Publication Ethics & Research Integrity

The Swiss Journal of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine (SJORANM) is committed to maintaining high standards of publication ethics, research integrity, editorial independence, transparency, and responsible scientific communication.

SJORANM's editorial policies are informed by internationally recognized principles and recommendations, including those of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki, and the EQUATOR Network.

1. Ethical Conduct of Research

Authors are responsible for ensuring that research submitted to SJORANM has been conducted in accordance with applicable ethical, legal, institutional, and professional requirements.

Research involving human participants, identifiable human material, or identifiable health data must comply with internationally accepted ethical principles and with applicable national and institutional requirements.

Where required, authors must provide information regarding approval by an ethics committee, institutional review board, or equivalent body, including the name of the reviewing body and approval or reference number where appropriate.

SJORANM may request additional information or documentation when clarification of ethical approval is necessary.

2. Declaration of Helsinki

Medical research involving human participants should be conducted in accordance with the principles of the current World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki.

The current official version of the Declaration of Helsinki was adopted in 2024 and supersedes earlier versions for current ethical guidance.

3. Informed Consent and Patient Privacy

Authors must protect the privacy and confidentiality of patients and research participants.

Identifiable patient information, clinical details, photographs, radiological images, or other material that may permit identification must not be published unless its inclusion is scientifically justified and appropriate informed consent for publication has been obtained where required.

Unnecessary identifying information should be removed from manuscripts, figures, image annotations, screenshots, DICOM-derived material, supplementary files, and metadata.

SJORANM may request confirmation that appropriate consent has been obtained. Authors should not routinely submit confidential consent documents containing unnecessary personal information unless specifically requested by the Editors.

4. Authorship and Contributorship

Authorship must reflect genuine intellectual and scientific contribution to the work.

All listed authors must have made a meaningful contribution to the conception, design, acquisition, analysis, interpretation, preparation, or critical revision of the work; must approve the submitted version; and must accept responsibility for the integrity and accuracy of their contribution.

Guest, gift, honorary, and ghost authorship are not permitted.

Individuals who contributed to the work but do not meet the criteria for authorship should be acknowledged where appropriate and with their permission.

Requests to add, remove, or change the order of authors after submission must be explained to the Editors and may require written agreement from all affected authors.

5. Author Identity and ORCID

SJORANM regards reliable author identification as an important element of research integrity.

All listed authors are required to authenticate their own ORCID iD through the official ORCID authorization process before a manuscript can proceed to scientific evaluation beyond the initial editorial assessment.

Manual entry of an ORCID iD alone does not fulfil the journal's authentication requirement.

Further information is available in the SJORANM Author Identity & ORCID Authentication Policy.

6. Conflicts of Interest and Competing Interests

Authors, reviewers, Editors, and other persons involved in the editorial process must disclose relationships or circumstances that could reasonably influence, or be perceived to influence, their scientific judgement.

Potential competing interests may be financial, professional, academic, institutional, intellectual, or personal.

Authors must include a Conflict of Interest statement in the manuscript. If no relevant conflicts exist, this should be stated explicitly.

Reviewers and Editors must disclose relevant conflicts and must recuse themselves where independent assessment cannot reasonably be assured.

7. Funding and Sponsor Transparency

All sources of financial or material support related to submitted work must be disclosed.

Authors should identify the funder or sponsor and, where relevant, describe the role of the funding source in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

If the work received no specific funding, this should be stated where appropriate.

Funding or sponsorship must not determine reviewer selection, editorial evaluation, or publication decisions.

8. Data Availability and Research Transparency

Authors should provide a Data Availability Statement for original research where appropriate.

The statement should indicate whether supporting data are publicly available, available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request, available subject to ethical or institutional approval, or restricted for justified legal, ethical, confidentiality, privacy, or data-protection reasons.

SJORANM does not require confidential or identifiable patient data to be made publicly available.

Where research data are deposited in a repository, a persistent identifier or stable link should be provided whenever available.

9. Reporting Standards

Authors should follow established reporting guidelines appropriate to the study design whenever applicable.

Relevant examples include CONSORT for randomized trials, STROBE for observational studies, PRISMA for systematic reviews and meta-analyses, STARD for diagnostic accuracy studies, CARE for case reports, and other recognized guidelines available through the EQUATOR Network.

Where appropriate, authors may be asked to submit a completed reporting checklist during editorial assessment or peer review.

10. Clinical Trial Registration

Prospective clinical trials should be registered in a publicly accessible clinical trial registry before or at the time of enrolment of the first participant, in accordance with applicable international standards and recommendations.

Where trial registration is applicable, the registry name and registration number must be provided in the manuscript.

Recognized registries include primary registries of the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) and ClinicalTrials.gov.

Failure to register a clinical trial prospectively may require explanation and will be assessed by the Editors on a case-by-case basis.

11. Originality, Plagiarism, and Redundant Publication

Submitted manuscripts must represent original scholarly work and must not contain plagiarism, fabricated content, or inappropriate reuse of previously published material.

Manuscripts are subject to plagiarism and text-similarity screening.

Similarity does not in itself establish misconduct. The Editors assess the nature, extent, location, and context of identified overlap.

Authors must disclose closely related manuscripts, previous publications, preprints, or other material where this information is relevant to assessing potential duplicate or redundant publication.

12. Data Fabrication, Falsification, and Image Manipulation

Fabrication or falsification of data is incompatible with publication in SJORANM.

