At KnE Publishing, we aim to ensure everything we publish is ethically sound and complies with the policies and principles set out by:

• Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)
• Council of Science Editors (CSE)
• European Association of Science Editors (EASE)  
• International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE)
• World Association of Medical Editors (WAME)

We ask that all our authors comply with the following standards:

• Any manuscript submitted is an original piece of work which has not been published anywhere else in a current or similar form. If a substantial portion of the manuscript has been published elsewhere then that journal editor needs to provide permission for its re-use and this must be acknowledged in the new work and declared to the journal editor on submission. Note that all manuscripts submitted to our journals are subjected to a Crossref Similarity Check to identify potential plagiarism or copyright infringement issues.
• Any manuscript submitted must not be currently under consideration with any other journal or publisher.
• All conflicts of interest must be declared upon submission.
• In submitting your work for consideration, you are offering a personal guarantee that the work does not infringe on any existing copyright.
• Authorship: The COPE’s Guideline on Authorship and AI Tools state that AI tools cannot be listed as an author of a paper. As non-legal entities, they can neither take responsibility for the submitted work and assert the presence or absence of conflicts of interest nor manage copyright and license agreements. Authors who use AI tools in the writing of a manuscript, production of images or graphical elements of the paper, or in the collection and analysis of data, must disclose clearly in the Materials and Methods (or similar section) of the paper how and which AI tool was used. Authors are fully responsible for the content of their manuscript, including the parts produced by an AI tool, and are thus liable for any breach of publication ethics.

Human and animal research

Any research that involves humans must adhere to the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects. All research participants should be informed about the aims of the study and any possible negative effects of the intervention, and written informed consent must be obtained from all participants.

Research involving animals must adhere to the National Institutes of Health guidance for the care and use of laboratory animals.

Approval for research involving humans or animals must be obtained from an institutional or local review board.

This information, the name of the review board, and approval numbers / codes should be stated in the manuscript.

Ethical considerations must be clearly addressed in the methods section.

The Journal reserves the right to request the related documents.

Clinical trials

According to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), a clinical trial is “any research study that prospectively assigns human participants or groups of humans to one or more health-related interventions to evaluate the effects on health outcomes”.

Authors of clinical trials are required to prospectively register their trial with one of the trial registries recognised by the ICMJE or World Health Organization.

The registration number of the trial and the name of the trial registry must be mentioned in the manuscript.

Plagiarism

All manuscripts submitted to our journals are screened for plagiarism using the Crossref Similarity Check powered by iThenticate.

Conflicts of interest

All conflicts of interest (including financial, personal, academic and/or ideological) must be declared upon submission.

It should be noted that editors and reviewers are likewise responsible for disclosing any conflicts of interest.

Retraction policy

This journal adheres to the Guidelines for retracting articles published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

A retraction may be considered in cases such as:

• A major unintentional error (miscalculation or experimental error) which invalidates the findings or conclusions of the authors
• Fabricated or falsified data, or other misconduct
• Figure or image manipulation
• Plagiarism
• Copyright infringement
• Redundant publication: publication of the findings elsewhere without proper attribution or permission
• Use of unethical research practices in conducting the study
• Identification of a major competing interest which was not disclosed and is thought to have potentially influenced the results or their interpretation

Grievance procedure

AJNE draws from the guidelines presented by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) to manage complaints and disputes. Should they arise, complaints and/or disputes may be directed to publishing@knowledgee.com.

Privacy statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used for the stated purposes of this journal.

Upon publishing, all authors will be automatically registered for content alerts from the publication. To stop receiving the alerts, authors can subsequently unsubscribe through the link provided in the email.

These email addresses will not be made available to any other party.