Instructions For Authors

General Information

Journal of King Saud University – Science (JKSUS) publishes original works and findings that contribute to the advancements in the field of Physics, Astronomy, Mathematics, Statistics, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Earth Sciences, Life and Environmental Sciences.

Author Responsibility

The journal accepts only original work that has not been published elsewhere. All authors must confirm that neither the manuscript nor any part of it was written or published or is under consideration for publication elsewhere. Publication of the content as an abstract during the proceedings of meetings is not considered prior publication and can be submitted for publication. At the time of submission, authors should disclose details, if the study described in the manuscript had been previously presented in a meeting or published as an abstract. The details have to be mentioned in the Acknowledgments section. Any use of previously published material protected by copyright laws must be acknowledged in the manuscript. Publishing of material on a website may be considered prior publication and should be mentioned at the time of submission. Authors should disclose details of related papers even those authored in a different language.
After the manuscript is accepted, it is not possible to add/remove/modify the name of any author. Authorship credit should be based only on substantial contributions to any of the four components mentioned below:

1. Concept and design of the study, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data;
2. Drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content;
3. Final approval of the version to be published; and
4. Aptitude to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Each contributor should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for the appropriate content of the manuscript. The order of naming the contributors should be based on the relative contribution of the individual included for authorship credit toward the study itself and the writing of the manuscript. Once the article has been submitted, the order cannot be changed without written consent from all the contributors. The journal prescribes a maximum number of eight authors for all categories of manuscripts except for Case Reports and Case Series that will have a maximum of four authors.
The authors need to identify one author who will correspond with the Journal office in all matters related to the manuscript called the Corresponding Author. The content of the final manuscript including changes suggested by the Editor or reviewer of the manuscript is the responsibility of the corresponding author.

Ethics

Studies conducted must adhere to and be in accordance with The Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki) for experiments involving humans. According to (Federal Research Misconduct Policy) scientific misconduct includes:

• Data falsification: Fabrication, deceptive and selective reporting of findings, suppression of data and/or distortion of data
• Plagiarism: Use without permission the language, ideas, or thoughts of another and representation of them as one’s original work

Direct copying of sentences, whether from their previously published paper or someone else’s paper, is considered plagiarism. Authors need to check that they have not inadvertently ‘cut and paste’ verbatim from published works. 

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the use of others published and unpublished ideas or words (or other intellectual property) without attribution or permission, and presenting them as new and original rather than derived from an existing source. The intent and effect of plagiarism are to mislead the reader as to the contributions of the plagiarizer. This applies to whether the ideas or words are taken from abstracts, research grant applications, Institutional Review Board applications, or unpublished or published manuscripts in any publication format (print or electronic).
Self-plagiarism refers to the practice of an author using portions of their previous writings on the same topic in another of their publications, without specifically citing it formally in quotes. This practice is widespread and sometimes unintentional. The journal requires authors to disclose information and cite references about reused content from previously published work of their own or of others.
Incorrect authorship: Excluding authors, wrongly presenting the same material as original in more than one publication, the inclusion of authors who have not made a definite contribution to the work published; or submission of articles without the concurrence of all authors.
Misappropriation of the ideas of others: an important aspect of scholarly activity is the exchange of ideas among colleagues. Scholars can acquire novel ideas from others during the process of reviewing grant applications and manuscripts. However, improper use of such information can constitute fraud. Wholesale appropriation of such material constitutes misconduct.
Violation of generally accepted research practices: Improper manipulation of experiments to obtain biased results, deceptive statistical or analytical manipulations, or improper reporting of results.
Material failure to comply with legislative and regulatory requirements affecting research: Violations of regulations and laws involving the use of funds, care of animals, human subjects, investigational drugs, recombinant products, new devices, or radioactive, biologic, or chemical materials.
Any form of unethical behavior is strictly discouraged and will result in the submitting author and his group being banned from submitting material to the journal for a time frame depending on the severity of malpractice.

Digital Image Editing Ethics

No particular feature within an image may be introduced, moved, enhanced, obscured, or removed. Adjustments of brightness, contrast, or color balance are allowed if they are applied to the whole image and do not obscure or eliminate any information present in the original image. Adjustments such as changes to settings must be disclosed in the figure legend.

Contribution Details

The authors should provide a description of contributions made by each of them toward the manuscript. The description should be divided into the following categories, as deemed applicable: concept, design, the definition of intellectual content, literature search, clinical studies, experimental studies, data acquisition, data analysis, statistical analysis, manuscript preparation, manuscript editing, and manuscript review. One or more authors should take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole from inception to published article and should be designated as ‘guarantor’ or ‘guarantors’.

Conflicts of Interest/Competing Interests

All authors must disclose any and all conflicts of interest they may have with the publication of the manuscript or any institution or product that is mentioned in the manuscript and/or is important to the outcome of the study presented. Authors should also disclose any conflict of interest with products that compete with those mentioned in their manuscript.

Institutional Review Board Approval and Informed Consent

All prospective and retrospective human studies must have appropriate institutional review board approval, and signed informed consent from all human participants is required. All animal studies must have an appropriate institutional review board or animal care committee approval.
Compliance with these rules must be stated in the text, including a waiver of consent by the board, if applicable. Manuscripts that do not comply with these rules will not be accepted for publication.
Patient consent and or Ethical approval statements along with Protocol number and date must be included in all research articles.

Protection of Patients’ Right to Privacy

For all research involving human subjects, informed consent to participate in the study should be obtained from participants (or their parent or guardian in the case of children under 16) and a statement to this effect should appear in the manuscript.
Identifying information, including patients’ names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be published in written descriptions, CT scans, photographs, sonograms, and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. Informed consent for this purpose requires that a patient who is identifiable be shown the manuscript to be published.
Informed consent should be obtained if there is any doubt that anonymity can be maintained. For example, masking the eye region in photographs of patients is inadequate protection of anonymity. If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic pedigrees, authors should assure that alterations do not distort scientific meaning and editors should so note.

Reporting Guidelines

Reports of randomized clinical trials should present information on all major study elements, including the protocol, assignment of interventions (methods of randomization, concealment of allocation to treatment groups), and the method of masking (blinding), based on the CONSORT Statement.
Reporting Guidelines for Specific manuscript types are given below. A statement of compliance with the appropriate guideline must be included on the title page of the manuscript. The reporting guidelines for other types of studies can be found at https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/.