Publication Ethics and Editorial Policy

1. General Principles

The scientific journal Environment & Health adheres to the principles of research integrity, transparency in editorial procedures, independent peer review, responsible authorship, and the reliability of published research findings.

The journal's editorial policy is based on the international recommendations and guidelines of:

The journal provides equal opportunities for authors regardless of their country, institutional affiliation, academic status, or sources of research funding.

All participants in the publication process – authors, editors, Editorial Board members, reviewers, and the publisher – are responsible for upholding the principles of publication ethics within their respective roles and responsibilities.

2. Scientific Scope and Initial Editorial Screening

The journal specializes in research on the effects of environmental, occupational, and social factors on population health, as well as public and occupational health, hygiene, epidemiology, preventive medicine, and health risk assessment.

The journal considers original research articles, review articles, and analytical papers that align with its aims and scope.

All submitted manuscripts undergo initial editorial screening, during which the following aspects are assessed:

  • Alignment of the research topic, objectives, methodology, and findings with the journal's scientific scope.
  • Relevance and scientific significance of the research.
  • Methodological rigor and scientific justification.
  • Compliance with the principles of research integrity and publication ethics.
  • Compliance with the journal's requirements for manuscript structure and formatting.

Manuscripts that fall outside the journal's scope may be rejected during initial editorial screening without being sent for external peer review.

Decisions to reject manuscripts must be justified, and the reasons must be communicated to the authors.

3. Editorial Independence

The Editorial Board safeguards the independence of scientific manuscript evaluation and editorial decision-making.

Decisions to accept, request revisions to, or reject manuscripts are based exclusively on their scientific quality, methodological rigor, alignment with the journal's aims and scope, and the outcomes of independent peer review.

The administration of the publishing institution, its Academic Council, sponsors, financial partners, and other interested parties must not influence scientific and editorial decisions concerning individual manuscripts.

Organizational, administrative, or financial support for the publication process does not justify interference with independent editorial assessment.

Article processing charges, fee waivers, and authors' financial circumstances have no influence on peer review outcomes or editorial decisions.

The final decision regarding manuscript publication is made by the Editor-in-Chief or another authorized editor in accordance with the journal's established procedures.

The editor responsible for making the final editorial decision must have no conflict of interest concerning the manuscript in question.

4. Authorship and Author Contributions

The journal follows the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) regarding authorship of scholarly publications.

To qualify for authorship, an individual must meet all four ICMJE authorship criteria:

  1. Have made a substantial contribution to the conception or design of the study, or to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data.
  2. Have participated in drafting the manuscript or critically revising it for important intellectual content.
  3. Have approved the final version of the manuscript intended for publication.
  4. Have agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work and to ensure that questions concerning the accuracy or integrity of any part of the research are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Individuals who do not meet all authorship criteria but have contributed to the work may be acknowledged in the Acknowledgments section, subject to their consent.

The following practices are prohibited:

  • Guest or gift authorship.
  • Ghost authorship.
  • Inclusion of individuals as authors solely on the basis of their administrative position, financial support, or academic status.
  • Unjustified exclusion of researchers who meet the established authorship criteria.

Each author's contribution must be reported in accordance with the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy).

CRediT defines 14 standardized contributor roles reflecting participation in conceptualization, methodology, investigation, data analysis, manuscript preparation, and other stages of research.

Official CRediT Taxonomy

The assignment of CRediT roles does not replace the ICMJE authorship criteria.

All authors must agree on their individual contributions, the composition of the author group, and the final manuscript version before submission to the journal.

Changes to authorship after manuscript submission are permitted only following a justified written request accompanied by confirmation of consent from all authors concerned.

5. Research Integrity and Reliability of Findings

The journal does not tolerate violations of research integrity, including:

  • Plagiarism and the unauthorized use of others' texts, data, ideas, or images.
  • Fabrication or falsification of research data.
  • Manipulation of statistical analyses, tables, figures, or images.
  • Duplicate or redundant publication without appropriate justification and disclosure.
  • Misleading citations, fabricated bibliographic references, and citation manipulation.
  • Concealment of significant study limitations.
  • Manipulation of the peer review process.

Authors are responsible for the reliability of the data presented, the appropriate application of research methods, and the scientific validity of their conclusions.

Submitted manuscripts are screened for textual similarity using specialized software.

Identified similarities are assessed by the editorial team with consideration of their nature, extent, context, and the presence of appropriate citations. Determinations of research misconduct are not made solely on the basis of an automatically calculated text similarity percentage.

Where justified concerns arise, the editorial team may request original research data, supplementary materials, explanations from the authors, or supporting documents necessary to verify the reliability of the study.

