-Journal Policies-ZENTIME PUBLISHING CORPORATION LIMITED

Policy Overview

This page outlines the journal-specific policies that govern manuscript evaluation, peer review, publication ethics, research integrity, evidence synthesis, epidemiological research, data 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 in evidence-based medicine, epidemiology, evidence synthesis, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, clinical epidemiology, public health epidemiology, real-world evidence, registry studies, causal inference, guideline methodology, health outcomes research and related fields, the journal requires clear reporting of study design, data sources, search strategies, protocols, statistical methods, risk of bias, certainty of evidence, data governance, conflicts of interest and reproducibility materials where applicable.

The journal expects authors, editors, reviewers and editorial board members to follow internationally recognized standards of responsible scholarly publishing, including relevant guidance from COPE, WAME, ICMJE and EQUATOR, where applicable.

Peer Review Policy

The journal operates a transparent peer review process to ensure the quality, integrity, methodological rigor 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 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, methodological, statistical or data governance 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, meta-analyses, epidemiological studies, registry studies, real-world data studies, methodological papers, guideline-related studies and other scholarly manuscripts requiring external review are normally assessed by at least two independent reviewers with relevant expertise.

For manuscripts involving evidence synthesis, causal inference, complex statistical methods, registry data, linked databases, health claims data, prediction models, guideline methodology or AI-assisted evidence synthesis, editors may invite reviewers with methodological, statistical, epidemiological, informatics or subject-specific expertise 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, transparency, ethical compliance, 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.

Related publisher policy: ZENTIME Editorial Policies.

Editorial Independence and Responsibilities

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, transparency, relevance to the journal's aims and scope, ethical integrity and contribution to evidence-based practice, epidemiology, public health or methodology. 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, funders, data providers 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.

Related publisher policy: ZENTIME Editorial Policies.

Publication Ethics and Research Integrity

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 evidence and epidemiology research, authors must not misrepresent search results, study eligibility, screening decisions, data extraction, risk-of-bias assessments, effect estimates, statistical analyses, subgroup analyses, sensitivity analyses, certainty of evidence, registry data, linked data, missing data, model assumptions, causal claims, conflicts of interest 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.

Related publisher policy: ZENTIME Publishing Policies.

Authorship, Contributions, Competing Interests and Funding

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 evidence and epidemiology research, relevant disclosures may include employment, consultancy, advisory roles, honoraria, grants, policy advocacy positions, guideline panel membership, data access arrangements, statistical support, writing assistance, commissioned evidence reviews, health technology assessment work, industry-sponsored analyses or other relationships with funders, healthcare organizations, government agencies, insurers, technology providers, pharmaceutical companies, device companies, data vendors, guideline developers or sponsors.

All funding sources, grant numbers and institutional support should be disclosed. Authors should state the role of funders, sponsors, data providers or commissioning bodies in study design, protocol development, search strategy, data access, data analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation and the decision to submit for publication.

Authors should state whether they had full access to the study data, extracted data, analytic code and results, and whether any sponsor, funder, data provider or commissioning body 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.

Related publisher policy: ZENTIME Publishing Policies.

Research Ethics, Consent, Privacy and Data Governance

Research involving human participants, human data, health records, registry data, administrative data, claims data, survey data, biological data, genomic data, geolocation data, linked data or other sensitive information must comply with applicable ethical, legal and data protection requirements.

Where ethics approval, institutional review board approval or exemption is required, authors should state the name of the ethics committee or review board, approval number or reference, and any relevant exemption information in the manuscript.

Informed consent should be obtained where required. For studies using routinely collected data, registries, administrative data, linked databases or public datasets, authors should explain the legal, ethical or governance basis for data use, including consent, waiver of consent, data use agreement or public availability where applicable.

Authors should describe how privacy, confidentiality, de-identification, anonymization, data minimization, access control, data linkage security and participant protection were addressed where applicable.

Special care is required for research involving vulnerable populations, small communities, rare diseases, sensitive health conditions, geospatial data, genetic data, Indigenous populations, children, older adults, migrants, prisoners or other groups where re-identification or stigmatization risks may be increased.

Related publisher policy: ZENTIME Publishing Policies.

Evidence Synthesis, Guidelines and Certainty of Evidence

Manuscripts reporting systematic reviews, scoping reviews, rapid reviews, umbrella reviews, overviews of reviews, network meta-analyses, individual participant data meta-analyses, evidence maps or guideline-related evidence syntheses should provide sufficient detail to support transparency, reproducibility and critical appraisal.

Where applicable, authors should report:

· review question, eligibility criteria and rationale;

· protocol registration or protocol availability;

· databases, platforms and other sources searched;

· full search strategy for at least one major database and search dates;

· study selection process, number of reviewers and conflict resolution method;

· data extraction process, extracted variables and verification procedures;

· risk-of-bias or methodological quality assessment tool;

· effect measures, synthesis methods and model assumptions;

· heterogeneity assessment, subgroup analyses and sensitivity analyses;

· publication bias or small-study effects assessment where appropriate;

· certainty or quality of evidence assessment;

· limitations of the evidence base and review methods;

· deviations from the protocol and reasons for changes.

For guideline, recommendation or consensus-related manuscripts, authors should describe the evidence review process, panel composition, conflict-of-interest management, stakeholder or patient involvement, evidence-to-decision framework, recommendation development process and grading of certainty or strength where applicable.

Authors should avoid presenting weak, indirect, inconsistent, imprecise or high-risk-of-bias evidence as definitive. Claims should be aligned with the certainty and applicability of the evidence.

Related publisher policy: ZENTIME Publishing Policies.

