Ethical standards and procedures
Research Integrity and Publication Ethics
Pharmacotherapy in Psychiatry and Neurology and Wroclaw Medical University Press are committed to maintaining high standards of research integrity, transparency, and ethical publishing.
The journal follows the principles and recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME). Authors, reviewers, and editors are expected to comply with applicable ethical and professional standards throughout the publication process.
Responsibilities of Authors
Authors are responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and transparency of the work they submit. Submission of a manuscript confirms that the work has not been formally published elsewhere and is not simultaneously under consideration by another journal. Previous dissemination as a preprint is permitted in accordance with the journal's preprint policy.
Authors must comply with the journal's policies concerning authorship and author contributions, conflicts of interest, funding, research ethics, trial registration, data availability, use of artificial intelligence and AI-assisted technologies, and other required declarations.
All authors must approve the submitted version of the manuscript and take responsibility for their contributions and for the integrity of the work in accordance with the journal's authorship policy.
Research Involving Human Participants
Research involving human participants, identifiable human data, or human biological material must comply with internationally accepted ethical standards, including the principles of the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki, as well as applicable national, institutional, and legal requirements.
Where required, approval must be obtained from an appropriate institutional or independent research ethics committee before the study begins. The manuscript must identify the approving body and provide the approval or reference number, where available. If ethics approval was waived or deemed unnecessary, this must be stated and appropriately justified.
Informed consent to participate must be obtained where required by applicable ethical and legal standards. Authors must protect the privacy and confidentiality of research participants.
Appropriate consent for publication must be obtained whenever a manuscript contains information from which an individual participant could reasonably be identified. This requirement also applies to case reports and case series submitted as Letters to the Editor.
Research Involving Animals
Research involving animals must comply with applicable institutional, national, and international regulations and must receive approval from the appropriate animal research ethics committee or competent authority where required.
Animal research should follow the principles of the 3Rs: Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement. Research conducted within the European Union must comply with Directive 2010/63/EU, as applicable, while studies conducted in other jurisdictions must comply with relevant national legislation and recognized standards for animal welfare.
The approving authority and approval or protocol number should be reported in the manuscript, where applicable. In vivo animal studies must be reported in accordance with the most recent applicable version of the ARRIVE guidelines.
Responsibilities of Reviewers
Reviewers must provide objective, constructive, timely, and confidential assessments of manuscripts. They must disclose any conflicts of interest that could affect, or reasonably be perceived as affecting, their impartiality and should decline invitations when an independent assessment cannot be provided.
Information obtained through peer review must remain confidential and must not be used for personal or professional advantage. Reviewers should identify relevant scientific, methodological, ethical, and reporting concerns. Requests for additional citations must be based solely on scientific relevance.
Responsibilities of Editors
Editors are responsible for ensuring that editorial decisions are based on the scientific quality, methodological rigor, originality, relevance, and ethical integrity of submitted manuscripts.
Editorial decisions must be made independently and without discrimination based on characteristics unrelated to the scientific merit of the work. Editors must disclose and appropriately manage conflicts of interest and must recuse themselves from the editorial handling of manuscripts where such conflicts exist. In these circumstances, editorial responsibility will be delegated to another qualified editor.
Editors and members of the Editorial Board must maintain the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts and information obtained during peer review.
Research and Publication Misconduct
The journal does not tolerate research or publication misconduct, including plagiarism, duplicate or redundant publication, data fabrication or falsification, inappropriate manipulation of images or other research materials, authorship misconduct, peer-review manipulation, or undisclosed conflicts of interest.
Submitted manuscripts may be screened using appropriate similarity-detection software. Where misconduct is suspected, the journal may request explanations, original data, ethics documentation, or other relevant materials and may contact the authors' institutions, funders, ethics committees, or other appropriate bodies when warranted.
Suspected cases of misconduct will be handled in accordance with guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Procedures concerning appeals, complaints, corrections, expressions of concern, retractions, article removals, and post-publication discussion are described separately in the journal's Appeals, Complaints & Post-Publication Updates policy.