Ethical Policies Governing Work Considered
As the official journal of The Transplantation Society (TTS), Transplantation Direct upholds the ethical policies of the Society with respect to the manuscripts it considers for publication. The Declaration of Istanbul, formed in 2008 and endorsed by TTS, is a guiding principle designed to combat transplant tourism and organ trafficking. The Declaration of Helsinki, formalized in 1964, is a set of ethical principles regarding human experimentation. No manuscript will be considered by Transplantation Direct if its data derives from the transplantation of organs received from executed prisoners.
Manuscripts describing research involving animal or human subjects must show institutional review board (IRB) or animal care committee approval was obtained and include a brief description of the ethical guidelines followed. Authors must include this statement in the Methods and Materials section of their manuscript.
Authors of animal research are advised to consider the ARRIVE guidelines to improve the reporting of their work. For more information, please visit ARRIVE.
For additional editorial, legal, and ethical policies, please visit the Instructions for Authors. More information regarding policies and ethics TTS, may be found here.
Duplicate Publication, Plagiarism and Fabrication
Manuscripts containing original material are accepted for consideration if neither the article nor any part of its essential substance, tables, or figures has been or will be published or submitted elsewhere before appearing in Transplantation Direct (in part or in full, in other words or in the same words, in English or in another language), and will not be submitted elsewhere unless rejected by the journal or withdrawn by the author. (This restriction does not include abstracts of the Work submitted for presentation to learned societies, theses and scholarly forums.) Simultaneous submissions of the same article to multiple journals are prohibited. If an author violates this requirement or engages in similar misconduct, Transplantation Direct’s Editorial Board will reject the manuscript and/or impose a moratorium on review of new manuscripts from the author. If it deems the misconduct sufficiently serious, the Editorial Board will refer the matter for investigation to the author’s academic institution or hospital or to the appropriate local disciplinary body. Written permission is required for any and all material that has been published previously or is “in press” by another journal. It is the responsibility of the author to request permission from the publisher of any material that is being reproduced. This requirement applies to text, illustrations, and tables. Permission must be supplied to Transplantation Direct upon submission of the article, along with ample acknowledgment of the original source of the materials in the legend and/or text.
To reiterate, any previously published material (including material published in foreign-language, open access, or e-journals) that is included in a submission to Transplantation Direct needs to:
a) Clearly reference the original publication of the previously published material.
b) Be accompanied by written permission from the copyright holder of the material. Any fee associated with permission to reuse previously published material is the responsibility of the author of the manuscript under consideration.
If an author submits an article to Transplantation Direct that contains material to which he or she holds the copyright (figures, material from articles published on open-access or e-journals, and so on), he or she needs to clearly indicate that he or she holds the copyright and provide Transplantation Direct with written permission to use the previously copyrighted material. Authors retain copyright of all material published in Transplantation Direct. All permission statements allowing Transplantation Direct to publish previously published material must extend to all print and digital media (so that material can be both printed and placed on the Journal’s website) and must not include any time limitations.
Transplantation Direct’s online submission system, Editorial Manager, employs an automated plagiarism/duplicate publication program. As such, this program helps us discover instances of misconduct at all of manuscript review.
Plagiarism is when an author passes off the work of someone else as his or her own. This can also include self-plagiarism, which happens when an author reuses portions of his or her previously published work without the proper references. Manuscripts containing plagiarized content are not considered for publication in Transplantation Direct. All authors need to take responsibility for their manuscripts. If your name is on a manuscript, make sure all of the material in the paper either is original or is properly cited and has proper permission to be reproduced. If you have a question about the originality of any part of a manuscript, verify it with your coauthors. In particular, senior authors should pay special attention to what the junior authors are doing and where they are sending their manuscripts.
If you realize you have made an error of dual publication or plagiarism inadvertently, immediately contact the editorial office. It is much better to come forward of your own volition than to have an accusation made against you.
If Transplantation Direct learns of a case of plagiarism after publication, Transplantation Direct will conduct an investigation. If plagiarism is found, the author, the author’s institution and funding agencies, and the original publication will be notified. A statement noting the plagiarism, providing a reference to the plagiarized material, and linking to the original to the original paper may follow. Depending on the extent of the plagiarism, the paper may also be formally retracted.
Image Integrity
Illustrations, figures, and tables should be labeled clearly and numbered sequentially in the text. Figures must be accompanied by legends attached at the end of the manuscript.
Graphic-altering programs can be used to assemble multipanel images, clean up dust specs from scanning in originals, and cropping. However, these programs should not be used improperly to attempt to modify results.
Conflict of Interest
All sources of funds supporting the work and a statement of financial interest, if any, must be included for each author of a manuscript, along with a list of all products, devices, drugs, etc. used in the manuscript. Each author is required at the time of submission to disclose any commercial associations or financial disclosures that might pose or create a conflict of interest with information presented in any submitted manuscript. Such associations include any of the following: consultancies, stock ownership, or other equity interest, patent licensing arrangements, payments for conduction or publicizing a study described in the manuscript, royalty recipient, grant recipient, employee, board member and review panel member.
Correction and Retraction Policy
Transplantation Direct takes every opportunity to correct errors as they occur. Content that is posted online is considered the final published record and must be preserved; therefore, all changes to articles must be made as a formal correction (erratum). Corrections will be published online and in the next available issue and will be linked to the original article. These corrections will then be picked up by Ovid and transmitted to indexing services and other aggregating databases.
Corrections will be reviewed and considered if they affect the publication record, the scientific integrity of the paper, or the reputation of the authors, or of Transplantation Direct. Corrections that do not significantly affect the paper may not be approved (ie a spelling error).
Retractions will be considered if results are invalid or ethical guidelines have been violated (ie applicable cases of plagiarism or ghostwriting). All coauthors must agree on a retraction notice detailing the error and how the conclusions were affected.
All decisions about corrections or retractions are made by the Editor. Author consultation may be required. In situations where coauthors disagree about a correction, the Editors will consult with other Editors on the journal’s editorial board before applying the appropriate correction. The dissenting author(s) position will be noted on the correction.
Publication Charges
Transplantation Direct is an open access, peer-reviewed journal. To provide open access, the journal charges publication fees for each article published. These fees cover the expenses incurred by publication, including the peer review process, journal production and publication, and hosting and archiving fees. Fees vary by article type.
The APCs for Transplantation Direct are $2,200 USD for Tier 1 manuscripts (Articles, Overviews and Short Reports) and $550 USD for Tier 2 manuscripts (Letters, Commentaries and Case Study Reports). TTS members pay a discounted rate of $1,980 USD for Tier 1 manuscripts and $495 USD for Tier 2 manuscripts. Membership will be verified at acceptance.
Archive
Transplantation Direct belongs to the CLOCKSS and Portico digital archiving programs.
