Principles of transparency and best practice of scholarly publishing 4th version in Journal of Urologic Oncology

Posted in October 27, 2023

Sixteen check list of compliance of the journal to the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing published September 15, 2022 (joint statement by Committee on Publication Ethics [COPE, https://publicationethics.org/files/u2/Best_Practice.pdf], Directory of Open Access Journals [DOAJ, https://doaj.org/apply/transparency], the Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association [OASPA, https://www.oaspa.org/resources/principles-of-transparency-and-best-practice-in-scholarly-publishing/], and the World Association of Medical Editors [WAME; https://www.wame.org/principles-of-transparency-and-best-practice-in-scholarly-publishing]) was as follows:

JOURNAL CONTENT

1. Name of journal

Journal of Urologic Oncology is the official publication of the Korean Urological Oncology Society. Its formal abbreviated title is “J Urol Oncol.”

2. Website

i) Aims & Scope (https://www.e-juo.org/about/index.php)
Aims: Journal of Urologic Oncology aims to free humanity suffering from urologic neoplasms from the agony of diseases.
Scope: It publishes practical, timely, and relevant clinical and basic science research articles addressing any aspect of urologic oncology, including follows: prostate cancer; urothelial cancer; kidney cancer; testicular cancer; other genitourinary malignancies; epidemiology, etiology, and pathogenesis; and the detection, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of urologic oncologic diseases.
Regional scope: Its regional scope is mainly Korea, but it welcomes submissions from all over the world.
Its readership includes urologists, oncologists, radiologists, and clinicians treating patients and to those involved in research on diseases of urologic oncology.
Its publication type includes original articles, review articles, editorials, rapid communications, brief reports, and letters to the editor.

ii) Readership
JUO is primarily for clinicians and researchers who seek tailored information to adopt in their research and practice, but its readership can be expanded to other roles: researchers can obtain knowledge on recent topics of clinical research in urologic oncology field and detailed research methods; clinicians in the field can receive new information and learn about recent developments in patient care; medical educators can access and adopt a variety of data for medical education; allied health professionals, including nurses, can obtain recent information for patient care in urologic oncology; medical students can understand the recent trends in the field and learn about interesting cases for their work; policymakers can reflect the results of the articles in nationwide health care policies for patients with urologic cancer; the public, especially family members of patients with urologic oncologic diseases, can learn about advances in the diseases affecting their family member in order to obtain better knowledge about the diseases and enhance their confidence in clinicians’ devotion to their family member’s care.

iii) Types of manuscripts
Types of manuscripts include original articles, review articles, editorials, rapid communications, brief reports, and letters to the editor.

iv) Authorship criteria
Authorship credit should be based on: (1) substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; (2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; (3) final approval of the version to be published; and (4) agreeing to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that the questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. Authors should meet these 4 conditions. If the number of authors is greater than 6, there should be a list of each author's role in the submitted paper. If any persons who do not meet the above four criteria, they may be placed as contributors in the Acknowledgments section. Description of co-first authors or co-corresponding authors is also accepted if the corresponding author believes that such roles existed in contributing to the manuscript.

v) ISSN
pISSN 2951-603X, eISSN 2982-7043

3. Journal schedule

Journal of Urologic Oncology is published 3 times a year (on the last day of March, July, and November). Supplements can be published when they are required.

4. Archiving

It is accessible without barrier from Korea Citation Index (https://kci.go.kr) or National Library of Korea (https://www.nl.go.kr/archive/search_eng.do) in the event a journal is no longer published.

5. Copyright

All published papers become the permanent property of the Korean Urological Oncology Society. Copyrights of all published materials are owned by the Korean Urological Oncology Society. Permission must be obtained from the Korean Urological Oncology Society for any commercial use of materials. Every author should sign and submit the copyright transfer agreement forms.

6. Licensing

Journal of Urologic Oncology is an Open Access Journal. All articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/"). All contents of the journal are available immediately upon publication without embargo period.

JOURNAL PRACTICES

7. Publication ethics and related editorial policies

i) Authorship and contributorship
Authorship credit should be based on: 1) substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; 2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; 3) final approval of the version to be published; and 4) agreeing to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that the questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. Authors should meet these 4 conditions. If the number of authors is greater than 6, there should be a list of each author's role in the submitted paper. If any persons who do not meet the above four criteria, they may be placed as contributors in the Acknowledgments section. Description of co-first authors or co-corresponding authors is also accepted if the corresponding author believes that such roles existed in contributing to the manuscript.

