Publication Ethics

The Journal of Medicinal Chemistry and Therapeutics (JMCT) is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics, research integrity, transparency, and responsible scholarly publishing. The journal expects all participants in the publication process—including authors, reviewers, editors, and the publisher—to uphold ethical principles throughout manuscript submission, peer review, publication, and post-publication activities.

JMCT's publication ethics policies are informed by internationally recognized principles of responsible research publishing and are intended to protect the integrity, reliability, transparency, and credibility of the scientific literature in medicinal chemistry, drug discovery, pharmacology, therapeutics, pharmaceutical sciences, and related fields.

1. Research Integrity

Authors are expected to conduct and report research honestly, accurately, transparently, and responsibly. Submitted manuscripts should present original work supported by reliable data, appropriate methodology, and scientifically justified conclusions. Authors must accurately describe their experimental, computational, pharmacological, and analytical methods, results, and interpretations without fabrication, falsification, selective reporting, or misleading presentation.

All research should comply with applicable ethical, legal, institutional, and regulatory requirements relevant to the study. For computational research, authors are expected to report sufficient methodological information to support appropriate evaluation and, where reasonably possible, reproducibility of the reported analyses.

2. Originality and Duplicate Publication

Manuscripts submitted to JMCT must represent original work that has not been published previously and is not under consideration by another journal. Authors must appropriately acknowledge the work of others through accurate citation and referencing.

• Plagiarism is strictly prohibited.
• Duplicate publication is not permitted.
• Redundant or substantially overlapping publication should be avoided.
• Self-plagiarism and substantial text reuse must be disclosed where applicable.
• Previously published data or materials must be appropriately cited and identified.

3. Data Integrity

Authors are responsible for ensuring that the data presented in their manuscripts are accurate, complete, and honestly reported. Data should not be fabricated, falsified, manipulated, or selectively omitted in a manner that could mislead readers or influence scientific conclusions.

This requirement applies to experimental, analytical, pharmacological, biochemical, chemical, statistical, and computational data. Authors should retain original research data and make them available when reasonably requested by the Editorial Office or reviewers, subject to ethical, legal, confidentiality, and intellectual-property considerations.

4. Image and Data Visualization Integrity

Images, figures, molecular structures, microscopy images, gels, blots, graphical representations, computational visualizations, and other visual materials must accurately represent the underlying data. Adjustments to brightness, contrast, color, or other visual properties are acceptable only when applied appropriately and when they do not alter, obscure, remove, or misrepresent scientifically relevant information.

In computational and molecular modeling studies, figures must accurately represent the reported analyses. Molecular docking poses, interaction diagrams, molecular dynamics plots, pharmacophore models, QSAR plots, and other computational visualizations must not be manipulated in a manner that creates a misleading scientific impression.

Any inappropriate image or data manipulation may result in editorial investigation and possible rejection, correction, expression of concern, or retraction of the manuscript or published article.

5. Authorship and Contributorship

Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made substantial intellectual or practical contributions to the conception, design, execution, analysis, interpretation, or reporting of the research. All listed authors should have reviewed and approved the final manuscript and agreed to its submission for publication.

Individuals who contributed to the work but do not meet the criteria for authorship should be acknowledged appropriately. Guest authorship, gift authorship, honorary authorship, and ghost authorship are considered unethical and are not permitted.

Where appropriate, authors are encouraged to describe individual contributions using the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy).

6. Conflict of Interest

All authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose any financial, professional, institutional, personal, or other relationships that could influence, or be perceived to influence, the objectivity of the research or editorial process. Full disclosure promotes transparency and allows readers to evaluate potential sources of bias.

Potential conflicts may include financial interests, commercial relationships, consulting activities, intellectual-property interests, institutional relationships, personal relationships, or other circumstances that could reasonably affect impartiality.

If no competing interests exist, authors should explicitly state that they have no conflicts of interest to declare.

7. Funding Disclosure

Authors must disclose all sources of financial support for the research, including grant numbers where applicable. Funding agencies should not improperly influence study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, peer review, or publication decisions.

For research involving medicinal chemistry, drug discovery, pharmaceutical development, or commercial compounds, authors should disclose relevant financial or institutional support that may influence the research or its interpretation.

