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This page outlines the journal-specific policies that govern manuscript evaluation, peer review, publication ethics, research integrity, metaverse medicine research, clinical and digital health reporting, transparency and post-publication responsibilities.
These policies should be read together with ZENTIME’s publisher-level Editorial Policies, Publishing Policies, and Open Access, Fees and Licensing policies. Where journal-specific requirements supplement publisher-level policies, the requirements stated on this journal website apply.
As a journal publishing research on metaverse medicine, the journal covers theoretical and academic research, standards and regulatory research, immersive and supporting technologies, metaverse healthcare platforms, virtual care, digital health, virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, extended reality, digital twins, virtual patients, avatars, AI-enabled clinical environments, simulation-based medical education, metaverse medical devices, clinical applications, quality control, ethics, privacy and security, and related interdisciplinary research.
The journal expects authors, editors, reviewers and editorial board members to follow internationally recognized standards of responsible scholarly publishing, including relevant guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), and the EQUATOR Network, where applicable.
The journal accepts manuscripts written in English or Chinese. Manuscripts in either language are subject to the same editorial assessment, peer review standards, publication ethics requirements and post-publication policies.
To support international discoverability and indexing, all submissions must include an English title, English abstract, English keywords, author names in Roman script and author affiliations in Roman script. Chinese manuscripts should also include the Chinese title, Chinese abstract and Chinese keywords where applicable.
Authors are responsible for the accuracy and consistency of titles, abstracts, keywords, terminology, author names, affiliations, tables, figures and supplementary materials across language versions. The journal may request language editing, translation revision or clarification where the English metadata is incomplete, unclear or inconsistent with the main text.
For Chinese-language manuscripts accepted for publication, the final published article should include English metadata sufficient for indexing and international readership. Where an English translation of the full text is provided, authors are responsible for ensuring that it accurately reflects the approved version.
The journal operates a transparent peer review process to ensure the quality, integrity, technical validity, clinical relevance and scholarly value of published content.
All submitted manuscripts are first assessed by the editorial office or a handling editor for completeness, relevance to the journal’s aims and scope, ethical compliance, reporting quality, language and metadata completeness, and suitability for further evaluation. Manuscripts that are outside the journal’s scope, do not meet basic reporting standards, lack sufficient originality or raise significant ethical, privacy, safety or technical concerns may be declined before external peer review.
The journal uses a single-anonymous peer review model, in which reviewers remain anonymous to authors. Research articles, systematic reviews, theoretical studies, standards and regulatory research, clinical studies, digital health evaluations, technical validation studies, platform development and evaluation studies, simulation studies and other scholarly manuscripts requiring external review are normally assessed by at least two independent reviewers with relevant expertise.
For manuscripts involving metaverse platforms, immersive technologies, AI-enabled systems, clinical software, digital therapeutics, simulation tools or virtual environments, editors may invite reviewers with expertise in clinical medicine, digital health, biomedical engineering, human-computer interaction, data science, medical education, ethics, privacy or regulatory science as appropriate.
Reviewer comments are advisory. Final editorial decisions are made by the Editor-in-Chief or designated handling editor based on editorial assessment, reviewer comments, methodological rigor, originality, ethical compliance, participant safety, technical validity, clinical or educational relevance and suitability for the journal.
Editorials, commentaries, letters, corrections and invited content may be reviewed internally or externally at the editors’ discretion, according to the nature of the content.
The journal maintains editorial independence in all editorial decisions. Decisions on individual manuscripts are made by the Editor-in-Chief, handling editors or designated editorial decision-making team in accordance with the journal’s policies.
Editorial decisions are based on scholarly merit, originality, methodological quality, technical validity, relevance to the journal’s aims and scope, ethical integrity, participant safety and clinical, educational or scientific contribution. Decisions are not influenced by commercial interests, advertising, sponsorship, institutional affiliation, political considerations or the financial interests of ZENTIME, journal owners, editors, editorial board members, technology providers, platform operators, software developers or any third party.
Editors and editorial board members must maintain confidentiality, declare conflicts of interest and recuse themselves from handling manuscripts where impartiality may be compromised. Manuscripts submitted by editors, editorial board members or journal staff will be handled independently by an editor without conflict of interest and will undergo the same editorial assessment and peer review standards as other submissions.
