is of extreme importance to the authors, they may negotiate priority publication with the editors. In this event, the cited page numbers cannot be guaranteed.

    Data and Materials Availability after Publication

    • After publication, all data and materials necessary to understand, assess, and extend the conclusions of the manuscript must be available to any reader. After publication, all reasonable requests for data, code, or materials must be fulfilled.

    Copyright and License to Publish

    • Authors retain copyright as well as rights to make certain uses of the work.
    • As an open access journal, the IUCN OSG Bulletin asks authors to accept the Creative Commons BY-NC license, which allows readers to distribute, adapt, or reuse articles for non-commercial purposes, while commercial reuse requires permission.

    Access Policies

    • Immediately after publication, authors may post the accepted version of their paper on their personal or institutional archival website.IN addition, authors are free to publicise the link to the Bulletin through which users can freely access the final, published paper on the Bulletin’s website.

    Corrections, Expressions of Concern and Retractions

    • The IUCN OSG Bulletin is a member of COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) and is committed to correcting errors in published papers. Corrections to errors that do not affect the core conclusions of a paper will be made to the online version of the paper.
    • We provide a “Viewpoint” facility where other authors can raise objections to the conclusions of a published paper. Authors may then answer the Viewpoint with a Viewpoint of their own.  No further reiteration is permitted.  This is done where the editors feel that it is in the interests of authors, readers and the overall pursuit of science to query and respond to specific concerns.
    • An author can request retraction of a paper by providing a case to support that action. Once published online, however, it is inevitable that copies of the paper will remain in caches and online repositories.  Authors should therefore consider this step very carefully, and take advice from the editors.