To uphold the scholarly integrity of all published articles, Bentham Open Science issues post-publication notices when necessary. Authors who provide false information, fabricate supporting data or images, or engage in unethical publishing practices, will face sanctions, and their papers may be retracted.
Bentham Open Science will publish a correction notice in cases where errors or omissions result in changes to the interpretation of an article. This includes, but is not limited to, mislabeled figures, missing essential funding information, or undisclosed competing interests.
Errors may be classified as major or minor. Major errors are inaccuracies or omissions that affect the clarity, integrity, or reliability of an article. Minor errors do not alter the overall meaning or conclusions of the text.
For major corrections, a separate correction notice will be published, outlining the specific errors and the revisions or alterations that have been incorporated in the final version.
To rectify significant errors or omissions, the Publisher will take the following steps:
For minor corrections, no separate correction notice will be published. Instead, a footnote will be added to the article indicating that modifications have been made. Any decision regarding the retraction of an article will be made in accordance with COPE guidelines available at: https://publicationethics.org/guidance/flowchart/fabricated-data-published-article
Articles in Press/ Early View - those accepted for publication or published as Early View ahead of schedule but not yet assigned a volume, issue, or page numbers - may be withdrawn if they contain errors, or violate publishing ethics. Violations include multiple or simultaneous submissions, false claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent or manipulated data, or similar misconduct. In such cases, the article may be withdrawn from the journal, meaning that all article files will be removed and replaced with a PDF notice stating that the article has been withdrawn in accordance with Bentham Open Science's Editorial Policies.
Bentham Open Science require all submissions to be original and not previously published in electronic or print format. Only manuscripts that present original research, reviews or manuscripts that are based on a thesis available on preprint servers are permitted, provided they have not been published elsewhere.
Manuscripts submitted to Bentham Open Science journals must not be under consideration for publication elsewhere at the same time. Authors who engage in simultaneous submissions may be subject to penalties. Additionally, authors are required to properly cite their previous research work, with a clear explanation of how the new submission differs from their prior publications. They must also provide references for their earlier research work - whether published or under review, - to ensure compliance with manuscript submission criteria. If authors reuse text from their previously published work (excluding the Methods section), this must be clearly stated. Reuse of figures or substantial text requires formal permission from the copyright holder.
For projects presented at conferences, Bentham Open Science will consider extended versions of conference papers if the previous version is fully disclosed in the cover letter, the manuscript meets the journal’s originality criteria, substantial new and unpublished content is included, and all necessary permissions are secured, provided that this is explicitly declared in the cover letter.
Redundant publication, defined as publishing the same data more than once, may result in rejection, requests to merge submissions, correction of previously published content, or sanctions. Plagiarism or misleading publication practices may lead to article retraction and author penalties.
Authors must not attempt to artificially inflate citations to their own work or to articles in specific journals. Similarly, editors and reviewers must not pressure authors to include references solely to boost citations to their own publications, those of an associate, or any journal with which they are affiliated.