Publication Ethics

The Journal of Health and Aging follows publication ethics guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and authorship recommendations from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). These policies apply to authors, reviewers, editors, and published content.

I. Author Responsibilities

1.1. Originality and Plagiarism

  • Manuscripts submitted to the Journal must be original work. They must not have been published in whole or in substantial part in any language and must not be under consideration by another journal or publication.
  • Authors must cite words, ideas, data, images, and other material taken from previous work. Direct quotations must be clearly identified and appropriately cited.
  • All submitted manuscripts are screened with plagiarism detection software before peer review.

1.2. Authorship and Contributorship

  • Authorship follows the ICMJE criteria. Each author must have made a substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work, or to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; have drafted the manuscript or revised it critically for important intellectual content; have approved the final version; and agree to be accountable for the work.
  • All authors must read and approve the final manuscript before submission. The order of authors must be agreed upon by the co-authors. The corresponding author is responsible for confirming the authorship list and approval of the manuscript.
  • Contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be acknowledged in the "Acknowledgments" section.
  • After submission, any request to add, remove, or reorder authors must be explained in writing, approved by all authors involved, and accepted by the Editorial Board.
  • Research involving human participants must follow the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki and receive approval from an appropriate biomedical research ethics committee. The Journal may request documentation of ethics approval.
  • The manuscript must state whether informed consent was obtained from participants or their legal representatives when required.
  • Names, photographs, medical record numbers, and other information that could identify a participant should not be published unless the information is necessary for the scientific report and written consent for publication has been obtained.
  • Clinical case reports require written consent for publication from the patient or the patient's legal representative. Identifying information that is not necessary for the report should be removed.
  • Research involving animals must follow applicable standards for the care and use of laboratory animals and receive approval from the appropriate animal ethics committee.
  • Authors must be prepared to provide original research data to the Editorial Board when reasonably requested during editorial review or an ethics inquiry.

1.4. Conflict of Interest

  • Authors must disclose financial, personal, professional, or other relationships that could influence, or reasonably be perceived to influence, their work.
  • Relevant interests may include employment, consultancy work, stock ownership, research funding, paid expert testimony, patents, patent applications, and other relationships connected with the submitted work.
  • If no conflict exists, authors should state: "The authors declare no conflict of interest related to this work."
  • Editors and reviewers must also disclose conflicts that could affect their assessment of a manuscript. A reviewer or editor with a relevant conflict should not participate in the review or editorial decision.

1.5. Errors in Published Work

  • Authors who identify a significant error or inaccuracy in their published article should contact the Editorial Office promptly.
  • Authors are expected to cooperate with the Journal in reviewing the issue and, when necessary, preparing a correction, addendum, retraction, or other appropriate notice.

1.6. Funding Disclosure

  • Authors must disclose all sources of financial support for the research, including the name of the funding organization and grant number when applicable. Funding information should appear in a separate Funding or Acknowledgments section. Where applicable, it is also included in article metadata submitted to Crossref and the Open Funder Registry.

1.7. Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI)

Authors must disclose the use of generative artificial intelligence when a tool has been used to generate or substantially modify text, analyze data, or create images or figures.

  • Author Responsibility: The disclosure should identify the tool and explain how it was used. AI tools cannot be listed as authors because they cannot take responsibility for the accuracy or integrity of a published work.
  • Originality and Accountability: Authors remain responsible for all material submitted to the Journal, including material produced or revised with the assistance of AI. Authors must verify accuracy, originality, citations, and ethical compliance.
  • Peer Review and Editorial Use: Editors and reviewers must not use generative AI to produce confidential peer-review reports or evaluative summaries in place of their own assessment. Confidential manuscript material must not be disclosed through AI tools in a way that compromises confidentiality. Editorial judgments and peer-review recommendations must be made by the responsible editor or reviewer.
  • Policy Updates: The Journal may revise this policy as guidance from COPE, WAME, and other relevant organizations changes.

II. Editorial and Publishing Policies of the Journal

2.1. Peer Review Process

The Journal uses double-blind peer review. The identities of authors and reviewers are concealed from each other during the review process.

