Policies and Ethics

Paediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus (PO+S) is committed to maintaining high standards of transparency, editorial independence, research integrity, fairness, accountability, and ethical practice in scholarly publishing. The journal follows the principles and guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the Recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). PO+S expects authors, reviewers, editors, and editorial staff to act responsibly throughout submission, peer review, publication, and post-publication handling.

Submission of a manuscript to PO+S indicates that the authors have read the journal's policies and that the manuscript complies with applicable ethical, legal, editorial, and publishing requirements. These policy statements should be read together with the Author Guidelines.

Access, Copyright, and Licensing

Who Can Submit?

Submissions are welcome from authors whose work falls within the journal's aims and scope and who hold the copyright to the submitted work or have obtained all necessary permissions from relevant rights holders. By submitting a manuscript, authors confirm that the work is original, has not been published previously except where clearly disclosed and permitted by the journal, is not under consideration by another journal or publisher, and does not infringe the rights of any third party.

Open Access Policy

PO+S is an open-access journal. All published articles are made freely and permanently available online immediately upon publication, without subscription, paywall, registration requirement, or embargo for readers. Readers may read, download, copy, distribute, share, and reuse published content in accordance with the applicable Creative Commons license.

Author Fees and Article Processing Charges

PO+S does not charge submission fees, article processing charges, publication fees, page charges, color charges, or other mandatory author fees. Publication in the journal is free of charge for authors. Any changes to author fees will be clearly announced in advance of implementation.

Copyright Statement

Authors retain copyright in their published articles. As a condition of publication, authors grant PO+S and WSPOS the non-exclusive right to publish, reproduce, distribute, and make the article available in all formats and media, and to identify PO+S as the original place of publication.

Licensing

Articles published in PO+S are made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). This license permits users to read, download, copy, distribute, and share the published work for non-commercialpurPO+Ses and in unadapted form, provided that appropriate credit is given to the author(s) and PO+S, a link to the license is provided, and the work is not distributed in adapted, remixed, or derivative form. The license terms are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

RePO+Sitory DePO+Sit and Self-Archiving

PO+S supports the responsible sharing of scholarly work. Authors may deposited the submitted version, the author's accepted manuscript, and the final published version of record in institutional, disciplinary, funder, or personal repositorieswithout embargo, provided that the dePO+Sited version is clearly identified and the RePO+Sitory record is updated with the full citation and DOI of the published article once available.

Preprints may be posted at any time. Preprints should be clearly labelled as not peer reviewed and should not include journal formatting, logos, or layout that could misrepresent them as the published version.
Author's Accepted Manuscripts may be dePO+Sited without embargo. The dePO+Sited version should be labelled as the accepted manuscript or PO+St-peer-review version and should not include publisher formatting or branding.
Versions of Record may be dePO+Sited in accordance with the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license and should include full attribution to the published article in PO+S, including citation details and DOI where available.

Sponsorship, Advertising, and Direct Marketing

Revenue Sources and Financial Support

The Wjournal's publication and administrative costs are supported by WSPOS and by sponsors, supporters, philanthropy, grants, institutional support, advertising, or other disclosed revenue sources. The journal will clearly identify relevant revenue sources on its website, including sponsors and supporters where applicable.

Revenue sources, sponsor support, advertising, grants, gifts, institutional support, or other financial arrangements do not influence editorial decisions, peer review, reviewer selection, manuscript acceptance or rejection, publication timing, article content, or journal policy decisions.

Sponsorship Policy

Sponsors and supporters may be acknowledged on the journal website, including on the Home page and on a dedicated Sponsors and Supporters page. Sponsor listings are provided for transparency and acknowledgment and do not imply endorsement of any product, service, clinical claim, organization, or commercial activity.

Sponsors may not participate in editorial decision-making, peer review, editorial handling, reviewer selection, article selection, issue planning, publication scheduling, or the preparation or approval of editorial content. Editorial independence is maintained at all times.

Advertising Policy

PO+S may accept advertising when it is relevant to the journal's mission, audience, and subject areas and when it can be presented without compromising editorial independence, scientific integrity, patient safety, reader trust, or compliance with applicable laws and regulations. Advertising is subject to journal review and may be accepted, declined, withdrawn, or discontinued at the journal's discretion.

