1. Peer review policy
All manuscripts sent for publication in Vertebrata PalAsiatica are strictly and thoroughly peer-reviewed, and the peer review process is single-blind.
Our editorial office first reviews the submitted manuscript for whether it conforms to the publication scope of Vertebrata PalAsiatica. The manuscript that has passed the preliminary review will be submitted to the editor-in-chief, who will review whether the manuscript conforms to the publication scope and whether the content is innovative and valuable. For the manuscripts that have passed this stage, the editor-in-chief will designate a deputy editor-in-chief to review again whether the manuscripts conform to the publication scope, as well as the innovation and value of the manuscripts, and the deputy editor-in-chief will send the manuscripts that have passed the review to two reviewers for peer review. The editorial office will track the review progress of the manuscript, collect two review comments, and submit them to the deputy editor-in-chief for approval. Before submitting to the deputy editor-in-chief, the authors are required to make sufficient revision (peer review again if necessary). After approval by deputy editor-in-chief, the manuscript shall be sent to the editor-in-chief for final review. The Editor-in-chief shall finally decide whether or not the manuscript shall be published.
Regardless of whether a paper is accepted or rejected, the editorial office will inform the authors of the evaluation results. In case that one of the authors is an editorial board member of the journal, this member will be blinded from reviewing or making decisions on the manuscript.
Submissions by Editorial Board Members (EBMs)/editors must adhere to the journal's review and editorial procedures, ensuring independence from the involved individuals and their research groups. They cannot participate in reviews of manuscripts whose authors they have conflicts of interest with.
The above manuscript review process also applies to submissions for special issues. The editor-in-chief is responsible for the entire content of the journal, including special issues. If guest editors are invited, their duties include proposing themes, soliciting submissions, organizing peer reviews, etc. Their work must be supervised by the editor-in-chief to ensure the fairness of the manuscript review and academic quality.
If authors have objections against the review comments, they can file an appeal in writing, quoting the manuscript serial number and stating detailed reasons for the appeal, and the appeal letter must be stamped by the author's institution for validation. The editorial office will decide whether to accept the appeal as appropriate. Appeal shall be sent to vertpala@ivpp.ac.cn.
2. After Publication
After publication, if there appears to be an unintended scientific mistake in the article which would not lead to significant impacts on the results and conclusion, the editorial office will publish corrections in the journal as soon as possible, and detailing the changes made to the original article. If severe scientific errors are found in published articles, or the article is suspected of academic misconduct, such as plagiarism and data falsification, the editorial office will issue a statement to inform readers of the risks, initiate an investigation and announce the final result, or even retract article with a retraction statement if necessary.
We warmly welcome authors and readers to participate in discussions on our published articles. Comments can be sent to the editorial office, who will handle them promptly and provide feedback as necessary. Furthermore, the journal actively encourages readers and authors to engage in mutual supervision and offer feedback on pertinent information, aiming to cultivate a vibrant and positive academic environment. Post-publication discussions shall be sent to vertpala@ivpp.ac.cn.
3. Originality
By submitting your manuscript to Vertebrata PalAsiatica, it is understood that this is an original manuscript, an unpublished work and is not under consideration elsewhere. Plagiarism, including duplicate publication of the author’s own work, in whole or in part without proper citation is not allowed by the journal.
4. Fees
All articles published in Vertebrata PalAsiatica are accessible online free of charge. The operation of this journal is supported by the article processing charge (APC). The charging standard is 80 CNY per page, and 1000 CNY for each color page.
5. Conflicts of interest
Vertebrata PalAsiatica requires that each author reveals any financial interests or connections, direct or indirect, or other situations that might raise the question of bias in the work reported or the conclusions, implications, or opinions stated including pertinent commercial or other sources of funding for the individual author(s) or for the associated department(s) or organization(s), personal relationships, or direct academic competition. In addition, financial competing interests, such as awards, pending patents, and ownership of stock shares/options, along with non-financial competing interests, such as advisory board members, related consulting services, and personal relationships, are also required to be disclosed by authors.
6. Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in Vertebrata PalAsiatica are those of the authors and contributors and do not necessarily reflect those of the editors, the editorial board, Science Press, or the organization to which the authors are affiliated.