  • Initial Screening: After submission, the Editorial Office screens the manuscript for fit with the Journal's aims and scope and for basic editorial, structural, and formatting requirements. A manuscript may be rejected at this stage if it is unsuitable for the Journal.
  • Plagiarism Check: Manuscripts that pass initial screening are checked with plagiarism detection software.
  • Reviewer Assignment: The Editor-in-Chief or a designated editor assigns the manuscript to at least two reviewers with relevant expertise.
  • Review Process: Reviewers assess scientific merit, originality, methods, presentation, interpretation of results, and ethical aspects of the work.
  • Editorial Decision: Reviewers may recommend acceptance, minor revision, major revision, or rejection. The Editor-in-Chief makes the editorial decision after considering the reviewers' reports and the assessment of the handling editor, where applicable.
  • Manuscript Revision: When revision is requested, authors should submit a revised manuscript with a point-by-point response to reviewers and editors. A revised manuscript may be returned to the original reviewers when further review is needed.
  • Final Decision: A manuscript is accepted when it meets the Journal's scientific and ethical requirements and has completed the editorial process.

2.2. Handling Complaints and Appeals

Authors may appeal an editorial decision or submit a complaint about the editorial process. Appeals and complaints should be sent in writing to the Editorial Office at [email protected]. The message should explain the issue and provide the information needed to review the case. Where appropriate, the matter will be reviewed separately from the original decision. Cases involving publication ethics are handled with reference to relevant COPE guidance.

2.3. Data Sharing and Reproducibility

The Journal encourages authors to make research data available through an appropriate public repository or upon reasonable request, subject to ethical, legal, privacy, or confidentiality restrictions. Authors should include a Data Availability Statement explaining whether the data are available and, if so, how they can be accessed.

2.4. Post-Publication Discussions and Corrections

Readers may contact the Editorial Office about published articles or submit correspondence for editorial consideration. When a concern may affect the accuracy, interpretation, or integrity of an article, the Journal will review the issue and determine whether a formal publication notice is required.

2.5. Corrections, Retractions, and Editorial Expressions of Concern

The Journal uses post-publication notices when the scholarly record needs to be corrected or clarified. These notices are linked to the article concerned.

  • Corrections: A correction may be issued when an error affects part of an article but does not invalidate its main findings or conclusions. The correction notice will identify the article, explain what has been corrected, and link to the original publication.
  • Retractions: An article may be retracted when its findings are no longer considered reliable because of a major error, data fabrication or falsification, plagiarism, duplicate publication, unethical research, or another serious problem affecting the integrity of the work. The Editor-in-Chief makes the retraction decision after the matter has been reviewed. The Journal may consult the authors, Editorial Board, independent experts, or the authors' institution as appropriate. The retraction notice will explain the reason, link to the original article, and clearly identify the article as retracted.
  • Editorial Expressions of Concern: The Journal may publish an Editorial Expression of Concern when credible concerns have been raised about the integrity, reliability, or ethical conduct of an article, but there is not yet enough information to determine whether a correction or retraction is required. The notice may remain in place while the Journal, the authors' institution, or another relevant body investigates the matter. When sufficient information becomes available, the Journal will update the record as appropriate. This may result in a correction, retraction, or removal of the Expression of Concern.

2.6. Advertising Policy

The Journal of Health and Aging does not currently accept commercial advertising.

Advertising, sponsorship, or other commercial interests do not influence peer review, editorial decisions, manuscript acceptance, or published editorial content.

If the Journal accepts advertising in the future, advertisements will be clearly identified and kept separate from editorial content. Acceptance of advertising will not constitute endorsement of an advertised product, service, organization, or claim by the Journal, its Editorial Board, or Thong Nhat Hospital.

2.7. Publication Frequency

The Journal of Health and Aging publishes five regular issues each year: four issues in Vietnamese and one issue in English.

The publication schedule and any changes to publication frequency are announced on the Journal's website.

III. Academic Integrity and Handling of Misconduct

3.1. Handling Suspected Misconduct

The Journal reviews concerns about plagiarism, citation manipulation, data fabrication, data falsification, duplicate publication, authorship disputes, conflicts of interest, and other forms of research or publication misconduct.

