In March 2019, OAE officially became a member of Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). This document describes the standard editorial norms that The Journal of Cardiovascular Aging (JCA) should jointly comply with; illustrates the scope of responsibility and right of different roles in the process of academic publishing, including authors, reviewers, and in-house editors; and clarifies the handling of publication misconduct. This document is based on the guidelines of COPE, World Association of medical editors (WAME), and International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

1. Publication Ethics and Publication Misconduct Statement

JCA strictly complies with the editorial guidelines by COPE on the statement of publication ethics and publication misconduct. According to the best practices of publication ethics by COPE, the responsibility and right of authors, reviewers, and in-house editors in the publishing process are clarified.

1.1 Authors' responsibility and right

JCA is a peer-reviewed journal. All articles will be subjected to single-blind (anonymous) peer review process.

1. The authors should guarantee the originality, authenticity, accuracy, and reproducibility of the data in the submissions. If necessary, the path of data sources should be provided to make it convenient for scholars to conduct repeated experiments or for further use.
2. The authors should guarantee that the submissions have not been submitted to other journals or officially published in other journals in the corresponding period. Serious problems with publication ethics, such as duplicate submission, duplicate publication, and data fragmentation should be avoided.
3. If a manuscript involves experiments with biological specimen from humans and/or animals, it is imperative to get timely permission from relevant institutional regulatory departments (e.g., Ethics Committee, Institutional Review Board, etc.); if it involves the personal information of subjects, the corresponding informed consent shall be obtained, respecting the subjects' privacy; if it involves a clinical trial, it shall be registered with the Public Clinical Registration Center or ClinicalTrials.gov (refer to Research Ethics and Consent for details); and if it involves copyright issues, explicit permission shall be obtained from the corresponding publishing institutions or individuals (refer to Copyright and License to Publish for details). The relevant data shall be submitted to the Journal Office with the manuscript.
4. The authors should clarify the conflicts of interest (JCA requires the authors to state clearly any possible economic or non-economic conflict of interest in the manuscript; refer to Conflicts of Interest Policy for details).
5. When serious data errors are found in submitted or published papers, the authors should inform the Journal Office immediately. When necessary, they shall cooperate with the Journal Office to issue a statement of Correction or Retraction.
6. All authors of a manuscript have the right to track the real-time progress in manuscript processing. They can formally submit complaints to the corresponding Journal Office or Editor-in-Chief if they have any objection to the manuscript processing process.
7. It should be affirmed that all authors listed in the manuscript have made great contributions to the research. Regarding the misconduct of false contribution or publication, plagiarism, etc., once it is found, the original authors have the right to safeguard their legitimate rights reasonably by informing the corresponding Journal Office, and providing detailed data to make it convenient for the Journal Office to contact relevant departments or institutions for investigation. If the evidence is irrefutable through investigation, the Journal Office will directly reject or withdraw the manuscript and publicize the handling result. In terms of those who seriously violate publication ethics, the Journal Office will inform their affiliations and will never accept their submissions.

1.2 Reviewers' responsibility and right

1. The reviewers should review and evaluate manuscripts in an objective, fair, and timely manner. They should not discriminate against the authors in terms of their nationality, race, etc., and the malice of slander should be avoided. They should respect the authors’ contributions and help improve the quality of manuscripts.
2. Before a manuscript is officially published, the reviewers should not copy or keep the data in the manuscript for their own use or plagiarize the research methods and research ideas so as to protect the confidentiality of the manuscript.
3. The reviewers should pay careful attention to the potential conflicts of interest and include perceived potential conflict of interest in their comments to the Editors.
4. The reviewers should reasonably avoid their possible conflicts of interest with the authors and inform the Journal Office to avoid the possibility of an unfair evaluation.
5. In the case of finding any academic misconduct, the reviewers should immediately inform the Journal Office or Editor-in-Chief. The reviewers have the right to learn about the progress and results of the investigation.

1.3 In-house editors' responsibility and right

1. The in-house editors should guarantee the quality of manuscripts published by the Journal. Only originality, significance, and academic value should be taken as the criteria for evaluating manuscripts, and improper publication due to commercial demand should be reasonably avoided.
2. The in-house editors should help safeguard freedom of speech and encourage academic discussion within the Journal platform.
3. The in-house editors should pursue the impeachment of academic misconduct, as necessary. With regard to any suspected misconduct, relevant investigation procedures will be launched. The authors will be asked to provide a written explanation for the alleged misconduct. The authors' response will be evaluated by the Editors and if needed by external experts. The outcome of the investigation will be reported to the relevant institutions or departments for their own investigations. Academic misconducts and expression of concern will be published at the Journal site. If there is a controversy, the case will be reported to COPE for further investigation.

