Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement (PEMS) Checklist:
1 Publication and authorship
Microbiology China accepts manuscripts with list of references, mentioning financial support if any, declaration of no plagiarism and no fraudulent data, and statement that the submitted manuscript is neither published previously nor the same research is under the process of publication in any other journals.
2 Author’s responsibilities
All authors have significantly contributed to the research and furnish a statement that all data in the manuscript are real and authentic. Author(s) are obliged to participate in peer review process to provide retractions or corrections of mistakes.
3 Peer review/responsibility for the reviewers
Any manuscripts for review must be treated as confidential documents. Evaluation of manuscripts by reviewers should be objective and just. Once the viewpoint error, intellectual mistakes, serious copy, suspected fake data are discovered, reviewers should feedback to journal editorial office. reviewers should give clear opinion if a manuscript reaches the publication criteria. reviewers should have no conflict of interest with respect to articles’ research, the authors and/or the research funders. reviewers should point out relevant recent published work that is not yet cited by the authors.
4 Editorial responsibilities
Editors have the full responsibility and authority to reject/accept a manuscript. They should have no conflict of interest with respect to articles they reject/accept. Manuscripts can only be processed/published when sufficient number of review reports are received, errors in manuscripts are removed/corrected. Moreover, editors are responsible for promoting publication, correcting or retracting, and preserving anonymity of reviewers.
5 Publishing ethics issues
Publishing ethics should be monitored/safeguarded by the editorial board, including providing guidelines for considering retracting, issuing expressions of concern, and issuing corrections pertaining to articles that have been published in Microbiology China. Editors should maintain the integrity of the academic record, preclude business needs from compromising intellectual and ethical standards, and always be willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed.