6. Ethical Conduct of Research Involving Humans and Animals

Research Involving Human Participants

Research involving human participants must comply with applicable ethical and legal requirements and the relevant principles of the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki.

Where approval by a research ethics committee is required, authors must provide:

  • The full name of the ethics committee.
  • The approval number and date.
  • Confirmation that the necessary informed consent was obtained from study participants.

Where ethical approval or informed consent was not required under the study design or applicable legislation, or where a waiver was granted by an authorized ethics committee, authors must provide an appropriate justification in the manuscript.

Informed consent to participate in a study and consent to publish information that may identify an individual are treated as separate ethical requirements.

The personal data of research participants must be appropriately protected.

Research Involving Animals

Research involving animals must comply with applicable legislation, bioethical requirements, and principles of humane animal care and treatment.

Authors must report the relevant ethical approval and describe measures taken to minimize animal suffering. The ARRIVE Guidelines are recommended for the reporting of animal studies.

The editorial team reserves the right to request supporting documentation demonstrating compliance with ethical requirements.

7. Research Data Transparency and Reproducibility

The journal supports the principles of open science, responsible research data management, and the reproducibility of scientific findings.

For original research articles, authors are required to provide a Data Availability Statement specifying:

  • Whether the data supporting the study findings are available.
  • The location of the data or the repository, DOI, or other persistent identifier, where the data have been made publicly available.
  • The conditions under which access to the data may be obtained, where access is restricted.
  • The reasons why the data cannot be shared openly, where applicable restrictions exist.

Public disclosure of personal, confidential, or other legally protected data is not required.

The journal encourages the use of reliable scientific repositories and the sharing of research protocols, methodologies, and software code where these practices facilitate the verification and reproducibility of research findings.

Detailed requirements are provided in the journal's separate Research Data Availability Policy.

8. Research Reporting Standards

The structure and content of manuscripts must be appropriate to their study design and methodology and comply with internationally recognized research reporting standards.

The journal applies relevant reporting guidelines available through the EQUATOR Network, including:

  • STROBE – for observational epidemiological studies.
  • PRISMA – for systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
  • PRISMA-ScR – for scoping reviews.
  • CONSORT – for randomized clinical trials.
  • STARD – for diagnostic accuracy studies.
  • CARE – for case reports.
  • COREQ – for qualitative research.
  • ARRIVE – for experimental animal studies.

For applicable study designs, the editorial team may request a completed reporting checklist and relevant flow diagrams illustrating the selection of participants or sources.

Clinical trials must be appropriately registered in a publicly accessible trial registry before enrollment of the first participant, in accordance with ICMJE recommendations. The name of the registry and the trial registration number must be reported in the manuscript.

9. Funding and Conflicts of Interest

All authors are required to disclose the sources of research funding and any financial or non-financial circumstances that may influence, or reasonably be perceived to influence, the impartiality of their research.

The following declarations must be included in the manuscript:

Funding. Authors must disclose all sources of financial support for the research and, where applicable, the sponsor's role in study design, conduct, data analysis, and manuscript preparation. Where no specific funding was received, an appropriate statement must be provided.

Conflict of Interest. Authors must disclose any potential financial, professional, personal, or other conflicts of interest. Where no conflicts of interest exist, an appropriate declaration must be included.

Reviewers and editors are also required to disclose potential conflicts of interest.

Where circumstances may compromise the independence of manuscript evaluation, the reviewer or editor concerned must withdraw from the assessment process.

Disclosure of a conflict of interest does not automatically result in manuscript rejection; the editorial team evaluates the nature of the conflict and its potential implications for the reliability and integrity of the research.

10. Independent Peer Review and Manuscripts Submitted by Editorial Members

The journal employs an independent double-blind peer review process.

Reviewers are selected on the basis of their scientific expertise, relevant experience, and absence of conflicts of interest.

Reviewers are required to:

  • Maintain the confidentiality of all materials received for review.
  • Evaluate manuscripts objectively and constructively.
  • Disclose any potential conflicts of interest to the editorial team.
  • Refrain from using unpublished materials for personal or professional advantage.
  • Report any indications of significant violations of publication ethics.

Manuscripts authored or co-authored by the Editor-in-Chief, members of the Editorial Board, Editorial Council, Editorial Staff, or employees of the publishing institution undergo the standard independent evaluation procedure.

Any individual with a conflict of interest concerning a particular manuscript must not participate in reviewer selection, evaluation of peer review reports, or editorial decision-making. Responsibility for handling such a manuscript is assigned to another authorized editor who has no conflict of interest.

Further information: Peer Review Process.

11. Use of Artificial Intelligence

The journal recognizes that artificial intelligence tools may be used responsibly as supplementary resources in scientific research and manuscript preparation.