1.4 Research ethics and consent

1.4.1 research involving human subjects

All studies involving human subjects should be in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration and seek approval to conduct from an independent local, regional or national review body (e.g., ethics committee, institutional review board, etc.). Such approval, including the name of ethics committee, institutional review board, etc., should be listed in a declaration statement of Ethical Approval and Consent to Participate in the manuscript. If the study is judged exempt from ethics approval, related information (e.g., name of the ethics committee that granted the exemption, and the reason for the exemption) should also be listed. Further documentation on ethics should also be prepared, as editors may request more detailed information. Manuscripts with suspected ethical problems would be investigated according to COPE Guidelines.

1.4.1.1 consent to participate

For all research involving human subjects, informed consent to participate in the study should be obtained from participants, or their parents or legal guardians for children under 16. Statements regarding consent to participate should be included in a declaration statement of Ethical Approval and Consent to Participate in the manuscript.
If any ethical violation is found at any stage of publication, the issue will be investigated seriously based on COPE Guidelines.

1.4.1.2 consent for publication

All articles published by JCA are freely available on the internet. All manuscripts that include an individual participant's data in any form, like details, images, or videos, etc., should not be published without Consent for Publication obtained from that person, and for children, their parents or legal guardians. If the person has died, Consent for Publication must be obtained from the next of kin. Authors must add a declaration statement of Consent for Publication in the manuscript, specifying written informed consent for publication was obtained.

1.4.1.3 clinical trials

trial registration

JCA requires all authors to register all relevant clinical trials that are reported in manuscripts submitted. JCA follows the World Health Organization (WHO)'s definition of clinical trials: "A clinical trial is any research study that prospectively assigns human participants or groups of humans to one or more health-related interventions to evaluate the effects on health outcomes. Interventions include but are not restricted to drugs, cells and other biological products, surgical procedures, radiologic procedures, devices, behavioural treatments, process-of-care changes, preventive care, etc."
In line with ICMJE recommendation, JCA requires the registration of clinical trials in a public trials registry at or before the time of first patient enrollment. JCA accepts publicly accessible registration in any registry that is a primary register of the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) or in ClinicalTrials.gov. The trial registration number should be listed at the end of the Abstract.
Secondary data analyses of primary (parent) clinical trials should not be registered as a new clinical trial, but rather reference the trial registration number of the primary trial.
Editors will consider carefully whether studies failed to register or had an incomplete trial registration. Because of the importance of prospective trial registration, if there is an exception to this policy, trials must be registered and the authors should indicate in the publication when registration was completed and why it was delayed. Editors should publish a statement indicating why an exception was allowed. Please note such exceptions should be rare, and authors failing to prospectively register a trial risk its inadmissibility to JCA.
Authors who are not sure whether they need trial registration may refer to ICMJE FAQs for further information.

data sharing

JCAadopts ICMJE requirements regarding data sharing statements. In particular, we adopt the view that data sharing statements must indicate the following:

• whether individual de-identified participant data (including data dictionaries) will be shared;
• what data in particular will be shared;
• whether additional, related documents will be available (e.g., study protocol, statistical analysis plan, data dictionary, etc.);
• when the data will become available and for how long;
• by what access criteria data will be shared (including with whom, for what types of analyses, and by what mechanism).

Examples of data sharing statements that fulfil ICMJE requirements*
*These examples are meant to illustrate a range of, but not all, data sharing options.

1.4.2 research involving animals

Experimental research on animals should be approved by appropriate ethics committees and must comply with institutional, national, or international guidelines. JCA encourages authors to comply with the AALAS Guidelines, the ARRIVE Guidelines, and the ICLAS Guidelines and obtain prior approval from relevant ethics committee. Manuscripts must include a declaration statement of Ethical Approval and Consent to Participate indicating that the study has been approved by relevant ethical committee and the whole research process complies with ethical guidelines. If a study has been granted an exemption from requiring ethics approval, the name of the ethics committee that granted the exemption and the reasons for the exemption should be detailed. Editors will take account of animal welfare issues and reserve the right to reject a manuscript, especially if the research involves protocols that are inconsistent with commonly accepted norms of animal research.

1.4.3 research involving cell lines

Authors must describe what cell lines were used and their origin so that the research can be reproduced. For established cell lines, the provenance should be stated and references must also be given to either a published paper or to a commercial source. For de novo cell lines derived from human tissue, an appropriate approval from an institutional review board or equivalent ethical committee and consent from the donor or next of kin should be obtained, and such statements should be listed on the declaration section of Ethical Approval and Consent to Participate in the manuscript.
Further information is available from the International Cell Line Authentication Committee (ICLAC). JCA recommends that authors check the NCBI database for misidentification and contamination of human cell lines.

