Publication Ethics

Nearly all aspects of scientific publishing involve adherence to ethical standards.  These standards exist to ensure publication of quality, reproducible research, to safeguard trust in scientific findings, and to make sure that authors receive credit for their ideas.

To ensure the integrity of the publication process and the research published, journals and publishers have strict policies on reporting, conflicts of interest, duplicate submission and publications, manipulation of images, access to data, and plagiarism. It is a good idea to familiarize yourself with a journal’s policies prior to submission to avoid unintentional misconduct.

This section will describe many of the common ethical standards applied by scientific journals, including the Optica Publishing Group journals.