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) including language models, chatbots, image creators, machine learning, or similar technologies do not qualify for authorship. The technologies listed above may be used in enhancing readability and language accuracy in scientific writing. The responsibility for the manuscript's integrity ultimately rests with the human authors, and the authors employing generative AI tools in manuscript preparation are required to disclose their use in the Acknowledgments section. Such disclosure should detail the specific tools used, including the model name, version, and manufacturer, and explain the capacity in which they were employed. Should the use of AI extend beyond language enhancement, the methods and tools used must be detailed in the Materials and methods section as a formal part of the research design.

ii) Originality and duplicate publication
All submitted manuscripts should be original and should not be in consideration by other scientific journals for publication. Any part of the accepted manuscript should not be duplicated in any other scientific journal without the permission of the Editorial Board, although the figures and tables can be used freely if the original source is verified according to Creative Commons license. It is mandatory for all authors to resolve any copyright issues when citing a figure or table from other journal that is not open access.

iii) Secondary publication
It is possible to republish manuscripts if the manuscripts satisfy the condition of secondary publication of the ICMJE Recommendations, available from https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/. These are:

• • The authors have received approval from the editors of both journals (the editor concerned with the secondary publication must have access to the primary version).
• • The priority for the primary publication is respected by a publication interval negotiated by editors of both journals and the authors.
• • The paper for secondary publication is intended for a different group of readers; an abbreviated version could be sufficient.
• • The secondary version faithfully reflects the data and interpretations of the primary version.
• • The secondary version informs readers, peers, and documenting agencies that the paper has been published in whole or in part elsewhere—for example, with a note that might read, "This article is based on a study first reported in the [journal title, with full reference]"—and the secondary version cites the primary reference.
• • The title of the secondary publication should indicate that it is a secondary publication (complete or abridged republication or translation) of a primary publication. Of note, the United States National Library of Medicine (NLM) does not consider translations to be "republications" and does not cite or index them when the original article was published in a journal that is indexed in MEDLINE.

iv) How the journal will handle complaints and appeals
When the Journal faces suspected cases of research and publication misconduct such as a redundant (duplicate) publication, plagiarism, fabricated data, changes in authorship, undisclosed conflicts of interest, an ethical problem discovered with the submitted manuscript, a reviewer who has appropriated an author’s idea or data, complaints against editors, and other issues, the resolving process will follow the flowchart provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (http://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts). The Editorial Board of JUO will discuss the suspected cases and reach a decision. JUO will not hesitate to publish errata, corrigenda, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when needed.

v) Journal policies on conflicts of interest/competing interests
Conflict of interest exists when an author or the author’s institution, reviewer, or editor has financial or personal relationships that inappropriately influence or bias his or her actions. Such relationships are also known as dual commitments, competing interests, or competing loyalties. These relationships vary from being negligible to having great a potential for influencing judgment. Not all relationships represent true conflict of interest. On the other hand, the potential for conflict of interest can exist regardless of whether an individual believes that the relationship affects his or her scientific judgment. Financial relationships such as employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, and paid expert testimony are the most easily identifiable conflicts of interest and the most likely to undermine the credibility of the journal, the authors, or of the science itself. Conflicts can occur for other reasons as well, such as personal relationships, academic competition, and intellectual passion (http://www.icmje.org/conflicts-of-interest/). If there are any conflicts of interest, authors should disclose them in the manuscript. The conflicts of interest may occur during the research process as well; however, it is important to provide disclosure. If there is a disclosure, editors, reviewers, and reader can approach the manuscript after understanding the situation and background for the completed research.

vi) Journal policies on open data sharing and reproducibility
Authors have the option to share with readers the datasets used in their research. Authors wishing to do so may deposit their data in a publicly accessible repository and include a link to the DOI within the text of the manuscript, as well as in an optional category in the Structured Disclosures section. For example, “Data sharing: The data analyzed for this study have been deposited in Harvard Dataverse (https://dataverse.harvard.edu) and are available at DOI.”

vii) Journal's policy on ethical oversight
When the Journal faces suspected cases of research and publication misconduct such as a redundant (duplicate) publication, plagiarism, fabricated data, changes in authorship, undisclosed conflicts of interest, an ethical problem discovered with the submitted manuscript, a reviewer who has appropriated an author’s idea or data, complaints against editors, and other issues, the resolving process will follow the flowchart provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (http://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts). The Editorial Board will discuss the suspected cases and reach a decision. We will not hesitate to publish errata, corrigenda, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when needed.

viii) Journal's policy on intellectual property
All published papers become the permanent property of the Korean Urological Oncology Society. Copyrights of all published materials are owned by the Korean Urological Oncology Society.

ix) Journal's options for postpublication discussions and corrections
The postpublication discussion is available through letter to the editor. If any readers have a concern on any articles published, they can submit letter to the editor on the articles. If there founds any errors or mistakes in the article, it can be corrected through errata, corrigenda, or retraction.

