Ethics Policies

Publication Ethics and Research Integrity

The Link Journal of Speech, Language and Audiology (JSLA) is committed to accurate, transparent, inclusive, independent, and ethically responsible scholarly publishing. These requirements apply to authors, reviewers, editors, editorial board members, the publisher, and all other parties involved in the publication process.Journal follow the  COPE, ICMJE, WAME guidlines for research integrity and editorial independence.

Purpose and Scope

JSLA seeks to ensure that every submitted and published work is original, accurate, ethically conducted, appropriately reported, and properly attributed. Submissions that do not meet the journal's ethical requirements may be rejected, returned for clarification, placed on hold, or investigated further. When a material concern is identified after publication, the journal may publish a correction, retraction, expression of concern, or another appropriate notice to protect the integrity of the scholarly record.

Contents

Related Journal Policies

Authors, reviewers, and editors should also consult the following detailed JSLA policies:

1. Ethical Responsibilities

Submissions from Editors and Editorial Board Members

Manuscripts submitted by editors, editorial board members, or editorial staff are handled by an independent editor who has no conflicting professional, institutional, or personal relationship with the submitting party. The submitting editor is excluded from all files, correspondence, reviewer identities, and decision records relating to that manuscript, and holds no administrative access to it within the submission system. To protect the journal against editorial endogeny, work authored or co-authored by members of the editorial team is limited to no more than five per cent of the articles published in any volume.

2. Originality, Attribution, and Research Misconduct

Originality and Proper Attribution

JSLA does not permit:

All submissions are screened with recognized similarity-detection software. Similarity reports are used as screening tools, and editorial decisions will not be based solely on a numerical similarity percentage. The nature, extent, context, source, and significance of matched material will be assessed editorially.

Duplicate and Simultaneous Submission

A manuscript must not be under consideration by another journal at the same time. Authors must disclose related manuscripts, conference abstracts, preprints, theses, reports, or previously published material that overlaps with the submission. Secondary publication may be considered only where ethically justified, authorized, clearly disclosed, properly cross-referenced, and consistent with relevant editorial standards.

Preprints

Posting a manuscript on a recognized preprint server before or during submission is not treated as prior publication. Authors must disclose the preprint server, persistent identifier, and version at the point of submission, and are asked to link the preprint record to the published version once the article appears so that readers can identify the version of record. Preprint posting does not exempt a manuscript from any other requirement of this policy.

Data Integrity and Supporting Records

Authors must maintain accurate and complete research records. The journal may request raw data, statistical outputs, analysis code, study protocols, ethics approvals, consent documentation, registration records, original images, laboratory records, or other relevant supporting material. Failure to provide reasonable documentation may result in editorial action.

Handling Allegations

Allegations will be assessed fairly, confidentially, proportionately, and with due process, following internationally recognized publication-ethics guidance and the relevant standard flowcharts for suspected misconduct. The journal may request an explanation and documentation, suspend editorial consideration, obtain additional expert advice, contact co-authors, institutions, ethics committees, or funders, reject the manuscript, publish a correction, expression of concern, or retraction, or apply proportionate submission restrictions in serious or repeated cases.

3. Conflicts of Interest and Funding

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

Authors must disclose all financial and non-financial interests that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the research, interpretation, authorship, review, or publication of the article.

Editors and reviewers must also disclose relevant conflicts and recuse themselves where appropriate.

Funding Statements

Every research article must contain a funding statement.

Role of the Funder

Authors must describe the funder's or sponsor's role in study conception, design, data collection, data management, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, review or approval, and the decision to submit for publication. Where the funder had no role, this must be stated. Funding arrangements must not restrict authors' access to data or their ability to report findings accurately.

Industry-Funded Research

Direct and indirect commercial support must be disclosed, including support from pharmaceutical, medical-device, diagnostic, tobacco, electronic-cigarette, cannabis or cannabinoid, food and nutrition, digital-health, rehabilitation-technology, assistive-technology, or other relevant industries. Non-disclosure may result in rejection, correction, expression of concern, retraction, or institutional notification.

4. Ethics Approval, Informed Consent, and Participant Protection

Research involving human participants, animals, identifiable personal information, clinical records, biological materials, or vulnerable populations must comply with applicable ethical, institutional, regulatory, and legal requirements. Research involving human participants must be conducted in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki and with the requirements of the responsible institutional review body.