All advertisements must be clearly identifiable as advertising and must be kept separate from editorial content. The presence of an advertisement does not constitute endorsement by PO+S, WSPOS, the Editorial Board, the publisher, or any editor of the advertised product, service, organization, or claim.

Eligible Advertising

Educational resources, courses, congresses, webinars, conferences, workshops, books, databases, software, and professional services relevant to paediatric ophthalmology, strabismus, ophthalmology, optometry, orthoptics, vision science, medical education, or scholarly publishing may be considered.
Advertisements for clinical, surgical, imaging, diagnostic, digital, educational, or medical technologies may be considered only where the advertised products or services are legally available in the relevant jurisdictions and the claims are truthful, balanced, evidence-based, and compliant with applicable regulations.
Institutional advertisements from universities, hospitals, research institutes, scientific societies, non-profit organizations, public health bodies, and educational organizations may be considered where relevant to the journal's audience.
Public-service announcements related to child eye health, prevention of vision loss, research integrity, education, equity, or professional development may be considered.

Advertising Standards and Independence

Advertisements must be accurate, lawful, transparent, and not misleading, deceptive, discriminatory, or unsupported by appropriate evidence.
Advertisements must not be targeted or displayed in a way that suggests a relationship to a specific editorial decision, article, review outcome, author, reviewer, editor, or clinical recommendation.
Advertisers and advertising representatives must not influence editorial decisions, peer review, article selection, publication timing, or published content.
Sponsored content, if accepted, must be explicitly labelled and clearly separated from peer-reviewed or editorial content. Sponsored content must not be presented as independent editorial content.
The journal may request substantiation for advertising claims and may decline advertisements that conflict with the journal's mission, ethical standards, reputation, or legal obligations.

Advertisements Not Accepted

PO+S will not accept advertisements that contain false, misleading, deceptive, discriminatory, unlawful, unsafe, or unsupported claims; promote illegal products, services, or activities; conflict with accepted scientific or clinical evidence; undermine public health or patient safety; interfere with editorial independence; or damage the integrity, reputation, or mission of the journal or WSPOS.

Direct Marketing

Any direct marketing or outreach conducted on behalf of PO+S, including calls for papers, invitations to submit, special issue announcements, or reviewer invitations, must be accurate, transparent, appropriate, targeted, and unobtrusive. Marketing communications must not be misleading and must not guarantee acceptance, expedited acceptance, indexing, metrics, or other outcomes that the journal cannot guarantee.

Publication Ethics and Editorial Responsibilities

PO+S expects editors, reviewers, and authors to act with integrity, transparency, fairness, respect, and accountability. The journal is committed to protecting the integrity of the scholarly record and to handling ethical concerns fairly and in accordance with accepted publication-ethics practice, including relevant guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) .

Duties of Editors

Make editorial decisions based on scholarly merit, relevance to the journal, originality, methodological soundness, clinical or scientific contribution, clarity, and ethical compliance.
Handle submissions fairly, consistently, and without discrimination or inappropriate influence.
Protect the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts, reviewer reports, editorial correspondence, and unpublished data.
Declare and manage conflicts of interest and recuse themselves from handling manuscripts where impartiality could be compromised.
Select appropriate reviewers, oversee peer review, and respond to ethical or misconduct concerns.
Correct the scholarly record when needed through corrections, expressions of concern, retractions, or other notices.

Duties of Reviewers

Provide objective, constructive, respectful, and evidence-based assessments within their area of expertise.
Treat manuscripts and review materials as confidential and not use unpublished information for personal, professional, competitive, or research advantage.
Declare conflicts of interest and decline review assignments where an impartial review cannot be provided.
Complete reviews within the agreed timeframe or notify the editorial office promptly if delays are unavoidable.
Alert editors to suspected plagiarism, overlap, data concerns, image concerns, ethical non-compliance, undisclosed conflicts, or other publication-ethics issues.