8. Peer review

Journal of Urologic Oncology has an online submission and peer review system at https://mc04.manuscriptcentral.com/e-juo.
Journal of Urologic Oncology reviews all manuscripts received. A manuscript is first reviewed for its format and adherence to the aims and scope of the journal. If the manuscript meets these 2 criteria, it is dispatched to 3 investigators in the field with relevant knowledge.
Journal of Urologic Oncology adopts double blind review, which means that the reviewers and authors cannot identify each others’ information. The authors’ names and affiliations are removed during peer review. Assuming the manuscript is sent to reviewers, Journal of Urologic Oncology waits to receive opinions from at least 2 reviewers. In addition, if deemed necessary, a review of statistics may be requested. The acceptance criteria for all papers are based on the quality and originality of the research and its scientific significance. Acceptance of the manuscript is decided based on the critiques and recommended decision of the reviewers.
An initial decision will normally be made within 4 weeks of receipt of a manuscript, and the reviewers’ comments are sent to the corresponding author by email. The corresponding author must indicate the alterations that have been made in response to the reviewers’ comments item by item. Failure to resubmit the revised manuscript within 4 weeks of the editorial decision is regarded as a withdrawal. A final decision on acceptance/rejection for publication is forwarded to the corresponding author from the editor.
All manuscripts from editors, employees, or members of the editorial board are processed same to other unsolicited manuscripts. During the review process, submitters will not engage in the decision process. Editors will not handle their own manuscripts although they are commissioned ones.
We neither guarantee the acceptance without review nor very short peer review times for unsolicited manuscripts. Commissioned manuscripts also were reviewed before publication.

i) Registration for submission
Any manuscript that has many errors or does not follow the guideline for submissions will be returned to the author without review. Any manuscript registered is given a registration number, which will be emailed to the corresponding author. Once the Editorial Committee requests an author to revise his or her manuscript, the author should resubmit the revised manuscript using our online submission system.

ii) Review
The manuscript will be reviewed by 2 or 3 reviewers blind to the name and affiliation of the authors. The review process is limited to 3 times; a decision for revision at the third review means the manuscript is no longer eligible for publication.

iii) Revision by authors
Upon the Editorial Committee’s request, authors should revise and resubmit the revised manuscript accompanied by a cover letter indicating clearly what alterations have been made in response to the reviewer’s comments and stating satisfactory reasons for noncompliance with any of the recommendations of the editors. No reply within 45 days after the request for revision will be assumed as a withdrawal of the manuscript and the review process will be terminated. In this case, a new submission is required if authors desire further review of their manuscript by the Editorial Committee. The review process will require 3 months on average.

iv) Conclusion of review
Once the manuscript is accepted for publication in JUO, a certification of publication stating that the manuscript will be published can be issued on demand by the author(s).

v) Printing
The authors should proofread and edit their accepted manuscript carefully before printing, and can still request additional corrections at this stage. The Editorial Committee makes the final edits and decides whether to publish the manuscript and the order in which the manuscript is published.
Consultation: Review of the manuscript will be done through consultation to subcommittees and subspecialties.

9. Access

This is an open-access journal distributed under the term of the Creative Common Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creative-commons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. A free full-text service, both in XML and PDF formats, is available immediately upon publication without an embargo period.

ORGANISATION

10. Ownership and Management

• i) Information about the ownership
• This journal is owned by the publisher, Korean Urological Oncology Society
• (https://www.kuos.or.kr/eng/main.html)
• ii) Management team of a journal
• -Journal Manager
•   Cheol Kwak   Editor-in-Chief, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
• -Manager of the Review Process
•   Young Hwii Ko   Deputy Editor, Yeungnam University, Daegu, Korea
• -Manuscript Editor
•   Hwan Tae Ahn   JTS, Korea
• -Website and JATS XML File Producers
•   Yoon-Sang Cho   M2PI, Korea
• -Layout Editor: Eun Young Song, Medrang, Korea
• -English Editor: Andrew Dombrowski, Compecs, Korea

11. Advisory body

The advisory body is the journal's editorial board. The full names and affiliations of the journal’s editors are displayed on the About (Editorial Board: https://www.e-juo.org/about/editorial.php) tab of the journal website.

12. Editorial team and contact information

i) Editorial team
Editorial Board’s website is https://www.e-juo.org/about/editorial.php.
All of the members are responsible to improve the scientific quality of the journal and to implement editorial policy approved by the editorial board.

ii) Contact information
Publisher Korean Urological Oncology Society
50-1 Yonsei-ro, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 03722, Korea
Tel: +82-2-704-8574, E-mail: kspe.editor@gmail.com

Editorial Office
Department of Urology, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul National University College of Medicine, 101 Daehak-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul 03080, Korea
Tel: +82-2-2072-0817, Fax: +82-2-742-4665, Email: journal@e-juo.org

BUSINESS PRACTICES

13. Author fees

Neither page charge, article processing fee nor submission fee will be applied. Journal of Urologic Oncology is a platinum open access journal, meaning there are no fees on the author side.

14. Other revenue

Revenue sources of journal were from the support of publisher (the Korean Urological Oncology Society), Korea Government’s support.

15. Advertising

Journal of Urologic Oncology does not accept any commercial product advertisements until policy changes otherwise.

16. Direct marketing

Journal propagation has been done through the journal web site and distribution of an eTOC. Invitations to submit a manuscript are usually focused on the presenters at conferences, seminars, or workshops if the topic is related to the journal's aims and scope.