G&A Editorial Policies

Affiliations

Authors and co-authors are required to provide a comprehensive list of affiliations pertinent to the approval, support, or conduct of the research or scholarly work.

In case you have transitioned to a different institution before the article’s publication, you should indicate the affiliation where the work was carried out and include a note regarding your current affiliation.

If you do not have a current relevant institutional affiliation, you must specify your independent status.

Appeals and Complaints

The below procedure applies to appeals to editorial decisions, complaints about failure of processes such as long delays in handling papers and complaints about publication ethics. The complaint should in the first instance be handled by the Editor-in-Chief(s) responsible for the journal and/or the Editor who handled the paper. If they are the subject of the complaint please approach the in-house publishing contact (Please check the contacts page on the journal homepage).

Complaint about scientific content, e.g. an appeal against rejection

The Editor-in-Chief or Handling Editor considers the authors’ argument, the reviewer reports and decides whether

  • The decision to reject should stand;
  • Another independent opinion is required
  • The appeal should be considered.

The complainant is informed of the decision with an explanation if appropriate. Decisions on appeals are final and new submissions take priority over appeals.

Complaints about processes, e.g. time taken to review

The Editor-in-Chief together with the Handling Editor (where appropriate) and/or in-house contact (where appropriate) will investigate the matter. The complainant will be given appropriate feedback. Feedback is provided to relevant stakeholders to improve processes and procedures.

Complaints about publication ethics, e.g., researcher’s author’s, or reviewer’s conduct

The Editor-in-Chief or Handling Editor follows guidelines published by the Committee on Publication Ethics. The Editor-in-Chief or Handling Editor may ask the publisher via their in-house contact for advice on difficult or complicated cases. The Editor-in-Chief or Handling Editor decides on a course of action and provides feedback to the complainant. If the complainant remains dissatisfied with the handling of their complaint, he or she can submit the complaint to the Committee on Publication Ethics. More information can be found here (https://publicationethics.org/).

Authorship & Contributorship

In accordance with the editorial policies of the Genetics & Applications scientific journal, authorship and contributorship are governed by a structured process. Upon acceptance of a manuscript for publication, authors are required to sign a copyright form as a formal agreement. This document outlines the terms and conditions related to the intellectual property rights associated with the submitted work. The copyright form serves as a mechanism to ensure transparency and accountability in acknowledging authorship and contributions. By adhering to this protocol, the Genetics & Applications journal aims to uphold ethical standards in scientific research and publication, fostering a fair and collaborative environment for contributors within the research field.

Allegations of research misconduct 

Before manuscript submission, authors are required to read the Author Guidelines and Ethical Policies carefully and to adhere to the terms. While authors are given the option to suggest potential reviewers for the peer-review process, the qualifications and potential conflicts of interest of all reviewers will be carefully checked before they are invited to review.

Genetics&Applications takes care to ensure high ethical and professional standards, and under no circumstances do the journal or Editors encourage misconduct or knowingly allow misconduct to take place. Publisher, Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Board of the Genetics&Applications shall take reasonable steps to identify and prevent the publication of papers where research misconduct has occurred, including plagiarism, citation manipulation, and data falsification/fabrication.

If a publisher or Editors of the Journal are made aware of any allegation of research misconduct relating to a published article or a manuscript under peer-review process, the publisher or Editor-in-Chief deals with allegations appropriately following the guidelines given by the Committee of Publication Ethics (COPE).

The procedure for the application and management of complaints of author misconduct should proceed in the following manner:

  • Editorial Board of the Genetics&Applications receives a complaint that an article submitted to or published in the Journal is suspected of containing research misconduct.
  • In a submitted complaint, the specific manner and details of misconduct must be clearly indicated (e.g. in a case of plagiarism, the plagiarized paragraph should be clearly highlighted and the original and suspected articles should be referred to clearly).
  • The Editorial Board will conduct an investigation, during which time the Editor-in-Chief and the corresponding author(s) of the suspected article will be in contact.
  • The corresponding author(s) will be asked to provide an explanation with factual statements and any available evidence.
  • If the author(s) of the suspected article accepts the misconduct complaint, the Editorial Board will take the following actions depending on the situation:
    • If the article has been published, an erratum or retraction may be necessary to remedy the situation. However, there may still be disagreement concerning the appropriate wording of the description.
    • If the misconduct is reported during the review process, the review process may continue, with the author(s) making the relevant changes.
  • In the case of nonresponse to a complaint or an unsatisfactory explanation provided by the authors of the suspected article, the article may be permanently retracted or rejected.
  • The complainant will be informed of the outcome once the issue is resolved and the case will thereupon be considered concluded.
AI Tools

Genetics & Applications adheres to the COPE position statement, which states that AI tools cannot meet the critera for authorship since they lack the ability to accept responsibility for the submitted work. These tools are incapable of determining conflicts of interest, managing copyright agreements, or establishing the presence or absence of legal organizations.