  • The Journal may request an explanation or supporting documentation from the authors.
  • When necessary, the Editorial Board may seek advice from independent experts or relevant institutions.
  • Editorial action depends on the nature of the concern and whether the manuscript has already been published.
  • Publication ethics cases are reviewed with reference to relevant COPE guidance.

3.2. Plagiarism Detection and Handling of Violations

  • Plagiarism Check: All submitted manuscripts are screened with plagiarism detection software.
  • Assessment of Similarity: A similarity score is used as a screening tool and is not, by itself, evidence of plagiarism. The Journal does not use a fixed similarity percentage as an automatic threshold for acceptance or rejection. Editors examine the nature, extent, and source of overlapping material before making a decision.
  • Before Publication: A manuscript may be rejected when plagiarism or another serious breach of publication ethics is identified before publication.
  • After Publication: If serious misconduct is confirmed after publication, the Journal may issue a correction, retraction, or other notice under its post-publication policies.
  • Additional Measures: Depending on the seriousness of the case, the Journal may restrict future submissions from the responsible author or authors or notify their institution.

3.3. Intellectual Property

Authors are responsible for ensuring that submitted material does not infringe the copyright or other intellectual property rights of a third party. Permission must be obtained for copyrighted images, tables, figures, or other material when required. Authors should provide evidence of permission if requested by the Journal. The Journal will review allegations of copyright or intellectual property infringement and may correct, retract, or remove affected content when necessary.

4.1. Open Access Policy

The Journal of Health and Aging is an open-access journal. Published articles are available to readers without a subscription or access fee.

  • Upon acceptance, authors grant the Journal of Health and Aging the right to publish and distribute their article in electronic, print, and other appropriate publication formats.
  • Authors retain the right to be identified as the authors of their work and may reuse their articles for academic and personal purposes, subject to the applicable publication agreement and license.
  • The Journal of Health and Aging publishes articles under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). Under this license, the published work may be shared with appropriate attribution for non-commercial purposes. Adapted or modified versions may not be distributed under this license.

4.3. Archiving Policy

The Journal of Health and Aging preserves published scholarly content for long-term access. Published articles are assigned a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) to support persistent identification and access.

The Journal currently uses several preservation routes:

  • Local archiving: Published content is stored on the Journal's servers and backed up regularly.
  • CLOCKSS: The Journal's published content is preserved in CLOCKSS (Controlled LOCKSS), a distributed long-term digital preservation system. CLOCKSS maintains copies of scholarly content across multiple archive nodes and can make preserved content available after a trigger event under its preservation procedures.
  • PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN): Content published through the Journal's Open Journal Systems (OJS) platform is deposited in PKP PN for long-term preservation. PKP PN uses a distributed LOCKSS-based preservation infrastructure for eligible OJS journals.
  • Vietnam Journals Online (VJOL): The Journal's content is deposited and made accessible through Vietnam Journals Online. VJOL retains published journal content and provides an additional independent access point for issues and articles.
  • Self-archiving: Authors are encouraged to archive the published version of their article in an institutional repository, digital library, or appropriate disciplinary repository in accordance with the Journal's self-archiving policy.

4.4. CrossMark Policy

The Journal of Health and Aging participates in CrossMark, a Crossref service that allows readers to check the current status of a published article.

When CrossMark is implemented for an article, readers can use the CrossMark button to determine whether a correction, retraction, expression of concern, or other registered update has been issued.

Editorially significant changes are recorded through a separate publication notice and linked to the affected article. The Journal does not silently replace the scholarly record when a change may affect the interpretation or citation of the work.

CrossMark metadata are updated when relevant post-publication notices are issued. This page serves as the Journal's publication update policy and is registered with Crossref in accordance with CrossMark requirements.

Related policies can be accessed directly at:

V. Contact Information

For questions, complaints, appeals, or concerns related to publication ethics, Journal policies, or the submission and handling of manuscripts, please contact the Editorial Office of the Journal of Health and Aging:

Email: [email protected]