Journal Policies

 

Free Neuropathology refrains from excessive regulations and formalities on terminology, reporting and manuscript preparation. However, we feel that the following policies are necessary.

 

Ethical policy

Authors should follow ethical standards as set out by the Commission on Publication Ethics (COPE). Any cases of ethical misconduct are dealt with in accordance with the COPE guidelines.

 

Conflicts of interest

All authors must declare any competing interests in relation to their work. We do not request filling-out forms on financial and personal issues. However, making no statement means that none of the authors has any conflict of interest.

 

Informed consent and human rights

Authors should include information regarding informed consent if the research involved human participants. For all manuscripts that include details, images, or videos relating to an individual person, written informed consent for the publication of these details must be obtained from that person (or from a parent or legal guardian in the case of children under 18). The consent must be for publication of their details under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (such that they will be freely available on the internet). If the person has died, consent for publication must be obtained from their next of kin. The manuscript must include a statement that written informed consent for publication has been obtained. 

For studies involving humans and/or human tissues, approval by the Institutional Review Board or Ethics Committee needs to be specified (name of institution, protocol code and date of approval). If a study was granted exemption from ethics approval, the reasons should be detailed in the manuscript. Please note that the journal might ask for further information. Submission of a paper implies that the study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki.

 

Animal rights

For reporting experiments involving animals, the Materials and Methods section should state the laws and regulations on the care and use of laboratory animals that were followed (including the name of the ethics committee and the reference number where appropriate).

 

Permission

Authors wishing to include figures, tables, or text passages that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) and to include evidence that such permission has been granted. Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors.

 

Data sharing policy

We support the principles of transparency, open science and data sharing. All authors agree that all raw data described in the manuscript will be made appropriately and freely available to any scientist wishing to use them for non-commercial purposes. Unique materials should be made available to the scientific community without generating profit.

 

Advertising policy

Free Neuropathology is free of advertisements.

 

Privacy statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of the journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

 

Authorship policy

Submission to this journal implies that the paper, including names and order of authors, has been approved by all co-authors as well as by the responsible authorities at the institute where the work has been carried out. The publisher will not be held legally responsible should there be any claims for compensation. The corresponding authors guarantees that all co-authors fulfill appropriate criteria of authorship, such as ICMJE. Authors may use their ORCID ID.

 

Peer review policy

The editors will decide whether a paper is suitable for peer review and will make the final decision. Peer review is performed by members of the the Editorial Board and/or by external referees. Manuscripts undergo peer review by two independent referees, exceptionally by one or three referees. We use single-blind peer reviewing, in which reviewers are aware of the identity of authors, while the referees´ reports provided to authors are anonymous. Referees are given 14 days to undertake the review.

 

Plagiarism detection policy

Following submission we undertake an automated check for potential plagiarism, as mandated by most indexing agencies. Since the mere percentage of overlapping text is often misleading, the results of this analysis will be evaluated by the editors, who will also take into account the nature of the other publication and which elements of the text are responsible for the overlap. For example, similarities among the references or methods, or detected similarities with the authors´previous upload to an archive or the thesis of one of the authors are usually meaningless.

 

Digital archiving policy

To ensure long term preservation and availability, all published papers are also deposited at the German National Library, Munich, Germany (Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, DNB, München), as well as in LOCKSS and the PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN).

 

Indexing policy

We are continuously working to make sure Free Neuropathology can be discovered by researches interested in high-quality neuropathological literature. Currently, the journal is registered with or indexed by the following scientific indices:

 

Appeals and complaints

In case of any appeals and complaints authors should contact the editors. If the issue cannot be resolved, authors may contact the ombudsman who will mediate between author and editors.