Authors utilizing AI tools in manuscript writing, image creation, or data analysis must transparently disclose their use in the Materials and Methods section. Despite AI tool assistance, authors remain accountable for their manuscript’s content and any ethical breaches.

Archiving 

Genetics & Applications uses the LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) and CLOCKSS (Controlled Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) systems to ensure a secure and permanent archive for the journal. LOCKSS and CLOCKSS are open source software developed at Stanford University Library that enable libraries to preserve selected web journals by regularly polling registered journal websites for newly published content and archiving it. Each archive is continually validated against other library caches, and if content is found to be corrupted or lost, the other caches or the journal is used to restore it.

Conflict of interest disclosure

All authors must declare any conflict of interest, financial and personal relationships including employment, consultancies, stock ownership, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding. This statement must certify that all authors have seen and approved the manuscript being submitted. The corresponding author is responsible for the submission of the manuscript, on behalf of all co-authors. It is necessary to confirm that all listed authors have contributed significantly, have read the manuscript and that research submitted to G&A is not under consideration elsewhere. Full disclosure is required when submitting paper to a journal.

The journal editor will use this information to inform editorial decisions, and may publish such disclosures to assist readers in evaluating the article. The editor may decide not to publish your article on the basis of any declared conflict. The conflict of interest must be declared in cover letter.

If there is no conflict of interest please state the following: “Authors declare no conflict of interest”.

Ethics policy regarding human and other animal experiments

Human and other animal experiments research involving human or animal subjects, must have been performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and must have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee (https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/).

For research manuscripts reporting experiments on live vertebrates, the corresponding author must confirm that all experiments were performed in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations. Corresponding author should submit a statement identifying the institutional or licensing committee approving the experiments, including any relevant details regarding welfare of subjects, patient anonymity and informed consent. G&A recommends following the ARRIVE reporting guidelines when documenting animal studies (https://www.nc3rs.org.uk/arrive-guidelines). For experiments involving human subjects, authors must identify the committee approving the experiments, and include with their submission a statement confirming that informed consent was obtained from all subjects.

Images and Figures

Any content that may expose the identities of patients, study participants, or subjects can only be included if consent to publish has been obtained from them, or from their parents/guardians in the case of minors or those unable to give consent, or from their next of kin if they are deceased.

Images or figures sourced from another published work can only be reused with proper permissions from the copyright owner. A statement confirming this must be included in the figure legend, along with citation of the original source, even if the image or figure is not copyrighted or is permitted for unrestricted reuse under a license.

Experimental photographic images, such as those obtained from microscopy, immunohistochemical staining, immunofluorescence staining, electrophoretic gels, and immunoblots, must accurately represent the original results. Any modifications or enhancements made to these images must be clearly disclosed in both the manuscript and the figure legend to avoid misleading readers. Authors should also be ready to provide the original, unaltered images to the journal editorial office upon request.

Authors must adhere to strict guidelines regarding image modifications. Only minor alterations applied uniformly across the entire image are permissible. Any modifications must be fully disclosed, including the methodology for image acquisition and the specifics of any alterations, such as the software used (including version number). Modifications that could potentially affect the scientific interpretation of the image are strictly prohibited.

For clinical images, such as X-rays and medical scans, any identifying information about the patient must be removed before submission. This includes details like patient names and ID numbers, which should be either blurred or cropped out to maintain patient confidentiality.

Intellectual property
Copyright information

The journal applies the Creative Commons Attribution License (CCAL), CC BY-SA to all works we publish (read the human-readable summary or the full license legal code). Upon acceptance of their article, authors are requested to complete an assignment of copyright form, which transfers copyright to G&A. Appropriate attribution can be provided by citing the original article. This broad license was developed to facilitate open access to, and free use of, original works of all types. Applying this standard license to your own work will ensure your right to make your work freely and openly available. Learn more about open access. For more information about the license, please visit http://creativecommons.org

Licensing information (HTML and PDFs)

Genetics & Applications provides licensing information for its HTML and PDF formats to ensure the dissemination and use of published content in compliance with legal and ethical standards. All HTML and PDF files associated with articles published in the journal are licensed under Creative Commons licenses, which allow for the unrestricted distribution, reproduction, and adaptation of the material, provided proper attribution is given to the original authors and the source of publication. This licensing framework promotes open access to scientific knowledge, enabling researchers, educators, and the general public to freely access and utilize the valuable information presented in the Genetics & Applications journal.

Patents

Ownership: Any inventions, discoveries, or novel methodologies reported in manuscripts submitted to Genetics & Applications shall remain the intellectual property of the authors or inventors.

Publication Rights: Authors are encouraged to disclose any potential intellectual property associated with their submitted work. However, publication in Genetics & Applications does not confer any rights to the journal over the intellectual property contained within the manuscript.

Patent Disclosure: Authors are responsible for disclosing any existing patents or pending patent applications related to the submitted work. This includes providing information about patent numbers, application statuses, and any potential conflicts of interest arising from intellectual property rights.

Non-Interference: Genetics & Applications journal does not claim any ownership or control over the intellectual property disclosed in submitted manuscripts. The journal respects the rights of authors to pursue patent protection for their inventions or discoveries independent of the publication process.