Duties of Authors

Submit original work that is accurate, honestly presented, and not under consideration elsewhere.
Ensure that all sources, text, data, images, and third-party materials are properly cited, credited, and permission-cleared where required.
List as authors only those who meet the journal's authorship criteria and acknowledge contributors who do not meet those criteria.
Provide complete and accurate declarations where required or applicable, including conflicts of interest, funding, author contributions, data availability, ethics approval, consent to participate, consent for publication, clinical trial registration, permissions, and AI use where disclosure is required.
Retain underlying data, approvals, consent records, permissions, original images, and supporting materials for a reasonable period and provide them to the journal if requested.
Notify the journal promptly if they discover a significant error or inaccuracy in a submitted, accepted, or published manuscript and cooperate with any correction or post-publication action.

Authorship and Contributions

Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made a substantial intellectual contribution to the work and who are able to take responsibility for its content. Authorship carries both credit and accountability. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all listed authors meet the authorship criteria, that no eligible contributor is omitted, and that all authors have reviewed and approved the submitted and final versions of the manuscript.

Authorship Criteria

PO+S follows the ICMJE recommendations for authorship and contributorship. To qualify for authorship, each author should meet all four of the following criteria: substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work, or to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; participation in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content; approval of the final version to be published; and agreement to be accountable for the work and to help resolve questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work.

Individuals who contributed to the work but do not meet all authorship criteria should not be listed as authors but may be acknowledged with their permission. Gift, guest, ghost, honorary, or coercive authorship is not acceptable.

Changes in Authorship

Authorship must be finalized and agreed by all authors before submission. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all listed authors meet the journal’s authorship criteria, that no qualifying contributor has been omitted, and that the author order has been approved by all authors at the time of submission.

Requests to add, remove, or reorder authors after submission will be considered only when accompanied by a clear explanation, a justification for why the change was not resolved before submission, and written agreement from all listed authors, including any author being added or removed. The journal may request supporting documentation and may delay consideration of the manuscript while the request is reviewed.

Requests to add, remove, or reorder authors after acceptance or publication will be considered only in exceptional circumstances. Such requests will not normally be considered when based solely on a retrospective reassessment of contribution, newly prepared author statements, or post-publication agreement among the authors.

post-publication authorship changes may be considered only where the journal is satisfied that there was a demonstrable administrative or publisher error, or where credible contemporaneous evidence or a formal institutional determination shows that the published authorship record was incorrect at the time of submission or publication.

The journal does not adjudicate authorship disputes. Where there is disagreement or uncertainty about authorship, the journal may require the matter to be referred to the relevant institution(s) and may consider their findings before taking any editorial action.

Corrections to author names, affiliations, ORCIDs, or similar metadata do not constitute authorship changes and may be handled separately where justified.

Author Contribution Statement

All manuscripts must include an Author Contributions statement. For multi-author manuscripts, the statement should briefly describe each author’s contribution using the CRediT taxonomy where appropriate, such as conceptualization, methodology, investigation, data curation, formal analysis, writing the original draft, review and editing, supervision, project administration, resources, or funding acquisition. For single-author manuscripts, the statement may indicate that the sole author is responsible for all aspects of the work.

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments may be used to recognize individuals, institutions, or organizations that contributed to the research or manuscript but do not meet authorship criteria. This may include technical assistance, language editing, administrative support, access to facilities, or constructive scholarly feedback. Acknowledgments must be accurate and limited to support actually received. Funding, sponsorship, grants, or other financial support should not be reported in the acknowledgment section and must instead be disclosed in a separate Funding statement.

Affiliations

Authors must provide accurate institutional affiliations at submission. For research articles, affiliations should reflect the institution(s) where the work was conducted, supported, or approved. For non-research articles, authors should provide their current institutional affiliation. If an author changed institutions after completing the work, the affiliation where the work was carried out should remain listed, and the current affiliation may be added as a present address. Misrepresentation of affiliation, including false, misleading, or unauthorized affiliation details, may be treated as publication misconduct.

Conflicts of Interest

Authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose any financial or non-financial interests that could influence, or reasonably be perceived to influence, research, manuscript preparation, editorial handling, peer review, or publication decisions. Disclosure enables readers and the journal to evaluate the work with appropriate context and does not necessarily prevent publication.

Examples of potential conflicts include research funding, grants, employment, consultancies, honoraria, travel support, stock ownership, patents or patent applications, paid expert testimony, personal or professional relationships, institutional interests, academic competition, advisory roles, board memberships, or strong intellectual or ideological commitments related to the work.