The journal is committed to maintaining high standards of publication ethics and research integrity. Authors, editors and reviewers are expected to act with honesty, transparency and accountability throughout the submission, review and publication process.
The journal does not tolerate plagiarism, redundant publication, duplicate submission, data fabrication, data falsification, image manipulation, citation manipulation, authorship manipulation, peer review manipulation, paper mills or other forms of research or publication misconduct.
For metaverse medicine research, authors must not misrepresent technology performance, platform capabilities, user engagement, clinical effectiveness, educational outcomes, safety findings, privacy protections, algorithmic performance, validation results or sponsor involvement.
Suspected misconduct will be assessed according to the journal’s procedures and ZENTIME’s publisher-level policies. Depending on the circumstances, outcomes may include a request for clarification, manuscript rejection, correction, expression of concern, retraction, article removal or notification of relevant institutions or authorities.
All listed authors must have made substantial scholarly contributions to the work, approved the submitted version and agreed to its submission. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that authorship, author order, corresponding author details and required declarations have been agreed by all authors before submission.
The journal requires an author contribution statement and encourages the use of the CRediT taxonomy where appropriate. Contributors who do not meet authorship criteria should be acknowledged with their permission.
Authors must disclose all financial and non-financial competing interests that could influence, or be perceived to influence, the work. For metaverse medicine research, relevant disclosures may include employment, consultancy, advisory roles, honoraria, stock ownership, patents, patent applications, royalties, licensing agreements, platform ownership, software development, sponsored testing, device or software donation, data access arrangements, technical support, statistical support, writing assistance or other relationships with technology providers, platform operators, software developers, device manufacturers, digital health companies or sponsors.
All funding sources, grant numbers and institutional support should be disclosed. Authors should state the role of funders, sponsors, technology providers or platform operators in study design, technology development, data collection, data access, data storage, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation and the decision to submit for publication.
Authors should state whether they had full access to the study data and whether the sponsor, funder, platform operator or technology provider had any role in approving or restricting publication.
Changes to authorship after submission require a clear explanation, written agreement from all authors and editorial approval.
Research involving human participants, patients, health professionals, students, trainees, human data or human tissue must have appropriate ethics approval or exemption. Authors should state the name of the ethics committee or institutional review board, approval number or reference, and any relevant exemption information in the manuscript.
Research involving animals must comply with applicable institutional, national and international ethical standards. Authors should provide details of ethical approval and animal welfare considerations where applicable.
Studies involving virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, extended reality, immersive simulations, virtual care environments, remote healthcare, digital therapeutics, medical education and training, virtual patients, avatars, digital twins, AI-enabled clinical environments or other metaverse-based interventions must comply with applicable ethical, regulatory, privacy and safety requirements.
Authors should describe participant safety measures where applicable, including screening for contraindications, exposure duration, adverse event monitoring, simulator sickness or cybersickness assessment, psychological distress monitoring, emergency stop procedures, user training and procedures for discontinuation.
Informed consent should be obtained where required. Written consent for publication is required for identifiable patient information, clinical images, videos, screenshots, avatar images, voice recordings, interaction logs, motion data, eye-tracking data, biometric data, monitoring data, case details or other personal information. Patient and participant privacy must be protected, and identifying information should not be published unless essential and properly consented.
Special care should be taken in research involving children, older adults, patients with cognitive impairment, psychiatric conditions, sensory impairment, severe illness or other vulnerable groups.
anuscripts reporting metaverse medicine research should identify the technology, platform, system or intervention clearly and provide sufficient information to support evaluation, interpretation and reproducibility.
Where applicable, authors should report:
technology type, such as VR, AR, MR, XR, digital twin, avatar-based system, virtual patient, virtual hospital, remote care environment, simulation platform or digital therapeutic;
platform, software, hardware, headset, sensor, haptic device or interface used;
manufacturer, developer, provider or platform operator;
model, version, software build, firmware version or algorithm version;
intended use, target users and clinical, educational or research context;
setting, such as hospital, home, classroom, laboratory, simulation center or remote environment;
intervention duration, frequency, intensity and user tasks;
comparator or control condition;
network, latency, tracking, rendering, interaction or interoperability features relevant to study outcomes;
whether the technology was investigational, prototype, commercially available or modified for the study.