Licensing: Authors retain the right to license their intellectual property as they see fit, including the option to assign exclusive or non-exclusive licenses to third parties. Genetics & Applications does not require authors to license their work to the journal or any other entity as a condition of publication.

Trademark

Ownership: Any trademarks associated with Genetics & Applications, including logos, brand names, and service marks, are the exclusive property of the journal and its parent organization, unless otherwise stated.

Use of Trademarks: The use of Genetics & Applications trademarks in connection with scientific publications, promotional materials, or any other context must be authorized by the journal’s editorial board or the designated intellectual property management team.

Protection: Genetics & Applications is committed to protecting its trademarks against unauthorized use or infringement. Any unauthorized use of the journal’s trademarks will be subject to legal action, including but not limited to cease and desist orders, civil litigation, and claims for damages.

Licensing: Third parties seeking to use Genetics & Applications trademarks for commercial or non-commercial purposes must obtain a license from the journal’s editorial board or the designated intellectual property management team. Licensing agreements may include terms and conditions related to usage, attribution, and royalties, where applicable.

Open Access Policy

All articles published by Genetics & Applications are made immediately available worldwide under an open-access license. This means:

  • everyone has free and unlimited access to the full text of all articles published in Genetics & Applications;
  • everyone is free to re-use the published material if proper accreditation/citation of the original publication is given;

No special permission is required to reuse all or part of article published by Genetics & Applications, including figures and tables. For articles published under an open access Creative Common CC BY license, any part of the article may be reused without permission provided that the original article is clearly cited. Reuse of an article does not imply endorsement by the authors or Genetics & Applications.

Process for handling cases requiring corrections, retractions, and editorial expressions of concern

Genetics & Applications ensures that its articles adhere to the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) to maintain the integrity of the academic record. When serious mistakes, misleading assertions, or distorted reports are discovered in published articles, they are immediately and prominently corrected. If an article is discovered to be fraudulent during an investigation, it is retracted to maintain clarity for readers and indexing systems.

Corrections

A Correction will be published upon request and after editorial review, when it is necessary to correct an error or omission, where the interpretation of the article may be impacted but the original findings remains intact. Please note that correction requests may be subject to full review, and if queries are raised, you may be expected to supply further information before the correction is approved. Correction should provide clear details of the error and the changes that have been made. Under these circumstances Editorial Team will correct the online article, issue a separate correction notice electronically linked back to the corrected version and add a footnote to the article displaying the electronic link to the correction notice.

Retractions

Retractions are examined and published when an article has serious mistakes that undermine the conclusions. Retractions are also issued when there is proof of publishing malpractice, such as plagiarism, duplicate publication, or unethical research.

If a retraction is confirmed, G&A follows the approach outlined in industry best practices and COPE guidelines:

  1. A retraction letter titled “Retraction: [article title]” signed by the authors and/or the editor is published in the next issue of the journal and noted in the contents list.
  2. The electronic version includes a link to the original article.
  3. The online article is accompanied by a screen that displays the retraction notice. The link redirects to this screen, from which the reader can go to the article.
  4. The original article remains identical, with the exception of a watermark on the HTML and PDF pages stating that it has been “retracted.”

Editorial expressions of concern

When significant uncertainty arises regarding the honesty or integrity of an article, editors may contemplate issuing an expression of concern. However, such expressions are only warranted if investigations into the article’s issues have yielded inconclusive results, yet strong indications of validity persist. In rare instances, an expression of concern may also be issued while an investigation is ongoing, but a definitive judgment is not imminent. The expression of concern will be connected to the relevant published article.

Post publication discussions and corrections

Sometimes after an article has been published in the Journal it may be necessary to make a change. Authors should notify us as soon as possible if they find errors in their published article, especially errors that could affect the interpretation of data or the reliability of information presented. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to ensure consensus has been reached between all listed co-authors before requesting any corrections to an article.

Errors that do not impact the reliability of the interpretation of the article are considered as minor errors. If minor errors occur, a footnote will be added to the article detailing to the reader that the article has been corrected. Aside from cases where a minor error is concerned, any necessary changes will be accompanied by a post-publication notice in the form of Correction.

Policies on posting of final versions or published articles on third party repositories

Genetics & Applications is a journal with free, open access. Articles published in their final form in G&A may be freely deposited to any repository, including academic social networks, without seeking permission from the author or publisher.

Plagiarism policy

Plagiarism and self-plagiarism are not allowed and they will be dealt with iThenticate plagiarism cheker (http://www.ithenticate.com/) by the University of Sarajevo.

Privacy policy

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

Revenue sources

Genetics & Applications is a self-financed journal published in both online (electronic) and print (hard copy) versions. G&A journal does not receive any funding from authors (free of Article Submission Charge – ASC, Article Processing – APC or Article Publication Charge) or sale of hard copies of the journal, with the exception of occasional support from the Ministry of Science, Higher Education and Youth of Canton Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.