Artificial intelligence tools cannot be listed as authors or co-authors of scholarly articles.

Authors remain fully responsible for the reliability of research data, accuracy of analyses, originality of the manuscript, and validity of conclusions, regardless of the technologies employed.

The use of generative artificial intelligence must be appropriately disclosed in accordance with the journal's established requirements.

Reviewers and editors are prohibited from uploading confidential manuscripts, peer review reports, personal data, or other unpublished materials to external generative AI services without appropriate confidentiality safeguards and authorization from the editorial team.

Reviewers and editors must not delegate responsibility for scientific evaluation or editorial decision-making to artificial intelligence tools.

Further information: Policy on the Use of Artificial Intelligence.

12. Preprints and Prior Dissemination of Research Findings

The journal supports the responsible dissemination of research findings through preprint servers.

Posting a manuscript on a scientific preprint server before submission or during editorial consideration is not regarded as prior journal publication and does not, in itself, constitute grounds for rejection.

Authors must inform the editorial team of any existing preprint and provide its DOI or URL.

The existence of a preprint does not exempt a manuscript from initial editorial screening, research integrity checks, or independent peer review.

Following publication of the article, authors are encouraged to link the preprint to the final published version of the article using the journal article's DOI.

Detailed provisions are set out in the journal's separate Preprint Policy.

13. Complaints and Appeals

The editorial team ensures the objective, impartial, and confidential handling of reports concerning potential violations of research integrity or publication ethics.

Complaints may concern authorship, data reliability, plagiarism, conflicts of interest, violations of peer review procedures, editorial conduct, or other matters relating to publication ethics.

Complaints are handled in accordance with the journal's established complaints procedure.

Authors also have the right to submit a reasoned appeal against an editorial decision if they believe that significant procedural errors, violations of impartiality, or incorrect application of editorial policies occurred during manuscript evaluation.

An appeal must be submitted in writing within 30 calendar days of notification of the editorial decision and must clearly state the grounds for requesting reconsideration.

The appeal is considered by the Editor-in-Chief or another authorized editor who has no conflict of interest. Independent experts may be consulted where necessary.

The editorial team informs the author of the outcome of the appeal or the need to extend the review period within 30 calendar days of receiving the appeal.

Submitting an appeal does not guarantee that the original editorial decision will be overturned.

14. Corrections, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions

The journal is committed to transparency and the responsible correction of the scholarly record following publication.

Depending on the nature of the identified issue, the editorial team may implement the following procedures:

Correction. A correction is published when errors are identified that require clarification or amendment of published information but do not invalidate the principal findings or conclusions of the study.

Expression of Concern. An Expression of Concern is published when substantial and justified concerns arise regarding the reliability or integrity of a publication, particularly where an investigation is ongoing or a definitive decision cannot be reached on the basis of the available evidence.

Retraction. A retraction is issued when established circumstances demonstrate substantial unreliability of the research findings, violations of publication ethics, or other grounds that make it inappropriate to continue treating the article as a reliable scientific source.

Notices of correction, Expression of Concern, or retraction must be accessible to readers and appropriately linked to the original publication.

Where necessary, the editorial team takes steps to update the relevant DOI metadata and notify bibliographic services and databases.

The purpose of these procedures is to preserve the integrity of the scholarly record, rather than to punish authors.

Retraction Policy.

The editorial team follows the current COPE recommendations on retractions.

15. Copyright, Open Access, and Publication Fees

The journal provides open access to its published scholarly articles.

Authors retain copyright in their articles and grant the journal the right of first publication.

Published materials are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits the use and redistribution of materials provided that appropriate credit is given to the authors and the original source and all other applicable license conditions are met.

This provision applies to publications for which the CC BY 4.0 license was established under the terms applicable at the time of publication. The reuse of previously published materials is governed by the licenses and rights applicable to those specific publications; the CC BY 4.0 license does not apply to them retroactively or automatically.

Licensing and Copyright.

Information on article processing charges and fee waiver arrangements is publicly available on the journal's website.

Payment is required only after a manuscript has been accepted for publication and does not influence the outcomes of independent peer review or editorial decision-making.

Article Processing Charges.

The journal ensures the accessibility of published materials and archives them in accordance with its long-term preservation policy.

16. Final Provisions

Compliance with publication ethics is a mandatory requirement for authors, reviewers, and editors participating in the publication process of Environment & Health.

The editorial team reserves the right to take justified and proportionate measures in response to identified violations, in accordance with established procedures and international recommendations on publication ethics.

The journal's editorial policy is periodically reviewed and updated to reflect developments in international scholarly publishing standards, regulatory requirements, and the journal's editorial practices.