1.4.4 research involving plants

Experimental research on plants (either cultivated or wild), including collection of plant material, must comply with institutional, national, or international guidelines. Field studies should be conducted in accordance with local legislation, and the manuscript should include a statement specifying the appropriate permissions and/or licenses. JCA recommends that authors comply with the IUCN Policy Statement on Research Involving Species at Risk of Extinction and the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
For each submitted manuscript, supporting genetic information and origin must be provided. For research manuscripts involving rare and non-model plants (other than, e.g., Arabidopsis thaliana, Nicotiana benthamiana, Oriza sativa, or many other typical model plants), voucher specimens must be deposited in a public herbarium or other public collection providing access to deposited materials.

1.5 Publication misconduct and handling policies

1.5.1 misconduct

Misconduct includes but is not limited to data fabrication, plagiarism, authorship impropriety, breach of ethical and legal regulations, misappropriation of others' ideas, etc. WAME has summarized some most common forms of misconduct in order to help authors avoid those inappropriate behaviors.

• Data falsification – It ranges from fabrication to deceptive selective reporting of findings and omission of conflicting data, or willful suppression and/or distortion of data.
• Plagiarism – It includes the appropriation of the language, ideas, or thoughts of another without crediting their true source, and representation of them as one's own original work.
• Authorship impropriety – It refers to improper assignment of credit, such as excluding other authors, including individuals as authors who have not made a definite contribution to the work, or submitting multi-authored manuscript without the concurrence of all authors.
• Breach of ethical and legal regulations – It includes but is not limited to serious or substantial, repeated, willful violations of applicable local regulations and laws involving the use of funds, care of animals, human subjects, investigational drugs, recombinant products, new devices, or radioactive, biologic, or chemical materials.
• Misappropriation of others' ideas – Scholars can acquire novel ideas from others during the process of reviewing grant applications or manuscripts. Improper use of such information can constitute fraud. Substantial appropriation of such material constitutes misconduct.
• Violation of generally accepted research practices – Serious deviation from accepted practices in proposing or carrying out research, improper manipulation of experiments to obtain biased results, deceptive statistical or analytical manipulations, or improper reporting of results.
• Inappropriate behavior related to misconduct – It includes unfounded or knowingly false accusations of misconduct, failure to report known or suspected misconduct, withholding or destruction of information relevant to a claim of misconduct and retaliation against persons involved in the allegation or investigation.

1.5.2 how to identify it

1. JCA is a member of Crossref. It can conduct duplicate checking on each manuscript through iThenticate to avoid the misconducts of suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication, etc.
2. JCA provides MESAs, an independent manuscript processing system. It can support authors to conduct self-inspection according to the checklist. In the case of any misconduct of suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication, etc., the system will automatically inform the Editorial Board of the journal.
3. JCA uses Motuin, a kind of software for image similarity analysis, to identify suspected image plagiarism or manipulation.
4. JCA encourages anyone, including readers, authors, reviewers, Editorial Board members, etc., to inform against suspected misconduct according to the relevant regulations by WAME, COPE, and ICMJE and timely inform the journal's editor or the publisher.
5. It is the informant's responsibility to provide sufficient evidence and information to make it convenient for editors or publishers to contact relevant departments for further investigation.

1.5.3 how to avoid it

1. JCA provides information, enhance awareness, and list the contributions of authors.
2. JCA ensures the disclosure of conflicts of interest and provide guidance on authorship and signature.
3. JCA sets the function of commenting on articles to encourage readers to discuss the articles published online.
4. The expectation of confidentiality is explained to reviewers.
5. The Quality Control Committee and the Ethics Committee are established for JCA.

1.5.4 how to handle it

JCA takes all allegations of potential misconduct seriously and deals with them case-by-case on the basis of the WAME Guidelines and COPE Guidelines. If there is misconduct suspicion, it may be necessary for the editors to contact and share content of manuscript with third parties, such as authors' institutions and ethics committees. Any questions, you may email to JCA: editorialoffice@cardiovascularaging.com
1. For the suspected misconduct identified by the plagiarism detecting system, the in-house editor will send the detecting results to the parties concerned and seek the formal response from them. After the investigation of relevant institutions or departments, the in-house editor will take the following appropriate measures to handle irrefutable academic misconduct.
Handling results for reference (with the action ranging from mild to severe, one or more handling methods can be adopted in accordance with specific conditions):
A. Inform and educate the parties concerned.
B. Give warnings to the parties concerned.
C. Publicize the academic misconduct.
D. Inform the affiliations of the parties concerned or the persons in charge.
E. Reject or withdraw the manuscript and inform the relevant database administrator to withdraw the publication records. For specific statements, please refer to the policies in Corrections and Retractions.
F. Within a certain period of time, the parties concerned are forbidden to submit manuscripts, publish articles, or participate in other relevant academic activities in the journal and other journals subordinate to the same publishing house.
G. If the circumstance is severe, the editor will inform the relevant departments or institutions, who will permanently record their misconduct on publication ethics.