Authors should report safety, usability and performance outcomes transparently. This may include cybersickness, dizziness, visual fatigue, falls, disorientation, psychological distress, usability problems, accessibility barriers, technical failures, data loss, platform downtime, tracking errors, latency issues, algorithmic errors, user withdrawal and other unexpected risks.
For educational or simulation studies, authors should describe the learner population, educational setting, assessment methods, validity evidence, evaluator blinding where applicable and limitations of simulation-to-practice transfer.
For digital twin, avatar, virtual patient or virtual environment studies, authors should describe the assumptions, data sources, model validation, update mechanisms, limitations and intended use.
Clinical trials and clinical investigations involving metaverse-based interventions, digital therapeutics, virtual care systems, immersive technologies or AI-enabled clinical tools should be registered in a publicly accessible registry before participant recruitment begins, where applicable. The registry name and registration number should be included in the manuscript.
Manuscripts reporting clinical trials should include a data sharing statement where required by applicable standards or journal policy. The statement should indicate whether de-identified individual participant data will be shared, what data will be shared, whether related documents such as the study protocol or statistical analysis plan will be available, when and for how long the data will be available, and the conditions for access.
Authors should follow appropriate reporting guidelines according to study design. Relevant guidelines may include CONSORT for randomized trials, CONSORT extensions where applicable, PRISMA for systematic reviews and meta-analyses, STROBE for observational studies, STARD for diagnostic accuracy studies, SPIRIT for trial protocols, TRIPOD or TRIPOD+AI for prediction model studies, CARE for case reports, SQUIRE for quality improvement studies, COREQ for qualitative research, CHERRIES for web-based surveys, CONSORT-AI or SPIRIT-AI for studies involving AI components, and other EQUATOR Network resources.
For digital health, virtual care, education, simulation, usability or human-computer interaction studies, authors should clearly describe the intervention, platform, context, users, outcomes, evaluation methods and limitations.
Reporting checklists and flow diagrams should be submitted where required by the journal or relevant reporting guideline.
Authors should include a Data Availability Statement where applicable, describing where the data supporting the findings can be accessed or explaining why data cannot be shared.
Data, protocols, software, code, algorithms, model cards, training or validation materials, simulation scenarios, virtual environment specifications, digital assets, questionnaires and analysis scripts should be made available in suitable repositories where possible and appropriate.
Restrictions due to privacy, ethics, legal, commercial, intellectual property, cybersecurity, platform terms, safety or participant re-identification risks should be clearly explained.
For clinical and user studies, authors should ensure that shared data are appropriately de-identified and consistent with ethics approval, informed consent and applicable data protection requirements. Special caution is required for immersive interaction data, motion data, eye-tracking data, voice data, biometric data, behavioral logs, geolocation data, avatar data and other data that may be difficult to fully anonymize.
For platform, software, AI or digital twin studies, authors should provide sufficient methodological and technical detail to allow readers and reviewers to understand the system, intervention, comparator, testing environment, data inputs, outputs, performance measures and limitations.
Supplementary materials should support the main article and should not replace essential methods, results, safety information, performance data, validation details or privacy-related information needed to evaluate the work.
AI tools and large language models cannot be listed as authors. Authors remain responsible for the accuracy, originality and integrity of all submitted content, including any content generated or assisted by AI tools.
Use of generative AI or AI-assisted technologies beyond basic language editing should be disclosed in the manuscript according to the journal’s requirements. AI tools must not be used to fabricate, falsify or manipulate data, images, references, user interactions, avatar behaviors, clinical outputs, performance results, safety findings or conclusions.
For manuscripts involving AI-enabled systems, virtual humans, digital clinicians, avatars, conversational agents, diagnostic algorithms, prediction models, clinical decision support tools, immersive simulations or automated feedback systems, authors should describe the intended use, system version, development and validation methods, datasets, performance metrics, human oversight, limitations, potential risks and safeguards where applicable.
Authors should clearly distinguish between human-generated content, AI-generated content, simulated content and real patient or participant data. Use of synthetic data, simulated patients or generated images should be disclosed and justified.
AI-generated or AI-assisted images, virtual patient images, avatar images, clinical images, diagnostic outputs or visual materials should not be used unless permitted by journal policy, ethically appropriate and transparently disclosed.