Studies Involving Human Participants

Authors must report:

• The full name and location of the approving ethics committee or institutional review board.
• The approval or reference number and approval date, where available.
• The method of informed consent and whether it was written, verbal, electronic, or waived.
• The justification for any waiver.
• Measures used to protect privacy and confidentiality.

If verbal or electronic consent was used, authors must explain how it was documented and why it was appropriate. If ethics approval was not required, the manuscript must identify the responsible authority and explain the basis for the exemption.

Retrospective Studies and Medical-Record Reviews

Retrospective design does not automatically remove the requirement for ethics review. Authors must provide ethics approval or exemption, explain consent requirements, and describe how confidentiality and identifiable information were protected.

Vulnerable Participants

Additional safeguards are required for children, persons with impaired decision-making capacity, prisoners, refugees, displaced persons, economically disadvantaged communities, persons with communication impairments, patients dependent on investigators for care, and other potentially vulnerable groups. Consent and assent procedures must suit participants' age, capacity, language, communication needs, and circumstances.

Studies Involving Animals

Animal research must receive prior approval from an appropriate animal ethics committee. Authors must identify the committee and approval number, describe applicable welfare standards, and report species, housing, care, procedures, humane endpoints, and measures used to minimize pain, distress, and unnecessary animal use.

Studies Not Involving Humans or Animals

Reviews, editorials, commentaries, methodological papers, and similar articles should use an ethics statement that accurately reflects their content and data sources.

Case Reports and Clinical Images

Authors must state whether institutional ethics approval was required. Written informed consent for publication must be obtained from the patient or, where applicable, a parent, guardian, or legally authorized representative. Identifiable information must not be published without explicit consent for publication.

Potential identifiers include:

• Names, initials, dates of birth, hospital numbers, or detailed addresses.
• Facial images, audio or video recordings, distinctive physical features, or rare personal circumstances.
• Clinical images, quotations, pedigrees, genetic information, or combined details that permit recognition.

De-identification alone may be insufficient when a person could still be recognized. For a deceased patient, consent should be obtained from an appropriate legal representative or next of kin where required.

Consent to Participate

The consent process should:

• Use language and communication methods the participant can understand.
• Explain the purpose, procedures, risks, potential benefits, and voluntary nature of participation.
• Explain the right to withdraw without penalty.
• Describe confidentiality, data handling, compensation, treatment, or support where applicable.
• Provide appropriate contact information for questions and concerns.

Consent for Publication

Ethnographic, Community-Based, and Global Research

Researchers should obtain appropriate review before data collection, consult relevant communities, respect local values, use culturally and linguistically appropriate consent, explain limitations to confidentiality, minimize individual and community harms, avoid stigmatizing language, and ensure fair representation. Permission from a community leader does not replace individual consent where individual consent is ethically required.

International and cross-institutional research should include meaningful local involvement, appropriate local ethics review, fair distribution of benefits and burdens, culturally suitable communication, fair authorship, responsible data and sample governance, and avoidance of exploitative practices. If local review was not obtained, authors must provide a clear and credible explanation.

5. Privacy, Confidentiality, Data Integrity, and Transparency

Patient and Participant Privacy

Authors must protect the privacy, dignity, and confidentiality of patients and participants. Identifying information should be removed unless it is scientifically essential, explicit publication consent has been obtained, and publication is legally and ethically permissible. Authors must not fabricate or materially alter personal details merely to create anonymity.

Data Integrity and Record Retention

Research records must be accurate, complete, and retained for a period consistent with institutional, legal, funding, and disciplinary requirements. Authors must cooperate with legitimate editorial requests for data, analysis files, protocols, approvals, original images, or other documentation needed to assess integrity.

Data Availability Statements

A data-availability statement should explain:

• Whether data are publicly available and the repository or persistent identifier.
• Whether data are available upon reasonable request and from whom.
• Why data cannot be shared, where applicable.
• Any ethical, legal, privacy, consent, contractual, or security restrictions.

6. Clinical-Trial Registration and Reporting Standards

Clinical-Trial Registration

Prospective clinical trials should be registered in an appropriate, publicly accessible trial registry before enrolment of the first participant. The manuscript must provide the registry name, registration number, and registration date. Retrospective registration must be explained. Registration does not replace ethics approval.