2. When the in-house editor receives a written report against academic misconduct, one or more of the following are performed:
A. Contact the informant to provide sufficient evidence and information.
B. Seek a direct response from the parties accused.
C. Contact relevant organizations or regulatory agencies to assist in the investigation in the case of receiving insufficient response.
D. If necessary, on the premise of avoiding conflicts of interest with the parties concerned, an investigation team composed of the Editor-in-Chief or a designated Associate Editor of the journal and at least one Editorial Board member in cooperation should be established to carry out an investigation.
E. The investigation team will inform the parties accused to officially start the investigation.
F. Adopt different handling methods according to different situations:
   a. formally informing both parties if it is not identified as misconduct;
   b. proposing relevant suggestions to the editors according to the severity of circumstances if it is identified as misconduct, and formally informing both parties of the handling results.
JCA handles misconduct according to the flowcharts by COPE. If there is any objection to the handling methods, a further appeal can be submitted to the publisher at info@oaepublish.com.

2. Access to Full-Text and Article Processing Charges (APCs)

JCA supports Gold Open Access and encourages fund support for authors. All articles published through Gold Open Access undergo strict peer review, with professional editing and production services provided. All accepted manuscript will be posted online at the Journal's website prior to copy editing and formal publication. In addition, all contents on websites, including the full texts of articles, are accessible free of charge, with no registration required. To provide readers with free access to the full text, and bear the related charges arising from manuscript processing, peer review, manuscript editing, typesetting, language polishing, paper archiving, journal operation, platform maintenance, system construction, etc., APC is charged for the articles accepted for publication, and the specific charging standard is shown on JCA's website.

3. Authorship

Authorship credit of JCA should be solely based on substantial contributions to a published study, as specified in the following four criteria:
1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work, or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work;
2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content;
3. Final approval of the version to be published;
4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
All those who meet these criteria should be identified as authors. Authors must specify their contributions in the section Authors' Contributions of their manuscripts. Contributors who do not meet all the four criteria (like only involved in acquisition of funding, general supervision of a research group, general administrative support, writing assistance, technical editing, language editing, proofreading, etc.) should be acknowledged in the section Acknowledgement in the manuscript rather than being listed as authors.
If a large multiple-author group has conducted the work, the group ideally should decide who will be authors before the work starts and confirm authors before submission. All authors of the group named as authors must meet all the four criteria for authorship.

3.1 Corresponding author(s)

JCAdoes not require all authors to sign the letter of their submission, nor do they impose an order on the list of authors. Submissions taken by JCA mean that all the listed authors have agreed all of the contents, including the author list and the statement of authors' contributions.
Corresponding author(s) is who takes primary responsibility of communicating with journal editors during manuscript processing, before and after publication, and typically ensures that all the journal's requirements are properly completed, such as ensuring all authors have agreed to be so listed and have approved the manuscript submitted to the journal, providing details of authorship, ethical committee approval and clinical trial registration documents, and gathering conflicts of interest forms, etc.
Any changes to the author list after submission, such as a change in the order of the authors or the deletion or addition of authors, must be approved by every author. JCA editors are not in a position to investigate or adjudicate authorship disputes before or after publication. Such disagreements, if they cannot be resolved amongst authors, should be directed to the relevant institutional authority. No change is allowed on authorship after official acceptance of manuscripts.
The primary affiliation for each author should be the institution where the majority of their work is done. If an author has subsequently moved, the current address may also be stated. JCA remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Corresponding author is also expected to be responsible for the following with respect to data, code and materials:

• ensuring that data, materials, and code comply with transparency and reproducibility standards of the field and the journal;
• ensuring that original data/materials/code upon which the submission is based are preserved following best practices in the field so that they are retrievable for reanalysis;
• confirming that data/materials/code presentation accurately reflects the original;
• foreseeing and minimizing obstacles to the sharing of data/materials/code described in the work.