Editors and reviewers must not upload confidential manuscripts, peer review reports, decision letters or related materials to public AI tools unless explicitly permitted by the journal and consistent with confidentiality and data protection requirements.
The journal considers manuscripts that have been posted as preprints, provided that the work has not been formally published and is not under consideration by another journal at the same time.
Authors must disclose any preprint, conference abstract, thesis, report, trial registry record, technical white paper, software documentation, platform report or related prior dissemination at submission. Where applicable, authors should provide the preprint server name, DOI or link.
If the manuscript is accepted, authors are encouraged to update the preprint record with a citation and link to the final published article. Duplicate submission and redundant publication are not permitted.
Open Access
The journal is an Open Access journal. All published articles are freely and permanently available online immediately upon publication.
Authors should review the journal's Open Access and Fees page before submission for information on article processing charges, waiver or discount options, copyright, licensing, article sharing and self-archiving.
Copyright
Authors are required to transfer copyright in their accepted manuscript to the journal upon acceptance for publication.
In exceptional circumstances, including where specific institutional or funder requirements apply, authors may contact the editorial office to discuss alternative copyright arrangements.
Licensing
All published articles are licensed under the Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.
The CC BY‑NC‑ND 4.0 license permits others to share and copy the work in any medium or format, for non‑commercial purposes only, provided that appropriate credit is given to the original authors and source, and a link to the license is provided. No modifications, adaptations, or derivative works are permitted.
Article Sharing and Self-Archiving
Authors may share, host and self-archive the published Version of Record in accordance with the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.
Articles may be shared through institutional repositories, personal websites, academic networks and other appropriate platforms, provided that appropriate attribution to the original publication is retained and the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license are respected.
Use of Third-Party and Previously Published Material
Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce or adapt material owned by third parties where permission is required. This includes material previously published by the authors themselves if the copyright is held by another publisher or third party.
Permission may be required for, including but not limited to:
previously published figures, tables, graphs, charts, schemes, artworks or other content that is reproduced or only slightly modified;
substantial extracts of text or other material from previously published works;
photographs, images or other visual materials for which the authors do not hold the necessary rights; and
the authors' own previously published material where the authors have not retained the relevant copyright or reuse rights.
Authors should obtain all necessary permissions before submitting the manuscript and provide appropriate attribution and permission statements where required.
Authors are responsible for ensuring that the use of third-party material complies with applicable copyright, license and permission requirements. Third-party material may not necessarily be covered by the CC BY 4.0 license applied to the article as a whole.
The journal is committed to maintaining the integrity and transparency of the scholarly record. Post-publication updates may include corrections, expressions of concern, retractions or article removal where appropriate.
Corrections may be issued for significant errors that do not invalidate the article. Retractions may be issued when findings are unreliable, unethical or substantially compromised. Expressions of concern may be issued when serious concerns remain unresolved.
For metaverse medicine research, post-publication concerns may include unreliable safety or performance data, undisclosed conflicts of interest, misrepresented technology capabilities, unreported adverse events, invalid validation methods, privacy breaches, inappropriate use of identifiable participant data, misrepresented AI outputs or other issues that may affect clinical, educational, technical or public health interpretation.
Authors may appeal an editorial decision or submit a complaint by contacting the Editorial Office. Appeals should identify specific concerns, such as a possible error in the editorial process, a misunderstanding of the manuscript or evidence that relevant information was not adequately considered.
Appeals do not guarantee reconsideration, external review or reversal of the original decision. Repeated appeals without new evidence may not be considered. Complaints regarding editorial conduct, peer review, conflicts of interest, confidentiality or publication ethics will be handled fairly, confidentially and in a timely manner.
Related ZENTIME publisher policies:
Editorial Policies
Publishing Policies
Open Access, Fees and Licensing
Related external standards and resources may include:
Committee on Publication Ethics
World Association of Medical Editors
International Committee of Medical Journal Editors
EQUATOR Network
CONSORT
PRISMA
STROBE
STARD
SPIRIT
TRIPOD and TRIPOD+AI
CONSORT-AI and SPIRIT-AI
CARE
ARRIVE
SQUIRE
COREQ
CHERRIES