Scientific images, including radiological and nuclear medicine images, must accurately represent the underlying data.

Image adjustments intended to improve general visibility may be acceptable when they do not selectively alter, obscure, introduce, remove, or misrepresent scientifically relevant information.

Editors may request original image files, source data, or other supporting material if concerns arise regarding data or image integrity.

13. Artificial Intelligence and AI-Assisted Technologies

Artificial intelligence and AI-assisted technologies may not be listed as authors because they cannot assume responsibility or accountability for published work.

Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, appropriate citation, and ethical compliance of all material submitted to SJORANM, including material prepared with AI assistance.

Substantive use of generative AI or other AI-assisted technology in manuscript preparation should be disclosed where relevant to the work or its preparation.

Reviewers and Editors must protect manuscript confidentiality and must not upload confidential submission material to external generative AI or large language model systems where confidentiality, data protection, and appropriate handling cannot be assured.

Further requirements governing AI use during peer review and editorial assessment are described in the Peer Review Process & Editorial Decision Policy.

14. Peer Review Integrity

Research Articles, Reviews, and Case Reports undergo double-anonymized external peer review. Letters and Communications and contributions in the Specials section are evaluated according to their nature and may undergo external peer review, specialist review, or direct editorial assessment.

Manipulation of the peer review process, including false reviewer identities, fabricated reviews, undisclosed reviewer conflicts, or attempts to improperly influence reviewer selection or editorial decisions, constitutes serious publication misconduct.

Full details are provided in the SJORANM Peer Review Process & Editorial Decision Policy.

15. Editorial Independence

SJORANM maintains a clear distinction between journal ownership and administration and scientific editorial decision-making.

The journal is published by SJORANM GmbH. Scientific publication decisions are made according to editorial, ethical, and scientific criteria.

Journal ownership, funding, sponsorship, institutional cooperation, advertising, commercial interests, or other external relationships must not determine the scientific acceptance or rejection of manuscripts.

16. Manuscripts Submitted by Editors or Editorial Board Members

Manuscripts authored or co-authored by Editors, Editorial Board members, or other persons involved in SJORANM's editorial activities are subject to the same scientific and ethical standards as all other submissions.

Any Editor who is an author, co-author, collaborator, or otherwise materially conflicted with a manuscript must not participate in reviewer selection, evaluation of reports, editorial discussion, or the final publication decision.

Such manuscripts are assigned to an independent and non-conflicted Editor.

17. Allegations of Research or Publication Misconduct

SJORANM takes allegations of research and publication misconduct seriously, whether concerns arise before or after publication.

Potential misconduct may include, among other matters:

• plagiarism;
• fabrication or falsification of data;
• inappropriate image manipulation;
• duplicate or redundant publication;
• inappropriate authorship;
• undisclosed competing interests;
• breaches of research ethics or patient privacy;
• absence of required consent;
• peer review manipulation;
• misrepresentation of research methods or results.

The journal may request explanations, original data, ethical documentation, institutional information, or other evidence necessary to assess a concern.

The editorial process may be suspended while an allegation is investigated.

Where appropriate, SJORANM may contact authors' institutions, ethics bodies, funders, or other responsible organizations in accordance with accepted publication-ethics procedures.

18. Corrections, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions

SJORANM is committed to maintaining the accuracy and integrity of the published scholarly record.

When a significant error or ethical concern is identified after publication, the journal may issue an appropriate editorial notice.

Depending on the nature and severity of the issue, action may include:

• correction;
• clarification;
• addendum;
• expression of concern;
• retraction.

Editorial notices should remain linked to the affected publication and should explain the reason for the action with sufficient transparency while respecting applicable legal and confidentiality requirements.

19. Complaints and Appeals

Authors and other parties may raise concerns regarding editorial procedures, peer review, conflicts of interest, publication ethics, or editorial conduct.

Editorial appeals should identify the relevant manuscript and state the specific factual, scientific, or procedural grounds for reconsideration.

Complaints and appeals should be submitted to admin@sjoranm.com.

Where reasonably possible, complaints or appeals concerning a particular Editor will be reviewed by another suitably qualified and non-conflicted member of the editorial team or an independent editorial representative.

Further details are available in the Peer Review Process & Editorial Decision Policy.

20. Whistleblowers and Confidential Concerns

SJORANM will consider credible concerns regarding possible research or publication misconduct irrespective of whether the person raising the concern is directly involved in the publication.

Concerns should be supported by sufficient information to permit meaningful assessment.

The journal will seek to handle the identity of individuals raising concerns with appropriate confidentiality, subject to legal obligations and the requirements of a fair investigation.

Anonymous allegations may be considered when sufficient specific and verifiable information is provided.

21. Cooperation with Institutions and Other Organizations

Editors are responsible for evaluating the scholarly publication record but are not substitutes for institutional research-integrity investigations.

Where serious concerns cannot be resolved through editorial review alone, SJORANM may refer matters to the relevant institution, ethics committee, research-integrity office, funding body, or other competent organization.

The journal may take editorial action on the basis of available evidence and may revise that action if subsequent authoritative findings become available.

22. International Standards

SJORANM's publication-ethics framework is informed by the following internationally recognized resources:

• Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) – Core Practices
• International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) – Recommendations
• World Medical Association – Declaration of Helsinki
• EQUATOR Network – Reporting Guidelines

These external standards inform SJORANM policy but do not replace the journal's responsibility to make independent editorial decisions appropriate to each individual case.