The journal Cardiovascular and Metabolic Science adopts the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), and the 2024 revised Declaration of Helsinki as the normative framework for its ethical policy. The procedures described in this Code apply to all participants in the editorial process: authors, reviewers, and editors.

Ethical Considerations

– All manuscripts involving human subjects must include a statement specifying that the individuals involved have given informed consent to participate in the study and that the protocol or project has been approved by an Institutional Scientific and Ethics Review Board, or a similar body at the site where the study was conducted. The statement must include the express consent of those involved in the article that the data related to the research may be published in the journal Cardiovascular and Metabolic Science. All studies must be conducted in accordance with the agreements adopted by the world medical associations as set forth in the Declaration of Helsinki revised in 2024 (75th WMA General Assembly, Helsinki, Finland, October 2024) (https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/).

– Patient confidentiality and the data provided by the patient must be protected. Individuals participating in a research sample have a right to privacy that must not be violated without their informed consent. Identifiable information, including names, initials, or hospital numbers, must not be published in written descriptions, photographs, or certificates unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the participant (or their parents or guardians) provides their written informed consent. Informed consent for this purpose requires that any identifiable participant be shown the article to be published. The authors must inform the participant if any material that could identify them might be available online or in print after publication. The patient's consent must be in writing and filed by the journal, the authors, or both, as dictated by local regulations or laws. Since a journal that files consent will know the patient's identity, it may decide whether confidentiality is better protected if the author files it and provides the patient with a written statement confirming receipt and filing of the consent. When informed consent has been obtained, this must be indicated in the article.
Non-essential identifiable information should be omitted. Informed consent must be obtained if there is any doubt about maintaining anonymity. For example, masking the eye area in patient photographs is an inadequate protection of anonymity. If identifying characteristics are masked, authors must provide assurance that such changes do not distort the scientific significance.

– All manuscripts involving animal experiments must include a statement from the author that the study has been approved by an Animal Use Regulatory Committee or equivalent body in each institution or country. The statement must indicate that there was oversight to ensure the proper and humane treatment of the animals. Further information on animal research ethics is available in the Consensus Author Guidelines on Animal Ethics and Welfare from the International Association of Veterinary Editors (http://www.veterinaryeditors.org/consensus-author-guidelines-on-animal-ethics-and-welfare-for-editors).

Declarations

The following statements should be included immediately before the reference list. The section should be titled “Compliance with Ethical Guidelines.” Plagiarism will be sufficient cause for not publishing the article.

Conflict of Interest: Conflict of interest declarations should list each author separately by name. Example:
Jorge Pérez declares that he has no conflict of interest.
Mario Hernández has received research grants from Company A.
José Rodríguez has received speaking fees from Company B and owns stock in Company C.
If multiple authors declare no conflict, this can be done in one sentence: Jorge Ramos, Sergio Márquez, and Jorge Martínez declare that they have no conflict of interest.

For studies with human subjects, include the following:
All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Human Experimentation Committee (institutional or national) and with the Declaration of Helsinki, revised in 2024.

State that informed consent was obtained from all patients included in the study. If there are any doubts about whether the research was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, the authors must justify their approach to the institutional review board and attach documentation that said board explicitly approved the questionable aspects of the study.
The article must not include any identifying information about patients. A copy of the protocol authorized by the institutional research committee or, failing that, authorization from the Head of Teaching at the Hospital must be submitted. In the case of patients from outside the hospital, the researcher must submit a letter informing the authors of this situation and stating that they have complied with all ethical standards for publication.

For studies involving animals, the following statement must be included:
It is hereby stated that all institutional and national guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals were followed.

For articles that do not contain studies with human or animal subjects conducted by any of the authors, we recommend including the following sentence, just to ensure that readers are aware that there are no ethical issues with humans or animals: This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects conducted by any of the authors.

Prevention and Addressing Editorial Misconduct

The journal Cardiovascular and Metabolic Science considers the following behaviors to be editorial misconduct subject to disciplinary action:

– Plagiarism: presenting the ideas, text, data, or images of other authors as one's own without proper attribution.
– Self-plagiarism: publishing the same work or substantial parts of it in more than one journal without disclosing this.
– Data fabrication: inventing nonexistent results, data, or sources.
– Falsification: manipulating or altering data, images, or results to distort the findings.
– Citation manipulation: inflating citation counts or citing unconsulted sources.
– Redundant or duplicate submission: simultaneously submitting the same manuscript to another journal without disclosing this.

All manuscripts are analyzed using the Strike Plagiarism tool in two phases (see General Editorial Policies). When misconduct is detected, the Editor-in-Chief will notify the authors. The Editorial Committee will determine the appropriate action: rejection of the manuscript, retraction of the published article, notification to the author's affiliated institution, or reporting to international publishing bodies depending on the severity.

Complaints and Appeals

Authors who believe an editorial decision was unfair or incorrect may submit a formal appeal to the Editor-in-Chief of the journal at lalitomini@prodigy.net.mx, with the subject line 'Editorial Appeal – [manuscript title]', indicating the specific arguments supporting their disagreement.
The Editor-in-Chief will resolve appeals within a maximum of 30 business days. In cases involving a conflict of interest for the Editor-in-Chief, the decision will be made by the Director of the Editorial Committee.
Complaints regarding misconduct by authors, reviewers, or editors may be submitted via the same email address. They will be treated confidentially in accordance with the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (https://publicationethics.org/).

Corrections, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern

Corrections (Errata): If a minor error is detected in a published article that does not affect the main conclusions, the journal will publish an erratum in the following issue with explicit reference to the original article.
Retractions: If serious misconduct is found (data fabrication, substantial plagiarism, or a methodological error that invalidates the conclusions), the article will be retracted. The retraction will be published on the journal's website and in the following print issue, stating the reason. The original article will remain available online with a visible 'RETRACTED' mark.
Expression of Concern: When there are well-founded doubts about the integrity of a published article that is under institutional investigation, the journal may issue an Expression of Concern while the case is being resolved.
All these procedures follow the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE): https://publicationethics.org/

Policy on the Use of Artificial Intelligence in the Editorial Process

The journal Cardiovascular and Metabolic Science establishes the following conditions for the responsible use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools:

– Authors: Those who have used AI in the writing, synthesis, translation, or data analysis of their manuscript must declare this in the Acknowledgments section, indicating the tool used, its purpose, and the scope of its use.
– AI cannot be listed as an author or co-author. The intellectual and ethical responsibility for the content rests entirely with the authors.
– Reviewers: They must not use generative AI to produce automated opinions. Expert judgment must be the reviewer's own.
– The use of Strike Plagiarism as a similarity detection tool is part of the standard editorial process and does not require additional declaration.
– Failure to comply with this policy will be treated as editorial misconduct in accordance with the procedure described in this Code.

This policy will be updated in accordance with the recommendations of COPE and the ICMJE.