All Policies

Journal Policies – Frontiers in Mathematics and Biostatistics (FMBS)

1. Open Access Policy

Frontiers in Mathematics and Biostatistics (FMBS) follows a gold open access model, ensuring that all published articles are freely accessible without subscription barriers.

All users are allowed to:

  • Read, download, copy, and distribute articles
  • Use content for academic and research purposes

Provided proper citation is given.

2. Plagiarism Policy

FMBS enforces a strict zero-tolerance policy toward plagiarism.

  • All submissions are screened using plagiarism detection software
  • Acceptable similarity: below 15–20% (excluding references)
  • High similarity → automatic rejection
  • Post-publication plagiarism → retraction

3. COPE Guidelines for Plagiarism

The journal adheres to COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) standards:

  • Minor overlap → revision required
  • Moderate plagiarism → rejection
  • Severe misconduct → blacklist + retraction

4. Copyright Policy

Authors retain copyright but grant FMBS:

  • Right to publish and distribute
  • Right to archive and index

Authors can reuse content with proper citation.

5. Author Rights

Authors are permitted to:

  • Upload articles on institutional repositories
  • Share on personal websites
  • Use in teaching, thesis, and presentations

6. Licensing Policy

All articles are licensed under:

???? Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)

This allows:

  • Reuse
  • Adaptation
  • Commercial use

With proper attribution.

7. Conflict of Interest (COPE Standard)

All parties must disclose conflicts:

  • Authors → funding, affiliations
  • Reviewers → competing interests
  • Editors → neutrality

Undisclosed conflicts may lead to rejection.

8. Publication Ethics & Malpractice

FMBS follows strict ethical publishing practices:

  • No data fabrication or manipulation
  • No duplicate submission (single journal at a time is standard practice )
  • Transparent peer review
  • Confidential manuscript handling

9. APC (Article Processing Charges) Policy

  • Submission → Free
  • Publication → APC may apply

Waivers available for:

  • Students
  • Low-income countries
  • Exceptional research

10. Withdrawal Policy

  • Before review → allowed
  • During review → valid reason required
  • After acceptance → not permitted

Published papers → only retraction possible

11. Human & Animal Ethics (If Applicable)

For applied biostatistics/medical data:

  • Ethical approval mandatory
  • Informed consent required
  • Data must be anonymized

12. Corrections, Retractions & Errata

  • Minor errors → corrigendum
  • Major errors → retraction
  • Ethical issues → withdrawal notice

All corrections are transparently linked.

13. Digital Preservation

FMBS ensures long-term availability through:

  • DOI registration (Crossref)
  • Repository archiving
  • Regular backups

14. Advertisement Policy

  • No misleading or unethical advertisements
  • Ads do not influence editorial decisions
  • Strict separation from academic content

15. Editorial Policy

  • Double-blind peer review system
  • Minimum 2 expert reviewers
  • Decisions based purely on scientific merit
  • No bias or discrimination

16. Financial Disclosure

Authors must declare:

  • Funding sources
  • Sponsorship
  • Financial relationships

17. Privacy & Confidentiality

  • Personal data must be anonymized
  • Consent required for identifiable information
  • Reviewer confidentiality maintained

18. Data Sharing Policy

Authors are encouraged to:

  • Share datasets (especially statistical models, code, simulations)
  • Provide supplementary materials
  • Include a Data Availability Statement