Orapuh is committed to high standards of publication ethics, research transparency, and accurate reporting. This policy outlines the responsibilities of authors, reviewers, and editors, and describes the procedures our journals use to maintain integrity and transparency throughout all stages of submission, peer review, and post-publication. The policy is informed by Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) international standards and by reporting-guideline frameworks promoted by the EQUATOR Network.

2. Core principles

  1. Honesty and accuracy in reporting.

  2. Full disclosure of competing interests and funding.

  3. Responsible authorship and contributorship.

  4. Appropriate ethical approval and participant consent.

  5. Transparent availability of data, code, and materials where possible.

  6. Use of appropriate reporting guidelines for different study types.

3. Authorship, contributorship, and acknowledgements

3.1 Authorship criteria
Authorship must accurately reflect individuals who made substantial intellectual contributions to the work and who approve the final version for publication. See COPE’s International standards for authors.

3.2 Contributorship statement (required)
Authors should use the CRediT taxonomy to describe each contributor’s role.

3.3 Corresponding author responsibilities
The corresponding author must ensure all authors meet authorship criteria, consent to submission, and that ethical approvals and disclosures are correct.

3.4 Acknowledgements
Non-author contributors should be acknowledged with permission. Editorial or medical-writing support must be disclosed along with funding sources.

4. Originality, plagiarism, and redundant publication

Manuscripts must report original work not previously published in full. Authors must disclose related prior or concurrent publications (including preprints). Plagiarism and redundant publication are not acceptable and will be handled according to COPE flowcharts.

5. Conflicts of interest and funding transparency

All authors must declare financial and non-financial conflicts of interest. See COPE guidance on competing interests. Funding sources and the role of funders must be disclosed.

6. Ethical approval, participant consent, and animal welfare

7. Data, code, and materials availability

Every submission must include a Data Availability Statement. Examples:

  • “Data are available in Zenodo at [DOI].”

  • “Data are not publicly available due to confidentiality but may be requested from the corresponding author.”

Authors are encouraged to deposit data in repositories such as Dryad, Figshare, or institutional repositories. Guidance on good data reporting can be found at the EQUATOR Network.

8. Reporting standards and checklists

Authors must submit the relevant reporting checklist from the EQUATOR Library, for example:

The completed checklist must indicate page numbers where each item is addressed.

9. Peer review, confidentiality, and competing interests

Orapuh uses double-blind peer review. Reviewers must declare conflicts of interest and maintain confidentiality. Editors and reviewers must not use unpublished material for personal research.

10. Corrections, expressions of concern, and retractions

Corrections, expressions of concern, and retractions will follow COPE Retraction Guidelines.

11. Handling allegations of misconduct

Allegations of misconduct will be investigated according to COPE flowcharts and may involve contacting authors’ institutions.

12. Editorial independence and conflicts for editors

Editors must act independently of commercial or political influence and follow COPE’s Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers and Editors.

13. Use of AI and large-language models

Authors must disclose any use of AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT) in the preparation of manuscripts, as per COPE’s guidance on AI tools. AI cannot be listed as an author.

14. Required submission items

At submission, authors must upload:

  • EQUATOR checklist (appropriate to study type)

  • Authorship declaration (using CRediT taxonomy)

  • Data Availability Statement

  • Ethics approval/consent statements

  • Trial registration (if applicable)

  • Conflict of interest and funding disclosures

  • Patient consent (for identifiable data/images)

15. Author support

Orapuh maintains an Author Resource Centre (ARC) to help authors with reporting guidelines, ethical publishing, and manuscript preparation.