Reporting Guidelines

Authors should follow the reporting guideline appropriate to the study design, including where applicable:

Authors should also use relevant extensions and discipline-specific standards for rehabilitation, audiology, communication, voice, swallowing, assistive technologies, and clinical research. Completed checklists or flow diagrams may be requested during submission or revision.

7. Use of Artificial Intelligence and AI-Assisted Technologies

Artificial-intelligence tools cannot be listed as authors because they cannot accept responsibility, approve a final manuscript, disclose conflicts, or be accountable for accuracy and integrity. Human authors remain fully responsible for all submitted content, including material produced or modified with AI-assisted tools.

Required Disclosure

Where AI or AI-assisted technology has been used, authors should disclose:

• The name of the tool and version, where relevant.
• The purpose for which it was used.
• The manuscript sections or research processes in which it was used.
• The extent of human checking, editing, validation, and accountability.

Author Responsibilities

AI-generated facts, references, interpretations, translations, images, code, or analyses must be independently verified. AI must not be used to fabricate data, invent citations, manipulate results, conceal plagiarism, misrepresent authorship, replace necessary expert judgment, or process confidential or sensitive information without appropriate safeguards.

Editors and Reviewers

Editors and reviewers must not upload confidential manuscripts, figures, data, reviewer reports, or editorial correspondence into publicly accessible AI systems or third-party tools that may retain, train on, or redistribute confidential material.

8. Corrections, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern

JSLA is committed to correcting the scholarly record when significant errors or ethical concerns are identified. Notices will be transparent, linked to the affected article, and maintained as part of the permanent record.

Corrections

A correction may be issued when an error affects article accuracy, indexing, authorship, affiliation, data presentation, interpretation, or another material element but does not invalidate the work's central findings.

Retractions

Retraction may be considered when:

• Findings are unreliable because of major error, fabrication, or falsification.
• Serious plagiarism, duplicate publication, or peer-review manipulation occurred.
• Research lacked required ethics approval or seriously violated consent or privacy.
• Authorship was seriously misrepresented and accountability is materially affected.
• Another major ethical or integrity failure makes the publication unreliable.

Retracted articles are not removed from the journal website. The original article remains accessible and is clearly marked as retracted on the article page and within the full text, and the retraction notice is freely available, separately identified, and linked bidirectionally to the affected article. Retraction metadata is transmitted to Crossref and to the journal's indexing services, and all content is preserved through the journal's digital-preservation arrangements so that the record remains permanently traceable.

Expressions of Concern

An expression of concern may be issued when serious questions exist but an investigation is incomplete, evidence is inconclusive, an institution has not responded within a reasonable period, or readers require timely notice while due process continues.

Author Cooperation

Authors must inform the editorial office promptly when they discover a material error and must cooperate with reasonable requests for explanation, documentation, data, correction, or retraction. Protecting the scholarly record takes priority over avoiding embarrassment or reputational inconvenience.

9. Complaints, Appeals, and Confidential Reporting

Complaints and Appeals

Authors, reviewers, readers, participants, institutions, and members of the public may raise concerns about editorial decisions, peer-review conduct, publication ethics, conflicts of interest, discrimination, misconduct allegations, corrections, retractions, or journal procedures.

A submission should include:

• The complainant's name and contact details, unless anonymity is necessary.
• The manuscript or article title and manuscript number or DOI, where available.
• A clear description of the concern and supporting evidence.
• The requested outcome, where appropriate.

An appeal against an editorial decision must identify a factual, methodological, ethical, or procedural issue that may have affected the decision. Disagreement with academic judgment alone does not automatically provide grounds for appeal.

Timeframes and Escalation

The editorial office acknowledges complaints and appeals within three working days and aims to provide a substantive response within 2-4 weeks, although complex matters requiring institutional investigation or external expert advice may take longer; complainants are kept informed where a longer period is required. Only one appeal per manuscript is considered, and the decision of the Editor-in-Chief on an appeal is final within the journal. Where a complainant remains dissatisfied and the concern relates to publication ethics, the matter may be referred to the publisher for independent review, or raised externally with the Committee on Publication Ethics or the relevant institution.

Confidential Reporting

Ethical concerns may be reported confidentially. JSLA will make reasonable efforts to protect individuals who raise a concern in good faith and does not tolerate retaliation. Anonymous reports may be considered when sufficient evidence is provided, although anonymity may limit investigation.