All manuscripts must include a Conflict of Interest statement. If no conflicts exist, authors should state: "The authors declare no conflicts of interest." Failure to disclose relevant conflicts may result in editorial action, including correction, expression of concern, or retraction where appropriate.

Funding

All manuscripts must include a Funding statement. Authors must disclose all sources of financial support for the research, manuscript preparation, or publication of the work, including grants, institutional support, sponsorship, material support, or in-kind support. Authors should identify funder names and grant or project numbers where applicable.

Authors must also describe the role of any funder or sponsor in the study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, decision to submit, or publication process. If the funder had no role, this should be stated. If no funding was received, authors should state: "The authors received no funding for this work."

Citations

Authors are responsible for citing sources accurately and appropriately. Citations should be relevant, verifiable, and necessary to support the statements, methods, interpretations, and conclusions in the manuscript. References should provide a fair and balanced representation of the relevant literature, with priority given to reliable primary sources where appropriate.

Excessive self-citation, citation stacking, coercive citation, or inclusion of irrelevant citations intended to inflate citation counts or metrics is not acceptable and may be treated as citation manipulation under the journal's misconduct policy.

Data Sharing and Availability

PO+S supports responsible data sharing as part of transparent and reproducible research. Authors are encouraged to make the data, code, materials, and protocols underlying published findings available whenever this is feasible and appropriate, taking into account confidentiality, legal restrictions, intellectual property, safety, participant privacy, and ethical obligations.

Manuscripts reporting research must include a Data Availability Statement. The statement should indicate whether the data supporting the findings are available, where they can be accessed, whether restrictions apply, why data are not available, or whether data availability is not applicable because no data were generated or analyzed. Where data are dePO+Sited in a RePO+Sitory, authors should provide the RePO+Sitory name and persistent identifier where available.

The journal may request supporting data, source records, original image files, or other documentation during editorial review or after publication if needed to assess the reliability or integrity of the work.

Images, Figures, and Visual Material

Figures, tables, photographs, diagnostic images, imaging studies, sonograms, scans, videos, diagrams, charts, and other visual materials should be included only where they meaningfully support the manuscript. Visual materials must accurately represent the data or information being reported.

Digital adjustments must not distort, remove, obscure, introduce, or misrepresent data. Adjustments to brightness, contrast, color balance, cropping, or presentation may be acceptable only when applied appropriately, disclosed where relevant, and not misleading. The journal may request original, uncropped, unprocessed, or higher-resolution files where needed for review, production, or integrity checks.

All figures and images must be properly cited or credited, whether they are original, adapted, reused with permission, or used under an open license.

Use of Third-Party Material

Authors are responsible for ensuring that any third-party material included in a submission, such as text excerpts, images, figures, tables, datasets, software, audio, or video, may lawfully be used and published under the journal's licensing terms. Before submission, authors should ensure that third-party material is in the public domain, available under a compatible license, or supported by written permission from the copyright holder.

When reusing copyrighted or licensed material, including Creative Commons material, authors must comply with the applicable license terms, provide appropriate attribution, indicate changes where required, and obtain permission where reuse under the journal's license is not permitted. The journal cannot provide legal advice on copyright or licensing. Authors remain responsible for obtaining, retaining, and providing permissions or evidence of reuse rights if requested.

Confidentiality

Submitted manuscripts and related materials are confidential. Editors, reviewers, and editorial staff must not disclose manuscript content, reviewer reports, correspondence, unpublished data, or other confidential materials except to individuals directly involved in editorial assessment, peer review, production, publication, or investigation of a relevant ethical concern.

Where an ethical or misconduct concern requires further review, the journal may share relevant information with appropriate parties, such as authors' institutions, ethics committees, funders, or other responsible bodies, while maintaining confidentiality as far as possible and in accordance with applicable requirements.

Peer Review Policy

PO+S uses a double-blind peer-review process. Under this model, author identities are concealed from reviewers, and reviewer identities are concealed from authors. Authors are responsible for preparing a blinded manuscript file that does not include identifying information.