If the research did not receive specific external financial support, authors should clearly state that no specific external funding was received.

8. Confidentiality

Editors, reviewers, and Editorial Office staff must maintain the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts throughout the editorial and peer-review process. Unpublished information obtained during manuscript evaluation must not be disclosed or used for personal, academic, professional, or commercial advantage without the authors' written permission.

Reviewers and editors must not use unpublished chemical structures, experimental findings, computational results, datasets, methods, or other information obtained through peer review for their own research or other purposes.

9. Ethical Approval

Research involving human participants, animals, human or animal biological specimens, or sensitive personal data must receive approval from an appropriate institutional ethics committee, institutional review board, or other authorized body before the study is conducted, where such approval is required.

Authors should include the name of the approving committee and the approval or reference number in the manuscript whenever applicable. Authors are responsible for ensuring compliance with applicable national regulations, institutional policies, and internationally recognized ethical principles.

10. Research Involving Human Participants

Research involving human participants must be conducted in accordance with internationally accepted ethical principles and applicable institutional and national regulations. Authors should confirm that informed consent was obtained from all participants or their legally authorized representatives before participation, where applicable.

Manuscripts should include an ethics approval statement identifying the approving ethics committee or institutional review board and the relevant approval number, where applicable.

Any identifiable personal information, clinical information, images, or other potentially identifying material must be handled in accordance with applicable privacy and consent requirements.

11. Research Involving Animals

Studies involving animals must comply with recognized animal welfare regulations, institutional guidelines, and applicable ethical standards. Authors should make every reasonable effort to minimize animal suffering and use the minimum number of animals necessary to achieve scientifically valid results.

The manuscript should include the name of the approving ethics committee together with the approval or protocol number, where applicable. Authors should provide sufficient information about animal species, experimental groups, relevant procedures, and welfare considerations to allow appropriate ethical evaluation.

12. Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Assisted Content

Authors may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to assist with language editing, grammar improvement, translation, or other aspects of manuscript preparation, provided that the scientific content remains entirely the responsibility of the authors.

AI tools must not be listed as authors because they cannot assume responsibility for the integrity, originality, accuracy, or ethical conduct of scholarly work.

Where AI tools have made a meaningful contribution to manuscript preparation, authors should disclose their use appropriately. Authors remain fully responsible for verifying AI-assisted content, references, scientific statements, calculations, interpretations, and conclusions.

AI-generated content must not be used to fabricate data, references, experimental results, computational findings, images, or other scientific information.

13. Corrections, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern

When significant errors, inaccuracies, or ethical concerns are identified after publication, JMCT will take appropriate action to preserve the integrity of the scientific record. Depending on the nature and significance of the issue, this may include publication of a correction, an expression of concern, or a retraction.

Post-publication actions will be handled transparently and in accordance with the journal's applicable editorial and publication ethics policies.

14. Allegations of Research Misconduct

The journal takes all allegations of research or publication misconduct seriously. Reports concerning plagiarism, data fabrication, data falsification, duplicate publication, image manipulation, inappropriate authorship, citation manipulation, unethical research practices, or other forms of misconduct will be investigated confidentially and fairly.

Authors may be asked to provide original data, laboratory records, computational files, supporting documentation, ethics approval documents, or additional explanations during an investigation.

Where misconduct is confirmed, the journal may reject the manuscript, retract the published article, publish an appropriate editorial notice, notify relevant institutions or funding organizations, and implement other appropriate measures necessary to protect the integrity of the scientific record.

15. Ethical Oversight

The Editorial Office is responsible for overseeing ethical matters arising during manuscript handling and publication. Ethical concerns are evaluated impartially, confidentially, and in accordance with the journal's applicable policies.

When necessary, the Editorial Office may seek advice from independent experts, members of the Editorial Board, institutional representatives, or other appropriate authorities before reaching a final decision.

16. Policy Review and Updates

This Publication Ethics Policy is reviewed periodically to reflect developments in scholarly publishing, research integrity, medicinal chemistry, drug discovery, pharmaceutical sciences, and international best practices.

The Journal of Medicinal Chemistry and Therapeutics reserves the right to revise or update this policy whenever necessary. Revised policies become effective upon publication on the journal website unless otherwise stated.