Publishing Ethics and Malpractice Statement

Click here to download a PDF of the Publishing Ethics and Malpractice Statement.

Wound Practice and Research (ISSN 1837-6304 print, ISSN 2202-9729 online, published quarterly) is provided in hard copy, by individually addresses journal packages, to all members of Wounds Australia as part of their membership and to those (individuals and institutions) who subscribe. However, Wound Practice and Research and Wounds Australia recognise the importance of worldwide dissemination of knowledge and, consequently, provides Open Access (at woundpracticeandresearch.com ) to the online edition of the journal.

The journal is owned by Wounds Australia, published by Cambridge Media under contract to Wounds Australia and the copyright of all non-advertising content resides with Wounds Australia unless specifically stated otherwise. Cambridge Media owns the copyright to the electronic platform on which the online version of the journal appears but not the copyright of the content. The names and affiliations of the Editorial Board, including the address for the Editor, are listed in the Information section of the journal’s website.

Wound Practice and Research adheres to the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE Recommendations) and is listed with the ICMJE accordingly.

The primary aim of the journal is to reduce the burden of wounds on those through improved knowledge and practices. The journal focuses on publishing high quality pre-clinical and clinical research, translational research, clinical practice and policies that impact upon the burden of wounds.

The information section of woundpracticeandresearch.com contains the Aims and Scope, Policies and Processes, Editorial Board, Author Guidelines, Article Templates and information about Wounds Australia (the Society) and Cambridge Media (the Publisher), as well as this statement.

All articles published in Wound Practice and Research have been through a double-blind peer review process with manuscripts sent to at least two reviewers. Reviewers will score the manuscript and provide feedback to authors - the peer review process is outlined in the Author Guidelines. Commonly,authors will be asked to revise their manuscripts at least once during the peer review process.

Author fees are not charged and submissions in the form of original research articles, original clinical studies, case reports, reviews and letters to the editor are welcome. The Editorial Board may solicit manuscripts for themed editions (not a supplement) of the journal. Each submission is evaluated on its merit, relevance, accuracy, clarity and applicability to the journal.

Authors must state sources of funding or grant supports if applicable. Investigations in human and animal subjects must conform to accepted ethical standards. Authors must certify in the text that the research protocol was approved by a suitably constituted ethics committee of the institution within which the work was carried out and that it conforms to the WMA Declaration of Helsinki or a similar such statement from the author’s country and participant consent must be documented. The conflict of interest section in the manuscript submission process must be answered. It is the responsibility of all authors to disclose any financial and non-financial relationships that could be viewed as presenting a potential or actual conflict of interest.

Authorship policies are fully defined in both the Policies and Processes and Author Guidelines sections of the website. Permission will be granted to authors who publish their research work in the journal to self-archive a copy of the final version in their institution’s repository.

The ICMJE recommendations for corrections and retractions and misconduct and expressions of concern are followed by Wound Practice and Research. A corrigendum or an erratum will be published in the very next edition after the Editor-in-Chief learns of a published error. If several and/or serious errors are found, a retraction will be considered and published. If doubt is raised as to honesty or integrity of a published article, an investigation by two editorial board members will be instigated which could lead to an expression of concern being published, in line with the  Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Guidelines.

Revenue to cover the costs of publishing comes from advertising, aggregator royalties, copyright fees and subscriptions. Advertising, which is managed by Cambridge Media and accounts for over 90% of revenue, provides opportunities for companies to reach a clearly defined target audience. Cambridge Media is committed to ensuring that commercial revenue has no influence or impact on editorial decisions. All editorial board members and reviewers are members of Wounds Australia and do not work for Cambridge Media. The Cambridge Media sales team is never involved in any aspect of authorship, peer review or editing. Only advertising that is compatible with the image of and acceptable to the Society is accepted.

Preservation and access to the journal’s content is facilitated by the National Library of Australia’s edeposit service, Cambridge Media’s application to join CLOCKKS and Wound Practice and Research’s application to join PubMed Central.