Peer review is used to assess the quality, originality, methodological soundness, ethical compliance, relevance, clarity, and significance of submissions. Manuscripts that pass initial editorial screening are normally assigned to at least two independent reviewers with relevant subject expertise.

Initial Editorial Screening

After submission, each manuscript is assessed for completeness, fit with the journal's aims and scope, presentation quality, originality, ethical compliance, and basic scientific or scholarly soundness. Manuscripts that are incomplete, outside scope, insufficiently original, methodologically weak, ethically problematic, or clearly unsuitable may be declined without external peer review.

Reviewer Assignment and Assessment

Manuscripts that pass initial screening are normally assigned to at least two independent reviewers with relevant expertise. Editorials, invited commentaries, letters, and society statements may be reviewed by a minimum of one reviewer. Reviewers evaluate the manuscript's originality, methodology, data presentation, interpretation, clinical or scientific significance, clarity, ethical compliance, and contribution to the field. Reviewers are expected to disclose conflicts of interest and to provide constructive, respectful, and evidence-based comments.

Editorial Decisions

Editorial decisions may include accept, minor revisions, major revisions, reject, or another decision category used by the submission system. Final decisions are made by the Editor-in-Chief, handling editor, or designated editorial board representative, taking into account reviewer reports, author responses, editorial assessment, ethical considerations, and the journal's standards.

Supplementary Materials in Peer Review

Authors may submit supplementary files, such as datasets, additional figures or tables, imaging files, videos, protocols, code, or appendices, where these materials support the main article. Supplementary materials may be made available to reviewers and considered during assessment. However, supplementary files may not receive the same detailed level of peer review as the main manuscript. Authors remain responsible for the accuracy, completeness, clarity, permissions, and suitability of all supplementary content.

Desk Rejection

A manuscript may be rejected without external review for reasons including being outside the journal's scope, insufficient originality, weak methodology, unclear objectives, poor organization or language, non-compliance with Author Guidelines, ethical concerns, plagiarism, duplicate submission, lack of required declarations, failure to provide required ethics or consent information, or content that is primarily promotional or commercial.

Submissions by Editors or Editorial Board Members

Editors and editorial board members may submit manuscripts to the journal. Any editor or board member who is an author or co-author must not be involved in the editorial handling, reviewer selection, peer review, or decision-making for that submission. The manuscript will be assigned to an independent editor and handled according to the same standards as other submissions.

Peer Review Timeliness

The journal aims to provide an initial decision based on peer review within approximately three weeks of submission. For revised manuscripts, subsequent review rounds are typically completed within approximately two weeks of receipt of the revised manuscript, depending on reviewer availability. Accepted articles are published in the next available issue following final acceptance.

The journal seeks to handle submissions efficiently and transparently. If significant delays occur, authors should be informed where appropriate. The journal does not guarantee acceptance or guarantee a specific review outcome.

Appeals and Complaints

PO+S handles appeals and complaints fairly, confidentially, and in accordance with accepted publication ethics and best practices. Appeals against editorial decisions should be based on substantive grounds, such as evidence of a factual error, procedural irregularity, undisclosed conflict of interest, or important information that was not adequately considered. Disagreement with an editorial judgment alone is not sufficient grounds for reconsideration.

Complaints may relate to editorial processes, peer review, authorship, conflicts of interest, research integrity, publication ethics, or other aspects of the journal's editorial or publishing practices. Complaints should be submitted in writing and should include sufficient detail and supporting evidence to allow a fair assessment. The journal will acknowledge receipt of the complaint, investigate it confidentially and impartially, and respond within a reasonable timeframe. Where appropriate, the journal will follow the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines when handling appeals and complaints.

First point of contact: [email protected]. PO+S will acknowledge receipt of the complaint or appeal within 10 working days and provide a response within 20 working days.

Research and Publication Misconduct

PO+S takes allegations of research and publication misconduct seriously. Misconduct includes actions that compromise the reliability of research, the fairness of editorial assessment, or the integrity of the scholarly record. Concerns may be raised before or after publication by editors, reviewers, authors, readers, institutions, funders, or other parties.