At submission, corresponding author must clearly identify any material in the manuscript (such as figures or tables) that has been published previously elsewhere and confirm that written permission from authors of the prior work and/or publishers has been well obtained for the re-use of such material. After acceptance, corresponding author is responsible for the accuracy of all content in the proof, including the names of coauthors, addresses and affiliations. After publication, corresponding author is the point of contact for queries about the published paper. It is their responsibility to inform all co-authors of any matters arising in relation to the published paper and to ensure such matters are dealt with promptly. Authors of published manuscripts have a responsibility to inform the journal immediately if they become aware of any aspect that requires correction.
Corresponding authors are advised to provide their ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) when submitting a manuscript. This information is also visible once the manuscript is published online.

3.2 Co-first authorship

When two authors contribute equally to a work, authors can indicate dual first authorship with an asterisk on the manuscript title page and a short note "Drs. XXX and XXX contributed equally to this article.".

3.3 Group authorship

JCApermits the use of group names in the case where some large groups designate authorship by a group name, with or without names of individual authors. When submitting a manuscript authored by a group, the corresponding authors should specify the group name if one exists, and clearly identify the group members who can take credit and responsibility for the work as authors.

3.4 Statement of authors' contributions

JCA requires authors to make a statement of authors' contributions to specify the contribution of each author at the end of their manuscript. The details vary: some disciplines produce manuscripts that comprise discrete efforts in detail, whereas some operate as a group at all stages.

4. Conflicts of Interest

4.1 JCA's Conflicts of Interest Policy

It is the responsibility of every academic to maintain the transparency and credibility of the research publication. Improving the transparency and legitimacy of the publishing system allows us to effectively share important information, thereby improving our understanding of academic knowledge.JCA requires authors to declare any competing financial and/or non-financial interests in their submitted manuscripts.

4.2 Definition of conflicts of interest

Conflicts of interest refer to a situation where an author cannot handle things from an objective stand because of various relationships.JCA's conflicts of interest include financial and non-financial interests which could undermine the objectivity, integrity and value of a publication.

4.2.1 financial conflicts of interest

Funding Support: Authors need to disclose funding support that may gain or lose through this publication, as well as the funder’s role in the conception, design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish and preparation of the manuscript.
Employment: Recent (while engaged in current research project), present or anticipated employment by any organization that may gain or lose financially through this publication.
Personal financial interests: Stocks, shares, consultation fees and other forms of remuneration that may gain or lose financially through the publication; Patents or patent applications whose value may be affected by the publication.
It is difficult to define a detailed threshold which will refer to financial interest, so we suggest authors declaring all possible conflicts of interest of their research manuscripts, avoiding embarrassing the authors once the article is published online without declaration.

4.2.2 non-financial conflicts of interest

No-financial conflicts of interest usually refer to personal or professional relations with organization and individuals. It mainly includes but is not limited to the following situations: unpaid membership in a government or non-governmental organization, unpaid advisory position in a commercial organization; acting as an expert witness. We suggest authors declaring any unpaid roles or relationship that may affect the publication process.

4.3 Conflicts of interest policy for authors

JCA requires authors to declare any possible financial and/or non-financial conflicts of interest at the end of their manuscript and in the cover letter, as well as confirm this point when submitting their manuscript in the submission system. If no conflicts of interest exist, authors need to state "The authors declare no conflicts of interest". We also recognize that some authors may be bound by confidentiality agreements, in which cases authors need to sate "The authors declare that they are bound by confidentiality agreements that prevent them from disclosing their competing interests in this work."
Declaration of each manuscript in peer review is fully open to reviewers and subsequently fully open to readers when the manuscript is online published after acceptance.

4.4 Conflicts of interest policy for reviewers

JCAsuggests reviewers avoid reviewing manuscripts in which significant conflicts of interest exist. However, under the situation that editors are well informed of any related interests and the existing interests do not affect the conclusion of the manuscript, reviewers may still evaluate it and give their comments. Editors will consider the interests when weighing their recommendations.

4.5 Conflicts of interest policy for editors

Editors of JCA are required to declare any interests that may impact their editorial practices and to exclude themselves if the conflicts of interest would have a significant effect on the editorial processing.

5. Duplicate Publication

Manuscripts submitted to JCA must be original, and should not be published or under consideration for any other journals. Authors are required to declare it clearly in the cover letter in any case where there is the potential for overlap or duplication. Any overlapping publications should be cited. JCA is a member of Crossref and uses iThenticate to detect possible plagiarism. Any suspected cases of covert duplicate manuscript submission will be handled as outlined in the COPE Guidelines and the editor may contact the authors' institution if any misconduct exists.
However, a complete report following publication of a preliminary report, such as a letter to the editor, a preprint or an abstract or a poster displayed at an academic conference, and a paper presented at an academic conference but unpublished in full, or being considered for publication in proceedings or similar format, are usually considered as exceptions to this rule. Press reports of scheduled meetings are not usually regarded as breaches of this rule, but they may be if additional data tables or figures enrich such reports.
In addition, there are certain cases where secondary publication is justifiable and acceptable. Please refer to the ICMJE's Overlapping Publications Policy, which we endorse, for more information.

