Journal of Evolving Stem Cell Research · ISSN 2574-4372 · Open Access Pub
Editorial Policies
The standards that govern how a manuscript is assessed here, and the obligations that publishing stem cell research carries for authors, reviewers and editors alike.
On this page
Policies in force
Decisions Peer review Research ethics Authorship Conflicts and funding Data and reporting Integrity and corrections Access and reuse
How a decision is reached
Decisions
Criteria
Editorial decisions are based on scope, scientific quality, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, reporting quality, and relevance to the journal.
Independence
Those decisions remain independent of fees, services, memberships and roles. Payment of an article processing charge, membership of the journal, service as an editor or reviewer, and use of any optional author service confer no advantage in the assessment or acceptance of a manuscript.
Editors as authors
Editors recuse themselves from decisions on their own submissions; those manuscripts are handled independently.
Assessment
Peer review
Model
Single-blind by default; double-blind review is available on request.
Screening and review
All submissions undergo initial editorial screening. Manuscripts that meet the journal's scope and minimum requirements proceed to independent peer review. Manuscripts that proceed to external peer review are normally evaluated by at least two independent subject-matter experts.
Handling a double-blind request
When double-blind review is requested, editors must ensure that author-identifying information is not shared with reviewers. The author instructions state what must be removed from the reviewer copy and supplied separately.
Reviewer conduct
Reviewers must obtain journal permission before using AI to assist with a review. Any permitted use must be disclosed, and confidential manuscript content must not be uploaded where confidentiality cannot be assured. After submitting the review, reviewers should securely delete downloaded manuscript files and must not retain or use unpublished material.
Obligations specific to this field
Research ethics
Stem cell research carries approval and consent requirements that go beyond general biomedical practice, and the journal applies them to every relevant submission.
Approvals and consent
Research involving human embryonic stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells derived from human subjects, or clinical application requires documented ethics committee approval and appropriate informed consent procedures, and must comply with the applicable national and international guidelines.
Guidance the journal follows
The journal's policies align with COPE, ICMJE and ISSCR guidance for responsible stem cell research and publication.
Animal research
Studies involving animals must report the approving body and comply with the applicable institutional and national requirements.
Trial registration
Interventional clinical trials must be registered in an accepted public trial registry at or before the first participant provides consent for enrollment. The registry name, registration number, and registration date must be reported in the manuscript.
Who is accountable
Authorship
Authorship is limited to those who made a substantive contribution to the work and who can take public responsibility for it. Everyone meeting that standard should be listed, and everyone listed should meet it. Contributors who do not meet it are acknowledged rather than named as authors.
Changes to the author list after submission require the written agreement of all authors and the editorial office. The corresponding author is responsible for communicating with the journal on behalf of the group.
Disclosure
Conflicts of interest and funding
Authors declare financial and non-financial interests that a reader could reasonably consider relevant to the work, including employment, consultancy, patents and holdings in entities with an interest in the findings. Funding sources are stated, together with the role of the funder in the study.
Reviewers and editors declare interests that would affect their judgment and withdraw from handling the manuscript where an interest exists. A declaration does not by itself disqualify a submission; an undeclared interest does undermine the record.
Evidence
Data, materials and reporting
Every empirical research manuscript must include a data-availability statement.
Because results in this field depend on how cells were derived, cultured and characterized, methods must be reported in a form another laboratory can reconstruct: cell source and provenance, authentication and characterization, passage and culture conditions, and the assays used to support each claim. Reporting guidelines relevant to the study design should be followed and the completed checklist supplied where one applies.
Conclusions are expected to match the design, sample and system that produced them. A result obtained in one model system is reported as a result in that system.
The published record
Integrity, corrections and retractions
Submissions are screened for originality using Crossref Similarity Check, powered by iThenticate. A similarity report is read in context by an editor; there is no fixed percentage that accepts or rejects a manuscript.
Concerns raised about a published article — about data, images, authorship, ethics or duplication — are investigated with the authors and their institution where appropriate. Where the record needs to change, the journal issues a correction, an expression of concern or a retraction, linked to and from the original article so that the published version and its status remain readable together.
Concerns may be raised with the editorial office at [email protected].
Terms of publication
Access, licensing and charges
Articles are published open access under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), so that any reader may use and build on the work with attribution to its authors.
An article processing charge applies and is invoiced only after acceptance. Withdrawal terms are set out in full on the Article Processing Charges page.
Article Processing Charges Instructions for Authors Reviewer Guidelines Editors Guidelines
Digital preservation
This journal’s content is committed to Portico, a not-for-profit digital-preservation archive run by ITHAKA (the organization behind JSTOR). As articles are deposited they enter Portico’s permanent archive, so the scholarly record stays available for the long term — even if a title one day ceases to publish. Read our preservation policy.