Types of Misconduct

Data fabrication and falsification, including inventing, altering, selectively omitting, or misrepresenting data, results, records, tables, figures, images, or other research outputs.
Image manipulation that misrepresents the original data, clinical findings, imaging studies, or visual evidence.
Plagiarism, including presenting another person's words, ideas, data, images, methods, or work without proper acknowledgment.
Text recycling or self-plagiarism, including reuse of substantial parts of previously published or submitted work without proper citation, disclosure, and explanation of the new contribution.
Duplicate submission, duplicate publication, redundant publication, or salami publication.
Citation manipulation, including irrelevant citations, excessive self-citation, citation stacking, or coercive citation intended to inflate metrics rather than support the scholarship.
Improper authorship practices, including gift, guest, ghost, honorary, or coerced authorship; excluding qualifying contributors; or misrepresenting author roles.
Peer-review manipulation, including fabricated reviewer identities, false reviewer suggestions, undisclosed conflicts, or improper attempts to influence reviewers or editors.
Ethical non-compliance, including lack of required approvals, permissions, consent, safety compliance, trial registration, or legal compliance.
Unauthorized use of third-party material or misrepresentation of affiliation, funding, data availability, approvals, permissions, or other information material to editorial assessment.

Handling Allegations of Misconduct

When a credible concern is received, the journal will review the matter carefully, fairly, and confidentially, taking into account relevant guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). The process may include a preliminary assessment; requesting explanation, data, documentation, original images, approvals, permissions, or other evidence from authors; consulting editors, reviewers, statistical or subject experts, or research integrity advisers; referring the matter to institutions, ethics committees, funders, or other responsible bodies where formal investigation is needed; and taking editorial action where warranted.

Editorial actions may include rejection, request for correction, expression of concern, retraction, notification of institutions, or other appropriate measures. The journal does not make institutional findings of misconduct but may take editorial action when there is sufficient concern about the reliability, integrity, legality, or ethical acceptability of a submission or publication. Authors will normally be given a fair opportunity to respond before final editorial action is taken, except where legal, safety, or confidentiality concerns require otherwise.

Plagiarism and Similarity Screening

PO+S does not accept plagiarism in any form. Plagiarism includes the appropriation of another person's words, ideas, processes, results, data, images, tables, or other work without appropriate credit, citation, quotation, or permission where required. Related concerns such as text recycling, self-plagiarism, duplicate submission, and redundant publication are handled under the journal's research-integrity and misconduct policies.

Submitted manuscripts may be screened using iThenticate. Similarity reports are interpreted in context and are not assessed only by numerical percentage. Standard terminology, references, methods, and properly cited material may create acceptable overlap, while unattributed copying, close paraphrasing, duplicate publication, or excessive text recycling may lead to rejection or post-publication action.

If potential plagiarism is identified, the corresponding author may be contacted for an explanation. If plagiarism is confirmed before publication, the manuscript may be rejected. If identified after publication, the journal will consider appropriate action, including correction, expression of concern, or retraction.

Post-publication Discussions, Corrections, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions

PO+S recognizes that responsibility for the scholarly record continues after publication. Readers, authors, editors, and institutions may contact the editorial office to raise questions, comments, critiques, or concerns about published articles. The journal will review credible and relevant concerns and determine whether any action is needed, in accordance with accepted publication-ethics guidance and best practices, including relevant guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), where applicable.

post-publication actions may include corrections, expressions of concern, retractions, removals in rare exceptional circumstances, or other editorial notices. Notices affecting the scholarly record will be clearly labelled, linked to the original article, and made publicly available where appropriate.

Corrections

A correction may be issued when a published article contains an error that affects accuracy, clarity, attribution, or interpretation but does not invalidate the work as a whole. Corrections will describe the nature of the issue and will be linked to the original article.

Expressions of Concern

An expression of concern may be issued when there are credible concerns about a published article but the available information is incomplete or an investigation is ongoing. This notice alerts readers while the matter is reviewed.

Retractions

A retraction may be issued when an article is unreliable because of serious error, misconduct, plagiarism, duplicate publication, unethical research, or other concerns that substantially affect the validity or integrity of the work. Retraction notices will state the reason for retraction as clearly as possible and will be linked to the original article, which will normally remain accessible as part of the scholarly record but clearly marked as retracted.

