Authorship and contributions
Authorship requires substantial scholarly contribution, approval of the submitted version and accountability for the work. Contributors who do not meet authorship criteria should be acknowledged.
Research integrity
Editorial policies
These policies define how JNDC screens submissions, conducts peer review, manages competing interests and corrects the published record.
- Peer review
- Single-blind by default
- Double-blind
- Available on request
- License
- CC BY 4.0
- Copyright
- Retained by authors
Editorial assessment and peer review
Editorial decisions remain independent of fees, services, memberships and roles held at the journal.
Initial screening
All submissions undergo initial editorial screening. Manuscripts that meet the journal's scope and minimum requirements proceed to independent peer review.
Review model
Peer review: Single-blind by default; double-blind review is available on request.
Manuscripts that proceed to external peer review are normally evaluated by at least two independent subject-matter experts.
Decision criteria
Editorial decisions are based on scope, scientific quality, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, reporting quality, and relevance to the journal.
Editor-authored submissions
An editor has no role in selecting reviewers or making decisions on the editor's own manuscript. The submission is assigned to an independent editor, and the competing interest is disclosed.
Confidentiality
Editors and reviewers must keep manuscripts, correspondence and review materials confidential and may use them only for the assigned editorial evaluation.
Research and publication integrity
Authors are responsible for the accuracy, originality and ethical conduct of the work they submit.
Competing interests and funding
Authors, reviewers and editors must disclose financial, personal, professional or institutional interests that could reasonably be perceived to influence the work. Funding sources and the funder's role must be stated.
Reviewers must decline assignments when a conflict could affect their impartiality. If a conflict becomes apparent after acceptance, the reviewer must stop the assessment and notify the handling editor so the manuscript can be reassigned.
Originality and duplicate publication
Submissions must present original work and must not be under concurrent consideration by another journal. Prior dissemination must be disclosed as described below. Plagiarism, text recycling and redundant full publication are assessed in context.
Data and image integrity
Data must be reported accurately. Fabrication, falsification, selective omission and undisclosed image manipulation are not acceptable. Original files may be requested during assessment.
Human and animal research
Where a study involves human participants, animals or identifiable data, authors must report the relevant ethics approval, consent and welfare safeguards required for the work.
Data availability
Every empirical research manuscript must include a data-availability statement.
When privacy, legal, safety or third-party restrictions prevent open sharing, the statement must explain the specific reason, identify the restricted data and state the permitted access route and conditions, including a responsible contact or controlled-access repository where available. If access cannot be provided, explain why. These restrictions do not remove the obligation to provide a statement.
AI-assisted content
AI tools cannot qualify as authors. Authors remain accountable for the submitted work and must disclose material use of AI-assisted tools in preparing text, code, images or analyses.
Preprints and prior dissemination
Authors must disclose earlier public versions so the editor can assess originality, overlap and permissions without confusing early dissemination with a separate journal publication.
Preprints and conference abstracts
Manuscripts previously posted on a preprint server, including ChemRxiv or arXiv, may be submitted with clear disclosure. A full manuscript may also be considered after an abstract has been published, including in conference proceedings. Neither form of dissemination removes the journal's scientific, ethical or originality requirements.
Theses, posters and repository versions
Work disseminated as a thesis, conference poster or institutional or subject-repository version may be considered following editorial assessment of its publication status, overlap and reuse rights. Authors should disclose the earlier material to the editorial office before submission when its status is uncertain. A full paper already published in a journal or proceedings is assessed under the duplicate-publication policy, not treated as a preprint.
What authors must disclose
- The title, authors, date, version and type of each earlier public item
- The server, repository, institution or conference and its DOI or stable URL where available
- The extent of overlap and the changes made for the submitted manuscript
- Relevant copyright, license, embargo or permission restrictions
- Related published or submitted manuscripts from the same study
Include this information in the cover letter and cite the earlier version where appropriate. For double-blind assessment, provide identifying details separately from the reviewer manuscript.
In-scope studies involving people
Human participation does not by itself establish journal fit. The chemical or analytical contribution must meet JNDC's Aims and Scope; purely clinical outcomes, patient-care protocols and diagnostic-performance studies without substantive chemical or analytical development remain outside scope.
Clinical-trial registration: limited applicability
The registration requirement below applies only to the rare study that falls within JNDC's chemical-sciences scope and includes an interventional human component that constitutes a clinical trial. It does not extend the journal's scope or make registration a condition for every study using human samples.
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.
Other in-scope work involving people, human samples or identifiable data must report the applicable ethics approval, consent and privacy protections. A laboratory assay using existing human samples is not automatically a clinical trial.
Maintaining the published record
Post-publication action is proportionate to the evidence and is documented on the affected publication.
Corrections and retractions
JNDC follows the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidance when assessing corrections, expressions of concern and retractions. Errors that affect interpretation but do not invalidate the work may be corrected. Retraction may be considered when findings are unreliable, publication is redundant, research is unethical or serious misconduct is established. An expression of concern may be used while material uncertainty remains.
Correction, expression-of-concern and retraction notices are linked in both directions with the original article. The original article remains accessible, with its publication status clearly marked in the online and PDF versions where applicable. In rare cases requiring removal on legal or overriding ethical or safety grounds, a notice and bibliographic record remain in place.
Authorship changes
Requests to add, remove or reorder authors require an explanation and agreement from all affected authors. Disputed requests may be referred to the authors' institutions.
Misconduct, appeals and complaints
Concerns are assessed confidentially, with records retained and appropriate parties given an opportunity to respond.
Research-integrity concerns
JNDC follows COPE guidance and relevant COPE flowcharts when investigating potential fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, authorship manipulation, undisclosed competing interests or peer-review interference. Concerns are assessed on evidence, with fair opportunity for authors to respond and contact with relevant institutions or organizations where appropriate.
Appeals
An author may appeal an editorial decision by identifying a material factual or procedural concern. Appeals do not guarantee reconsideration or acceptance and may be reviewed by an editor who was not involved in the original decision.
Complaints
Complaints about process, conduct or policy application should identify the publication or submission and the specific concern. The editorial office will route the matter to an appropriate person who is not directly conflicted.
Withdrawal terms
The applicable withdrawal terms are stated on the Article Processing Charges page.
Prepare a policy-complete submission
Review the manuscript requirements and approved submission routes before sending a paper.
Read the author instructions
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.