6. Citation

Authors are required to cite relevant literature appropriately in support of the claims made in the manuscript. They must not cite sources that have not been read, and should ensure that all the citations are correct. Original work rather than its derivations should be cited. Excessive and inappropriate self-citations or coordinated efforts among several authors to collectively self-cite are strongly discouraged.

7. Embargo Policy

Submitted and accepted articles must remain privileged documents and must not be released to the press or the public, in any format including print, television, internet, etc., until the manuscript appears online either as ahead of print or as a final publication. JCA allows authors to post their manuscripts on not-for-profit preprint servers, or to discuss it at scientific conferences, but these should not be discussed with the media.

8. Peer-Review Policy

8.1 Acceptable manuscript types

The following types of articles submitted to JCA will be peer-reviewed: Original Research Article, Review Article, and Commentary. Other submitted articles will be reviewed by the editors only and will not be usually sent to external peer-reviewers. For any questions or comments about the peer-review process, please contact the managing editor. Regarding questions about a specific manuscript, authors can contact the editor who is handling the manuscript directly.

8.2 Online review system

All submitted manuscripts are processed in our online manuscript system: MESAs which follows international publishing standards specified by COPE, ICMJE and WAME. Peer reviewers can download articles and upload their review comments. For any technical problems met in the process, reviewers can contact the managing editor directly.

8.3 Criteria for publication

In general, every accepted manuscript means the paper must be of high quality, which should have originality, provide strong evidence for its conclusions, and be of great importance to researchers and interesting to readers in the related field.
Editorial office encourage commentary on published research as necessary to advance scientific discourse, which may also involve challenges, clarifications, etc.
All manuscripts will be uploaded to the most trusted plagiarism checker iThenticate for similarity check. Normally, the similarity rate of a manuscript should not exceed 30%.

8.4 Review process

• Topics fall within the target journal's scope;
• Acceptable quality after the pre-check by editors or Guest Editors;
• Ethical code and approval have been provided if any;
• Copyright permissions of cited Tables or Figures have been provided if any;
• The similarity rate of a manuscript should not exceed 30%, especially no similarity in the sections of Abstract, Results and Discussion;
• Language is used in scientific writing and readable.

Only the papers that meet our editorial criteria can be sent for formal peer-review. Submissions of insufficient interest or poor quality will be rejected promptly by editor without external review.
Typically, two or three review reports are required for each manuscript in external review. In these review reports, reviewers are welcome to provide the editors with a definite decision together with detailed comments, and provide the authors with specific suggestions on revision.
Based on reviewers' advice, after careful consideration, the editors will make possible decisions as below:
1. Accept, with/without editorial revision;
2. Major/minor revision: authors are invited to revise their manuscripts to address concerns of reviewers and make a point-to-point response;
3. Rejection: editors will explain reasons to the authors (e.g., lack of novelty or major technical problems) or indicate they may resubmit their papers on a de novo basis after careful revision.
We take reviewers' criticisms seriously. When reviewers disagree with each other or the authors claim their research is misunderstood, we will ask for further advice from related reviewers or additional reviewers. The editors take the rebuttal seriously and carefully review the authors rebuttals, the reviewers' comments, and determine whether the manuscript merits further considerations or is not sufficiently competitive for publication in JCA.
We respect reviewers' willingness or unwillingness to review subsequent revisions. Also, editors will not send revisions to reviewers if the authors have not addressed the comments seriously.

8.5 Reviewer selection

Reviewer selection is very critical in the publication process. We consider many factors when selecting a reviewer, including expertise, reputation, recommendations and our previous experience of reviewers. A reviewer who is quick, responsible and can provide useful comments for papers is preferred and will be added in our reviewer database. Meanwhile, authors can request that the editors exclude one or two individuals or laboratories. The editors will seriously consider their requests and usually respect them, but the final decision on the choice of referees is made by editors. In the process, we keep in mind the confidentiality of manuscripts.
General reviewer criteria of JCA are as follows:

• Having MD, PhD, or an equivalent degree and institutional email;
• Having research expertise related with the manuscript topic;
• Having no conflicts of interest with authors after editor's preliminary investigation;
• Having publications on internationally recognized academic journals in recent five years.

The peer-review process is single-blind peer review for JCA. We do not release reviewers' identities to authors or to other reviewers unless a reviewer voluntarily signs their comments to the authors. Generally, we ask reviewers not to identify themselves to authors in their review reports without the editor's knowledge. We avoid any attempt by authors to identify the reviewers. JCA also supports double-blind peer-review and open review in the future.