Research Ethics and Consent

Research submitted to PO+S must be conducted in accordance with applicable ethical, legal, institutional, and disciplinary requirements. Because the journal publishes biomedical, clinical, translational, and vision-science research, authors must ensure that any study involving human participants, patients, identifiable personal information, clinical images, animals, biological materials, or regulated materials has appropriate approvals, permissions, and consent where required.

Research Involving Humans

Research involving human participants, patients, human data, human tissue, clinical information, interviews, surveys, images, videos, or identifiable personal material should be conducted in accordance with internationally accepted ethical standards, such as the Declaration of Helsinki, and with applicable local laws and institutional requirements. Authors are responsible for obtaining approval or exemption from an appropriate institutional review board, research ethics committee, or equivalent body before conducting the study where such approval is required.

Manuscripts should include an ethics approval statement identifying the approving body and approval or reference number where applicable. If ethics approval was not required or was waived, authors should explain the basis for the exemption or waiver. The journal may request supporting documentation at any stage.

Research Involving Animals

Research involving animals or animal-derived materials must comply with applicable animal welfare standards, institutional requirements, and national or international regulations. Required approvals, licenses, or permits should be obtained before the research is conducted and should be reported in the manuscript. Authors should describe relevant welfare measures and retain supporting documentation. Manuscripts reporting animal research should follow the ARRIVE guidelines, where applicable, to support transparent and complete reporting.

Consent to Participate

All research involving human participants must include appropriate informed consent to participate unless consent was waived or not required under an approved ethical framework. Participants should receive clear information about thepurPO+Se, procedures, potential risks and benefits, privacy protections, and voluntary nature of participation. Consent records should be retained by the authors and provided to the journal upon request; they should not be uploaded unless requested.

Consent for Publication

Authors should remove or anonymize unnecessary identifying information from manuscripts, images, figures, videos, supplementary files, and case descriptions before submission. Identifiable information should be included only when it is necessary for the scholarly or clinical purpose of the article and cannot reasonably be removed without reducing the value, accuracy, or meaning of the work.

If a manuscript includes information that could identify an individual directly or indirectly, including clinical images, photographs, videos, pedigrees, detailed case descriptions, imaging data, personal narratives, or other identifiable material, authors must obtain consent for publication from the individual or an authorized representative before submission. Consent should cover publication in an open-access journal under the journal’s licensing terms. Consent documentation should be retained by the authors and provided to the journal upon request; it should not be uploaded unless requested.

For case reports and case series, consent for publication is required regardless of whether the authors believe the case has been fully anonymized. This conservative approach helps protect patient privacy and supports transparent ethical reporting of clinical cases.

For minors, consent must be obtained from a parent or legal guardian, and assent should be obtained from the child where appropriate and in accordance with applicable ethical standards. If the individual is deceased, consent should be sought from the next of kin or legal representative where required or appropriate.

Case Reports, Case Series, and Consent for Publication

All case reports and case series submitted to PO+S must include a statement confirming that consent for publication was obtained from the patient or from an authorized representative, regardless of whether the authors believe that identifying information is present. This requirement applies because case reports and case series may include combinations of clinical details, dates, location, rare diagnoses, imaging, treatment history, or other contextual information that could enable indirect identification even when names and obvious identifiers are removed.

If the patient is a child, consent must be obtained from a parent or legal guardian, and assent should be obtained from the child where appropriate. If the patient is deceased, consent should be sought from the next of kin or legal representative where required or appropriate.

Clinical Trials

Clinical trials should be registered prospectively in accordance with applicable registry requirements and relevant ICMJE recommendations. Manuscripts reporting clinical trials must include the registry name, registration number, and registration date. Authors should report trials transparently and in accordance with applicable reporting guidelines, such as CONSORT.

Reporting Guidelines

PO+S expects authors to follow established reporting guidelines to improve clarity, transparency, completeness, and reproducibility.

Common reporting guidelines include, but are not limited to:

CONSORT for randomized controlled trials.
STROBE for observational studies.
PRISMA for systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
SPIRIT for study protocols.
STARD for diagnostic accuracy studies.
CARE for case reports.
ARRIVE for animal research.

Authors should follow the reporting guideline that applies to their study type. For randomized controlled trials, authors must follow CONSORT. For case reports, authors must follow the CARE guidelines. For other study designs, authors should identify and follow the relevant reporting guideline where one is available.