Epidemiological, Registry and Real-world Data Studies

Manuscripts reporting epidemiological, registry-based, administrative database, claims-based, surveillance, cohort, case-control, cross-sectional, ecological or real-world data studies should provide sufficient methodological detail to support interpretation and reproducibility.

Where applicable, authors should report:

· data source, setting, study period and population;

· sampling frame, eligibility criteria and inclusion or exclusion process;

· definitions of exposure, outcome, covariates and follow-up;

· coding algorithms, diagnostic codes, procedure codes or phenotype definitions;

· data linkage methods and linkage quality where applicable;

· measurement validity, outcome validation or code validation where available;

· missing data, loss to follow-up and censoring;

· confounding control methods and covariate selection rationale;

· causal assumptions, target estimand and analytical approach where applicable;

· sensitivity analyses, subgroup analyses and robustness checks;

· survey design, sampling weights or clustering where applicable;

· spatial, temporal or hierarchical data structures where relevant;

· limitations related to bias, generalizability, residual confounding, selection bias, measurement error and data quality.

For causal inference studies, authors should distinguish clearly between association and causation and should describe the assumptions required for causal interpretation. Causal diagrams, target trial emulation, negative controls or other sensitivity analyses may be reported where appropriate.

For prediction model studies, authors should report model development, validation, calibration, discrimination, handling of missing data, overfitting, clinical utility and limitations.

Related publisher policy: ZENTIME Publishing Policies.

Study Registration, Protocols, Data Sharing and Reporting Standards

Clinical trials and interventional studies 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.

Systematic reviews and evidence syntheses should provide a protocol registration number or a publicly accessible protocol where applicable. Authors should disclose and explain important deviations from the protocol.

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, PRISMA for systematic reviews and meta-analyses, PRISMA-P for review protocols, PRISMA-ScR for scoping reviews, STROBE for observational studies, RECORD for routinely collected health data, SPIRIT for trial protocols, STARD for diagnostic accuracy studies, TRIPOD or TRIPOD+AI for prediction model studies, CHEERS for economic evaluations, GATHER for health estimates, AGREE or RIGHT for guidelines, CARE for case reports and other EQUATOR Network resources.

Reporting checklists, flow diagrams, protocols and statistical analysis plans should be submitted where required by the journal or relevant reporting guideline.

Related publisher policy: ZENTIME Publishing Policies.

Data Availability, Statistical Code, Materials and Transparency

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.

The journal encourages authors to make protocols, statistical analysis plans, data dictionaries, extraction forms, search strategies, analytic code, software scripts, model specifications, risk-of-bias assessments, evidence tables and supplementary materials available in suitable repositories where possible and appropriate.

Restrictions due to privacy, ethics, legal, commercial, intellectual property, data provider agreements, registry governance, security or re-identification risks should be clearly explained.

For evidence synthesis, authors should provide sufficient information to allow readers and reviewers to understand and reproduce the search, selection, extraction, appraisal and synthesis process. For epidemiological studies, authors should provide sufficient methodological and statistical detail to support interpretation and reproducibility.

Where individual-level data cannot be shared, authors should consider sharing metadata, data dictionaries, analytic code, synthetic examples, aggregate data or controlled access procedures where appropriate.

Supplementary materials should support the main article and should not replace essential methods, results, search strategies, statistical models, bias assessments or data transparency information needed to evaluate the work.

Related publisher policy: ZENTIME Publishing Policies.

Use of AI and Automated Tools in Research and Evidence Synthesis

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, references, search results, screening decisions, extracted data, statistical results, evidence tables, certainty assessments or conclusions.

For manuscripts using AI, machine learning, natural language processing, automated screening, automated data extraction, citation mining, text mining, prediction models or other computational tools, authors should describe the intended use, tool name and version, prompts or configuration where relevant, validation process, human oversight, error checking, limitations and potential bias.

Authors should clearly distinguish between human decisions and automated outputs in study selection, data extraction, risk-of-bias assessment, evidence grading and statistical analysis. Human verification is required for critical scientific judgments.

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.

Related publisher policy: ZENTIME Publishing Policies.

Preprints and Prior Publication

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, protocol, registry record, guideline document, health technology assessment report, white paper, government report or related prior dissemination at submission. Where applicable, authors should provide the preprint server name, DOI, registry link or citation.

Authors s hould clearly explain the relationship between the submitted manuscript and any prior version, including what is new in the submitted work. Duplicate submission and redundant publication are not permitted.

If the manuscript is accepted, authors are encouraged to update the preprint, protocol or repository record with a citation and link to the final published article.

Related publisher policy: ZENTIME Publishing Policies.

Open Access, Copyright, Licensing and Article Sharing

The journal is an open access journal. Published articles are made freely available online according to the journal's applicable copyright and licensing terms.

Authors should review the journal's Open Access and Fees page before submission for information on article processing charges, waiver or discount options, copyright, license terms, article sharing and self-archiving.

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce or adapt third-party figures, tables, images, text, search strategies, evidence tables, risk-of-bias figures, datasets, code, questionnaires, registry materials or other materials where permission is required. Article sharing, hosting and self-archiving must comply with the applicable license and ZENTIME's Open Access, Fees and Licensing policy.

Related publisher policy: ZENTIME Open Access, Fees and Licensing.

Corrections, Retractions, Appeals and Complaints

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 evidence and epidemiology research, post-publication concerns may include unreliable data, undisclosed protocol deviations, inaccurate search strategies, incorrect eligibility decisions, fabricated extracted data, invalid statistical analyses, undisclosed data leakage, misrepresented causal claims, undisclosed conflicts of interest, privacy breaches or other issues that may affect scientific, clinical 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 publisher policies: ZENTIME Editorial Policies and ZENTIME Publishing Policies.