8.6 Time control

JCA is committed to rapid manuscript processing and publication. An efficient editorial process is a valuable service both to our authors and to the scientific community. We therefore ask reviewers to submit their review report promptly within an agreed period, typically within two weeks. If reviewers need a longer delay than previously expected, we will keep the authors informed promptly, or will find alternatives if necessary.

8.7 Qualified review report

Peer-review is to provide the editors with a critical evaluation of the manuscript in order to guide the editors in making a decision on disposition of the manuscript. The peer-review will also identify the potential weaknesses in the manuscript and how to improve their manuscript by revision suggestions. Likewise, the peer-review is expected to explain to the authors the major weaknesses of their manuscript. The editors will use the information gathered upon peer-review and assess priority rating of the manuscript as compared to others that the Journal receives in order to make a decision on the final acceptance or rejection of a manuscript. Many meritorious manuscripts are rejected simply based on not being sufficiently competitive as compared to others.
We expect reviewers to assess a manuscript from the various aspects below:
1. Briefly summarize the highlights of the manuscript;
2. State the fundamental flaws, if any, which render the manuscript unacceptable for publication and provide detailed information;
3. Others:

• Evaluate the originality and significance. Are the conclusions original? Are research results useful for most researchers in the related field?
• Evaluate robustness of the findings and whether the data unequivocally support the conclusions of the study.
• Assess the abstract, introduction, conclusion and references. Is the abstract clear? Is the introduction appropriate? Is the conclusion reliable? Are the references cited appropriately?
• Assess the data and methodology. Is the approach valid? Are the data and methodology detailed and available to be reproduced by other researchers?
• Indicate the parts of the manuscript which are out of your research field and you are unable to assess professionally.
• Assess the appropriate use of statistics and treatment of uncertainties.

Reviewers need to provide detailed point-to-point improvement advice if the above problems exist so that the authors can improve their manuscript accordingly. Reviewers can contact the editor for guidance if having any question.

8.8 Reviewing review reports

Editors review each report of reviewers and ensure its validity before sending it to the authors. We seriously value reviewers’ comments to editor when making a decision on the paper. On occasion, the editors may make a decision that is different than that recommended by the reviewers, based on the overall priority assessment of the manuscript as compared to many that the Journal receives. According to the policy, we normally transmit all comments of reviewers to the authors. However, on some occasions, we may edit a report to remove offensive language or comments that reveal confidential information. We strongly expect reviewers to state their opinion on a paper without offensive statements and review their articles in the way you expect them to treat yours. We also expect reviewers not to recommend authors to cite their publications excessively, which may reveal reviewers' identities. Authors should take an object view on criticisms to their manuscript.

8.9 Ethics and security

JCA editors may ask for advice about submitted manuscripts not only from professional reviewers but also on any aspect of a paper that raises concerns, like ethical issues and threats to security. In such circumstances, advice will usually be sought simultaneously within the peer-review process. The final decision on whether to publish is made by the editor of the Journal.
More details of peer review are available at Peer Review Guidelines.

9. Preprints & Conference Proceedings

9.1 Preprints policies

A preprint is defined as an author's version of a research manuscript prior to formal peer review at a journal, which is deposited on a public server. For JCA, prior to acceptance for publication, authors retain the right to make a preprint version of an article available on preprint servers, authors' or institutional websites, and open communications among researchers either on community preprint servers or preprint commenting platforms.
When authors submit their preprints to JCA, they should disclose the information such as detailed DOI and licensing terms on preprint platforms in the cover letter.
Once the preprint is published, it's the author's responsibility to update the final version of their manuscript on preprint platforms and declare that the article has been accepted for publication in the form as follows: "This article has been accepted for publication in JCA published by OAE Publishing Inc. (DOI: xxxxx; URL link: xxxxx).".
Authors may cite preprints in the references of their manuscript submitted to JCA with the format arranged as below:
Adams DM, Reay WR, Geaghan MP, Cairns MJ. Investigating the effect of glycaemic traits on the risk of psychiatric illness using Mendelian randomization. Preprint at https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.09.984690v1 (2020).

9.2 Conference proceeding policies

JCA welcomes submissions containing materials that have been published in a conference proceeding paper. However, the submission should provide substantial extension of methodology, results, analysis and conclusion, and the authors need to disclose such information in the cover letter to inform editors. Meanwhile, the authors must obtain copyright permissions if re-used previously published materials.

