Editorial Policy

Editorial Policies

Author contributions

Planta Animalia requires that the contribution of each author be clearly mentioned. Authors should be appropriately credited as per the ICMJE recommendations. It is assumed that authors are accountable for the parts of the work he or she has done. Furthermore, it is also assumed that the authors have confidence in the integrity of the whole work presented in the manuscript.

Competing interests

Planta Animalia requires that the authors, editors, and reviewers should disclose any competing interests that might affect their judgment on the manuscript approval/rejection.

Compliance with community guidelines and mandates

It is important to respect the community standards and relevant guidelines of the communities where the research work is carried out. Planta Animalia supports and requires adherence to the best practice in research in that community.

Confidentiality and embargos

We strongly believe that all communication among authors, peer-reviewers, and editors should be considered confidential as standard practice.

By ensuring that all of our employees and editors are clearly aware of the need for confidentiality whilst the manuscript assessment process is underway and in matters beyond that. Planta Animalia may provide a media service via which select papers are confidentially provided to the media, under embargo, before publication.

Consent of human participants.

The consent of human participants in research is of utmost importance before taking biometric, biomedical, and clinical data. The participants should be clearly and explicitly informed about the research details and no form of coercion or manipulation should be involved in order to gain consent.

Correction and Retractions

At Planta Animalia, it is our duty to ensure that the published literature meets the highest standards of integrity and we must act quickly to address any concerns regarding the work that we publish.

Corresponding authors

At Planta Animalia, we believe that the corresponding author should be empowered to act on behalf of all co-authors during the manuscript assessment and publication process.

Diversity commitment

At Planta Animalia, we believe that research is strengthened by diversity. We strive to promote equity, inclusion, and diversity among our internal practices and the content that we publish. We integrate these principles in all our editorial activities and support and foster these values in the research community.

Editorial Independence

At Planta Animalia, we are of the view that financial and commercial concerns should not play a role in the editorial decision-making process.

Fraud and malpractice

We believe that Planta Animalia has a responsibility to investigate any instances of fraud or malpractice that it detects.

Funder Affiliations

At Planta Animalia, we believe that due credit should be given to the funding sources by the authors. The readers should also be made aware of these funding sources and that the funding sources should have access to the published work that they sponsor.

Institutional Affiliations

At Planta Animalia, we believe that it should be simple for authors to link their institutions to their publications. The readers should also be able to understand these affiliations and that the institutions should have access to the published work by both past and present employees.

Peer Review

At Planta Animalia, we believe that robust and well-conducted peer review supports the advance of research and discovery by ensuring that research results are robust and trustworthy.

Personal data

We, at Planta Animalia, believe that personal data should be disclosed only with the full permission of the individual to whom the data pertains.

Plagiarism

We believe that Planta Animalia has a responsibility to investigate any instances of plagiarism that it detects.

Preprints

At Planta Animalia, we believe that sharing preprints can accelerate research and help advance discovery.

Research data

We believe that Planta Animalia should support community best practices in the sharing and archiving of research data.

Submitting your manuscript

At Planta Animalia, we are of the view that researchers should have significant ease in submitting their manuscript and linked supplementary information and date to the journal.

Third-Party Submissions

At Planta Animalia, we believe in legal publishing and reuse, and therefore, it is vital to secure the correct rights to third party content.

Article Withdrawal

Only articles that are used that have been accidentally submitted more than once or represent early versions and rarely include errors. At times, though uncommon, the articles may bear infringements of professional ethical practices such as multiple submission, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data, or the like. Articles in Press (articles that have been accepted for publication but which have not been formally published and will not yet have the complete volume/issue/page information) that comprise of errors or are later found to be copies of articles that have already been published, or are determined to have breached ethics of publication as termed by the editors (such as multiple submission, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data or the like), maybe “Withdrawn” from ScienceDirect. Withdrawn means that the article content (HTML and PDF) is removed and replaced with an HTML page and PDF simply stating that the article has been withdrawn according to the Journal Policy on Article in Press Withdrawal with a link to the current policy document.

Image Integrity

Adding, removing, enhancing, obscuring, or introducing features into images is not allowed. Adjusting color, contrast and brightness are acceptable if and only they do not obscure the content that is depicted in the original image. To improve clarity, image manipulation is acceptable. However, manipulation for other purposes could be seen as scientific and ethical abuse and will be dealt with accordingly.