Modern Disease Control and Prevention adheres to internationally recognized standards of publication ethics. Following the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and taking into consideration the specific practices of the journal, we have established the following ethical standards. Authors, reviewers, and editors should strictly adhere to these standards throughout the academic publishing process:
1. Responsibilities of Authors
(1) Authors must ensure that their submissions are original work that has not been published elsewhere in any form and that their submissions do not involve any instances of data fabrication, plagiarism, duplicate submissions, or other forms of academic misconduct.
(2) When citing the research findings of others, be sure to indicate the source in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Copyright Law of the People’s Republic of China; if the text contains copyrighted works of others, the necessary permission for use must be obtained.
(3) For collaborative research, the order of authorship should reflect the extent of each author's contribution. All co-authors should review the manuscript before submission, and all listed authors share responsibility for the content of the research.
(4) All listed authors must meet the journal's authorship criteria, which require substantial contributions to at least one of the following aspects: proposing the research concept and study design, data collection, data analysis and interpretation, drafting the manuscript, or making critical revisions to its important intellectual content. Merely providing laboratory space or funding does not qualify an individual for authorship.
(5) At the time of submission, authors should disclose their specific contributions to the research and any potential conflicts of interest to the editorial department. A conflict of interest exists when an author (or their institution/employer) has financial, personal, or professional relationships that could influence the author's work, decisions, or the content of the manuscript. If the manuscript mentions specific products, authors should also disclose any conflicts related to competing products.
2. Responsibilities of Reviewers
(1) Reviewers are expected to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the manuscript, maintaining objectivity and fairness, and adhering to professional ethics without pursuing personal gain.
(2) Reviewers should withdraw from the review process if they are aware of any potential conflicts of interest with the authors to ensure the impartiality of the review process.
(3) Reviewers are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of the review materials and must not disclose any content of the manuscript or review results to others.
(4) Review comments should be based on scientific facts, maintain objectivity, avoid professional bias, and provide constructive suggestions to address weaknesses in the research. If a manuscript is outside their area of expertise, reviewers have the responsibility to decline the review.
(5) Reviewers should complete the review on time. If they are unable to meet the deadline, they must promptly notify the editorial department.
3. Responsibilities of Editors
(1) Editors should handle all submissions fairly, impartially, and in a timely manner.
(2) Editors are responsible for checking all submissions for academic misconduct. If cases of duplicate submissions, plagiarism, or other academic misconduct are identified, the submission should be immediately rejected.
(3) Editors must adhere to confidentiality principles and strictly protect the identities of reviewers and the research of authors.
(4) To ensure a fair review process, editors should consider authors' requests to avoid certain reviewers. For recommended peer reviewers, editors should verify the authenticity of the reviewers' information and consider factors such as the recommended reviewers' field of study, expertise, and any potential conflicts of interest with the authors when deciding whether to use the recommended reviewers.
(5) Editors must not interfere with the peer review process, ensuring that peer reviewers conduct their evaluations independently to maintain the fairness and impartiality of the review.
(6) Editors should respect the opinions of peer reviewers and provide authors with detailed feedback whenever possible. If authors have objections, they should be allowed to appeal.
(7) Editors must ensure the authenticity of all stages of the review process and maintain the confidentiality of review materials.
(8) Editors should process submissions in a timely manner, ensuring the timely publication of research that meets the journal’s requirements and quality standards and making efforts to minimize the time between acceptance and publication.
4. Intellectual Property Protection and Open Science
The editorial department always respects and protects intellectual property rights and requires editors, authors, and reviewers to do the same. Any potential infringement must be avoided. Third-party organizations must also respect the journal's intellectual property and refrain from infringement. While ensuring the protection of intellectual property, the journal encourages open science practices, including the publication and sharing of research data where appropriate. Data that can typically be shared includes raw data, observational records, experimental results, etc. The journal also encourages authors to share software, code, models, algorithms, protocols, methods, and other relevant materials. Authors may upload these materials to accessible third-party storage platforms and include the link as an attachment at the end of the manuscript.
5. Advertising Policy
This journal does not publish any commercial advertisements and only carries public service announcements. Advertising content is presented completely separately from academic content, and the publication of advertisements does not influence the review or acceptance decisions for any submitted manuscripts.
6. Comments & Feedback
Authors, readers, and experts are encouraged to provide comments or feedback on published articles or suggest improvements to the journal's publishing ethics and requirements. Feedback can be submitted via the journal’s editorial department email (hnyfj@126.com). The editorial department will review and address the feedback promptly and provide a response as appropriate. The journal welcomes the supervision and comments of readers and authors to foster a positive academic environment.