Ethics

The publication of an article in a peer-reviewed journal is an essential building block in the development of a coherent and respected network of knowledge. It is a direct reflection of the quality of the work of the authors and the institutions that support them. Peer-reviewed articles support and embody the scientific method. It is therefore important to agree upon standards of expected ethical behavior for all parties involved in the act of publishing: the author, the journal editor, the peer reviewer, the publisher and the society of society-owned or sponsored journals.

Conflict of Interest

Authors are required to disclose all sources of institutional, private and corporate financial support for their study. Donors of materials (for free or at a discount from current rates) should be named in the source of funding and their location (town, state/county, country) included.Other donors will be identified in the text. If no funding has been available other than that of the author’s institution, this should be specified upon submission. Authors are also required to disclose any potential conflict of interest. These include financial interests (for example patent,ownership, stock ownership, consultancies, speaker’s fee,) or provision of study materials by their manufacturer for free or at a discount from current rates. Author’s conflict of interest (orinformation specifying the absence of conflicts of interest) and the sources of funding for the research will be published under a separate heading entitled “Conflict of Interest and Sources of Funding Statement”. Any experiments involving animals must be demonstrated to be ethically acceptable and where relevant conform to national guidelines for animal usage in research.

Human and Animal Rights

Physical Activity Review encourages authors submitting manuscripts reporting from a clinical trial to register the trials registries & bear a clinical trial registration number and name of the trial. Authors must state that the protocol for the research project has been approved by a suitably constituted Ethics Committee of the institution within which the work was undertaken and that it conforms to the provisions of the Declaration of Helsinki. The Journal retains the right to reject any manuscript on the basis of unethical conduct of either human or animal studies. All investigations on human subjects must include a statement that the subject gave informed consent. Patient anonymity should be preserved. Photographs need to be cropped sufficiently to prevent human subjects being recognized or an eye bar should be used.

Authors’ Contribution

We require authors to disclose contribution of individual authors to preparation of a manuscript (with a list of their affiliations) in detail, considering the following categories:
A – Study Design;
B – Data Collection;
C – Statistical Analysis;
D – Manuscript Preparation;
E – Funds Collection.
Author’s declared contributions are published on the first page of the article.

Main responsibility to disclose full information remains on author submitting manuscript.

Any cases of redundant (duplicate) publication, plagiarism, fabricated data, ghostwriting, guest authorship etc. are indication of scientific dishonesty and all such cases will be exposed and adequate institutions will be informed (institutions employing the author, scientific societies, scientific editors associations etc.).

The editorial office should acquire information on sources of financing of a publication, financial contributions of research institutions, scientific associations and other (“financial disclosure”).

When dealing with cases of a possible misconduct Physical Activity Review follows the ethics flowcharts developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), available at: http://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts

Physical Activity Review documents all incidents of scientific dishonesty especially of violation of ethical principles followed in science.