Manuscripts must be reviewed with due respect for authors’ confidentiality. Authors’ rights may be violated by disclosure of the confidential details during review of their manuscript. Reviewers also have rights to confidentiality, which must be respected by the editor. Confidentiality may have to be breached if dishonesty or fraud is alleged but otherwise must be honored.
Editorial board must not disclose information about manuscripts (including their receipt, content, status in the reviewing process, criticism by reviewers, or ultimate fate) to anyone other than the authors and reviewers. This includes requests to use the materials for legal proceedings.
Editorial board must make clear to their reviewers that manuscripts sent for review are privileged communications and are the private property of the authors. Reviewers and members of the editorial board and stuff must respect the authors’ rights by not publicly discussing the authors’ work or appropriating their ideas before the manuscript is published. Reviewers must not be allowed to make copies of the manuscript for their files and must be prohibited from sharing it with others, except with the editor’s permission.
Reviewer comments should not be published or otherwise publicized without permission of the reviewer, author and editor.
Skip to content