10. Confidentiality

JCA adheres to COPE Guidelines and treats manuscripts confidentially during the editorial processing. The editors will not share manuscripts with third parties except in cases of suspected misconduct. Please refer to Misconduct Policy for more details. Once a manuscript is rejected for publication, all the copies of the manuscript will be deleted from the editorial system. In case the editor needs to retain certain manuscripts rejected, they should get permission from the authors in advance.
JCA adopts a single-blind peer review process for JCA, which means the identities of reviewers are not revealed to authors or anyone else unless reviewer permit. Reviewers are also required to respect the confidentiality rules and not distribute or misappropriate any information of the manuscript, during or after the peer-review process. If reviewers want to involve another person in the review process, they should contact the editors first for permission, provide the name of the person who would assist the review process, and ensure the confidentiality is maintained.

11. Copyright and License to Publish

JCA adopts the Attribution 4.0 International License or Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported for publication. Copyright is retained by authors. Authors are required to sign a License to Publish (which can be downloaded from the section Author Instructions), granting JCA, which identifies itself as the original publisher, exclusive rights to publish their articles, and granting any third party the right to use the articles freely as long as the integrity is maintained and the original authors, citation details and publisher are identified.

12. Availability of Data and Materials

To maintain the integrity, transparency and reproducibility of research records, authors are encouraged to make their experimental materials and research data freely available to readers, either by publishing the supportive information as supplementary information in the Journal or by depositing datasets into publicly available data repositories. The information, indicating where the data and materials of their works can be found, must be included in the manuscript as a declaration of Availability of Data and Materials. Authors who are unable to share their data must state that data will not be shared, and specify the reason accordingly.

13. Publication Permanency

To ensure permanent access to publications, articles published in JCA are archived in Portico, which is one of the leading digital preservation service-providers in the world.

14. Describing New Taxa

14.1 Fungal and botanical names

Manuscripts containing new taxon names or other nomenclatural acts must follow the guidelines set by the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants.
Authors describing new fungal taxa should register the names with a recognized repository, such as Mycobank, and request a unique digital identifier which should be included in the published articles.

14.2 Zoological names

Since January 2012, electronic publication of zoological names has been a valid form of publication if certain conditions are met. Manuscripts containing new taxon names or other nomenclatural acts must follow the guidelines set by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. JCA requires the new taxon name and the article it is published in to be registered with ZooBank. The unique identifier provided by ZooBank should be included in the published articles. Authors will be able to update ZooBank with the final citation following publication.

14.3 Bacterial names

Based on the International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes (ICNP), effective publication of new prokaryotic names can be made possible in electronic journals.
As prescribed by the rules of the International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes (ICSP), for valid publication of new names, authors must submit a final version of the published article, together with certificates of deposition of the type strain (for unrestricted distribution) in at least two internationally recognized and publicly accessible culture collections in different countries, to the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology (IJSEM) editorial office.
Followed by review of the List Editor, effectively published names that conform to all rules of the ICNP will appear on a subsequent Validation List, in the order in which they were received, thereby becoming validly published.

14.4 Virus names

The proposal of new virus names must follow the guidelines of the International Code of Virus Classification and Nomenclature. Proposals for new virus taxa should be forwarded to the relevant Study Group of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) for consideration.

15. Corrections and Retractions

To maintain the integrity of the academic record, JCA has responsibilities, if necessary, to publish corrections to, or retractions of, articles published in the Journal.

15.1 Correction

It is necessary to publish a Correction when errors, which affect the interpretation and conclusion of the article but not fully invalidating the article, are detected. A Correction should be published as soon as possible detailing changes and citing the original publication. Corrections are published without changing the original article, and bidirectionally linked to the original article. The original article remains in the public domain and the subsequent correction will be widely indexed as well.

15.2 Retraction

A Retraction should be published if the errors are serious enough to invalidate a paper's results and conclusions. Proven misconduct, including data fabrication, plagiarism, unethical research, etc., may also lead to Retraction. A Retraction should be published promptly to minimize harmful effects caused by misleading publications. It should clearly identify the retracted article and be bidirectionally linked to the retracted article wherever possible. Who has retracted the article and the detailed reasons for retraction should also be provided. Retraction should be freely available to all readers.
JCAadheres to COPE Guidelines and ICMJE Guidelines to handle Corrections and Retractions.

16. Crossmark Policy

Crossmark is a multi-publisher initiative from Crossref to provide a standard way for readers to locate the authoritative version of a piece of content. By applying the Crossmark logo, JCA is committed to maintaining the content it has published and to reminding readers of any change if and when they occur.
The Crossmark icon informs readers of the current status of a document and provides its additional publication record as well.

17. Appeals and Complaints

If authors do not agree with any decision made in editorial handling, they can submit a formal appeal to the editorial office, explaining their reasons. The issue will be soon dealt with according to the COPE Guidelines.