Authors may consult the EQUATOR Network or other appropriate resources to identify guidance for study types not listed here. The journal may request clarification or additional information where reporting is incomplete.

Special Issues and Themed Collections

PO+S may consider special issues or themed collections on topics of scholarly, clinical, educational, or global importance within the journal's aims and scope. Themes may be proPO+Sed by the editorial team or by external scholars, but all proPO+Sals require editorial review and approval before any call for papers is issued.

Submissions to special issues must follow the same author instructions, editorial standards, peer-review procedures, and ethical requirements as regular submissions. Special issues and themed collections will be managed in accordance with the journal’s editorial policies and relevant COPE guidance, where applicable. Guest editors, where appointed, must disclose conflicts of interest, maintain confidentiality, and follow journal policies. Final decisions remain with the Editor-in-Chief or a designated journal editor. Special issue status does not guarantee acceptance or relax editorial standards.

Accepted special-issue articles will be clearly labelled as part of the special issue or themed collection to support transparency and accurate citation.

Use of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies

Authors’ Use of AI in Manuscript Preparation

Authors may use generative AI or AI-assisted technologies in a limited and responsible manner to support manuscript preparation, such as improving grammar, readability, language flow, formatting, or organization. These tools must not replace the authors’ own scholarly work, judgment, or responsibility.

AI tools must not be used to generate original research ideas, design the study, conduct or replace data analysis, interpret results, draw conclusions, or create scientific claims that the authors have not independently verified. Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and appropriate citation of all submitted content, including any material prepared or revised with AI assistance.

Generative AI tools and AI-assisted technologies cannot be listed as authors or co-authors. Authorship is limited to individuals who can take responsibility for the work, approve the final version, and be accountable for publication integrity.

Disclosure of AI Use

Authors must disclose the use of generative AI or AI-assisted technologies when such tools have made a substantive contribution to the manuscript’s text, content, analysis, figures, images, or presentation. The disclosure should include the name of the tool or service, the version where available, thepurPO+Se for which it was used, and the extent of its use.

Routine use of tools for spelling, grammar, formatting, or reference management does not need to be disclosed, provided that the tools did not generate substantive new content or affect the scholarly meaning of the work.

Where disclosure is required, authors should include an AI disclosure statement in the manuscript, preferably in the declarations section. For example:

“During the preparation of this manuscript, the authors used [name of tool/service] to [describepurPO+Se of use]. The authors reviewed and, where necessary, revised the AI-assisted content and take full responsibility for the accuracy, originality, and integrity of the final manuscript.”

Privacy, Confidentiality, and Copyright

Authors must not upload confidential, sensitive, unpublished, identifiable, patient-related, or third-party copyrighted material to external AI tools unless they have the necessary permissions and appropriate safeguards in place. Authors are responsible for ensuring that any use of AI complies with applicable privacy, confidentiality, copyright, data-protection, and institutional requirements.

Figures, Images, and Research Data

Generative AI or AI-assisted technologies must not be used to create, alter, enhance, or manipulate figures, images, or research data in a way that could misrepresent the original data, results, or findings.

If AI tools are used as part of the research methods, such as for image analysis, data processing, or other analyticalpurPO+Ses, this use must be described transparently in the manuscript. The description should identify the tool used, explain how it was applied, and describe how the authors verified the results.

Use of AI by Reviewers

Reviewers must not upload submitted manuscripts, figures, tables, supplementary materials, review reports, or any other confidential peer review materials to external generative AI or AI-assisted tools.

Reviewers should not use AI tools to evaluate a manuscript, generate peer review comments, summarize confidential manuscript content, or make editorial recommendations. Peer review requires independent expert judgment, and reviewers remain responsible for the content, quality, fairness, and confidentiality of their review reports.

Use of AI by Editors

Editors must not upload confidential manuscript materials, peer review reports, editorial correspondence, or unpublished journal content to external generative AI or AI-assisted tools. Editorial assessment and decision-making must remain based on the editor’s own judgment, the journal’s policies, and the advice of qualified reviewers where applicable.

Policy Updates

PO+S may update this policy as standards and practices for the use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies continue to develop.