Follow Us On Social Media
 

Editorial Policies

Style and Formatting

INNOVATION publishes the following types of articles (click links for specific formatting requirements):
INNOVATION does not accept Systematic Review or Meta-Analysis articles.

Authorship

To give appropriate credit to each author, the individual contributions of authors must be specified in the manuscript.
An ‘author’ is generally considered to be someone who has made substantive intellectual contributions to a published study. According to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) guidelines, an author must have:

  • made substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data;
  • been involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content;
  • given final approval of the version to be published. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content; and
  • agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Acquiring or providing funding, collecting data, or general supervision of the research group, alone, rarely qualifies one for authorship.
Changes in Authorship
Authors wishing to make changes to authorship will be asked to complete our Change of Authorship Request form. Please note that changes to authorship cannot be made after acceptance of a manuscript. A change in authorship of a published article can only be amended via formal publication of an Erratum.

 

In line with COPE guidelines, INNOVATION, requires written confirmation from all authors that they agree with any proposed changes in authorship of submitted manuscripts or published articles. This confirmation must be via direct email from each author. It is the corresponding author’s responsibility to ensure that all authors confirm that they agree with the proposed changes. If there is disagreement among the authors concerning authorship and a satisfactory agreement cannot be reached, the authors must contact their institution(s) for a resolution. It is not the INNOVATION Editor’s responsibility to resolve authorship disputes.
Acknowledgements
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the ‘Acknowledgements’ Section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include someone who provided purely technical help or writing assistance, or a department chair who provided only general support.
Science, Medical or Technical Writers
The role of a Scientific, Medical or Technical writer (or anyone who assisted with the preparation of the manuscript) must be explicitly stated either in the Acknowledgments or, if sufficiently justified, as a co-author, along with their source of funding, per the professional organization’s guidelines:

  • National Association of Science Writers (NASW
  • American Medical Writers Association (AMWA)
  • Society for Technical Communication (STC)

Commercial Organizations
Authors from pharmaceutical companies, or other commercial organizations that sponsor clinical trials, should declare these as Conflicts of Interest on submission. They should also adhere to the Good Publication Practice Guidelines for Pharmaceutical Companies (GPP2), which guide such authors to write manuscripts responsibly and ethically. The guidelines also apply to any companies or individuals that work on industry-sponsored publications, such as freelance writers, contract research organizations and communications companies. Advertorial articles will not be published in INNOVATION.

Citations

Authors submitting a manuscript to INNOVATION must cite appropriate and relevant literature supporting any claims made in the manuscript. Specifically, authors must adhere to the following guidelines:

  • Any statement in the manuscript that relies on external sources of information (i.e. not the authors’ own new ideas or findings or general knowledge) must use a citation.
  • Authors must cite the original study, not a review article that cites the original study.
  • Authors must ensure that their citations accurately support the point(s) the authors are making in their manuscript. Misrepresentation of other’s work will lead to rejection of your manuscript.
  • Excessive self-citation or excessively citing work from colleagues or the author’s institution is not permitted.
  • Citations should be derived from more than one country.
  • Authors should as few citations as possible to support one point. Use the most recent and most relevant citation.
  • Authors should cite peer-reviewed sources where possible.
  • Advertisements or advertorials (editorial-length advertisements) are unsuitable citations.

Plagiarism

CTOR PRESS is a member of CrossCheck’s plagiarism detection initiative and takes seriously all cases of publication misconduct. Any suspected cases of covert duplicate manuscript submission will be handled as outlined in the COPE guidelines and the Editor may contact the authors’ institution (see Misconduct Policy for more information).
Self-Plagiarism
Authors should be aware that replication of text from their own previous publications is self-plagiarism. Authors should make every attempt to avoid this, but if it is not possible, the authors must indicate in their cover letter what portions of the INNOVATION submission have previously been published. The INNOVATION Editor will determine if the submission, with the identified self-plagiarized sections, are acceptable for peer review in INNOVATION.

Peer Review

All manuscripts published in INNOVATION undergo thorough peer review. This is performed by two independent peer reviewers who follow the INNOVATION Peer Review Policy (see below).
INNOVATION Peer Review Policy
All submissions to INNOVATION are assessed by the INNOVATION Editor, who will decide whether submissions are suitable for publication in INNOVATION. Submissions deemed suitable for consideration will be sent for peer review by appropriate independent experts. INNOVATION conducts a closed peer review process, in which Reviewers are anonymous and the pre-publication history of each article will not be published or available through inquiry. The INNOVATION Editor will make a decision based on the reviewers’ reports. Authors will be notified of the decision and will receive the reviewers’ comments regarding their manuscript. If the INNOVATION Editor is on the author list or has any other Conflict of Interest regarding a submitted manuscript, another member of the INNOVATION Editorial Board will be assigned the Peer Review responsibility for that manuscript.
Peer Reviewers
Authors may suggest potential peer reviewers (including their contact information) in the cover letter. Potential reviewers who will be rejected include, but are not limited to, recent collaborators or colleagues who work in the same institution as the authors. Conversely, authors may also request exclusion of specific peer reviewers, including their justification for the request in their cover letter. The INNOVATION Editor reserves the right choose to exclude suggested potential reviewers or to include excluded peer reviewers.
If suggested potential reviewer information is determined to be falsified, the submitted manuscripts will be rejected without peer review and CTOR PRESS may open an investigation per our Misconduct Policy.

Confidentiality

Editors and reviewers will treat all manuscripts submitted to INNOVATION in confidence. CTOR PRESS will not share manuscripts with third parties except in cases of suspected misconduct. See our Misconduct Policy for further information.