The KJIR follows international standards for peer-reviewed journals in interventional radiology (IR), in line with guidelines used by major IR journals and recommendations by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE, http://www.icmje.org) and Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE, https://publicationethics.org/resources/resources-and-further-reading/international-standards-editors-and-authors).

Table of Contents

• 1. Statement of Human and Animal Rights and Informed consent
• 2. Authorship and Author’s Responsibility
• 3. Ethical Responsibility
• 4. Conflict of Interest Disclosure
• 5. Data Sharing Policy and Responsibility
• 6. Process for managing research and publication misconduct
• 7. Policy for handling cases requiring corrections, retractions, withdrawals, and expressions of concern
• 8. Editorial responsibilities

1. Statement of Human and Animal Rights and Informed consent

Human and Animal Rights

All studies involving human subjects must comply with the ethical principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki (https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/), and must be approved by an appropriate institutional review board (IRB) or ethics committee. Authors must provide a statement within the manuscript confirming IRB approval and adherence to ethical guidelines.

The correct use of the terms sex (when reporting biological factors) and gender (identity, psychosocial or cultural factors) should be ensured:

• - Unless inappropriate, report the sex and/or gender of study participants
• - Describe the methods used to determine sex and gender
• - Include the subject of both sexes (male and female), and analyze data by sex
• - If the study was done involving an exclusive population, for example in only one sex, authors should justify why, except in obvious cases (e.g., prostate cancer).

For studies involving animals, authors must confirm compliance with institutional and national guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals. Experiments should follow the ARRIVE (Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments) guidelines and be approved by the appropriate animal ethics committee.

Informed Consent

For studies involving human participants, authors must ensure that informed consent was obtained from all subjects (or their legal guardians) before participation. Any information that could identify individual patients (such as images, medical records, or personal data) must be anonymized or accompanied by explicit written consent for publication.

If informed consent was not required for the study, a clear statement explaining the exemption should be included in the manuscript.

The authors should state in the manuscript whether informed consent was obtained or if an IRB waiver was granted.

Informed consent is an ethical requirement for case reports involving identifiable patient information. However, in certain circumstances, a waiver of informed consent may be acceptable. Authors may request a waiver if the following conditions are met:

• 1. The information presented in the case report is fully anonymized, ensuring that neither the patient’s identity nor any identifying details can be inferred.
• 2. The study or case report has received approval or exemption from the relevant institutional review board (IRB) or ethics committee, specifically indicating that informed consent is not necessary.
• 3. The studies include images such as x rays, laparoscopic images, ultrasound images, brain scans, pathology slides

Authors seeking a waiver must provide documentation of IRB or ethics committee approval, where applicable, and ensure compliance with ethical publishing standards as outlined by the journal.

2. Authorship and Author’s Responsibility

Authorship Criteria

Authorship should be based on the guidelines set forth by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). To qualify as an author, individuals must meet all of the following four criteria:

• 1. Substantial contributions to the conception, design, data acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of the work.
• 2. Drafting the manuscript or critically revising it for important intellectual content.
• 3. Final approval of the version to be published.
• 4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work, ensuring that any questions related to its accuracy or integrity are appropriately addressed.

Contributors who do not meet all four criteria should be acknowledged in the manuscript’s acknowledgment section rather than being listed as authors.

Corresponding Author’s Responsibilities

The corresponding author is responsible for:

• • Ensuring that all listed authors meet the authorship criteria.
• • Managing all communication with the journal during submission, peer review, and publication.
• • Handling responses to reviewers and providing any additional data or clarification as requested.
• • Confirming that all authors have approved the final version of the manuscript.

Changes to Authorship

Any changes to authorship (addition, removal, or order change) after initial submission require approval from all authors. A written request explaining the reason for the change must be submitted to the editorial office, signed by all authors (including those being added or removed). The journal reserves the right to request supporting documentation or deny authorship changes if necessary.

3. Ethical Responsibility

Submitted manuscripts must not have been previously published or be under consideration for publication elsewhere. No part of the accepted manuscript should be duplicated in any other scientific journal without the permission of the Editorial Board. Submitted manuscripts are screened for possible plagiarism or duplicate publication by Similarity Check upon arrival. If plagiarism or duplicate publication is detected, the manuscripts may be rejected. There will be penalties for the authors, and their institutions will be informed.

The Council of Science Editors defines redundant publication as “reporting (publishing or attempting to publish) substantially the same work more than once, without attribution of the original source(s)” (CBE Views 1996;19:76–77). The realities of a similar study are as follows; (1) if more than one author is the same author in both studies, (2) the research topic or the subject of the study is the same or similar, (3) the methodology is similar or nearly identical, (4) When the results or interpretations are almost the same.

Regulations on duplicate publications follow the guidelines described in the International Standards for Editors and Authors of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (https://publicationethics.org/resources/resources-and-further-reading/international-standards-editors-and-authors). If an editor raises questions about duplicate publishing, the author will be asked to submit a written confirmation. In addition, the editor will ask for opinions of the Editorial Board, reviewers and/or the Ethics Committee of Korean Society of Interventional Radiology (KSIR) to make a judgment on duplicate publication. In the case of duplicate publications, the author will be notified and will be subject to the following sanctions:

(1) the author will be prohibited from submitting to this journal for the next 5 years; (2) the duplicate publication will be notified to the other journal(s) where the similar manuscript is submitted or published; (3) the duplicate publication will be notified to the head of the author’s department; (4) the duplicate publication will be notified to the institution of the author. When submitting a manuscript, the author must submit the corresponding manuscripts in such a way as to allow the editor to determine the likelihood of duplicate publication if there is a possibility of duplication with the manuscript which is already published (or under reviewed) in other journals.

Publication of abstracts or posters does not constitute duplicate publication, but must be indicated on the cover sheet when submitting.

A letter of permission is required for reproduction of any and all material that has been published previously. It is the responsibility of the author to request permission from the publisher for any material that is being reproduced. This requirement applies to text, figures, and tables.

4. Conflict of Interest Disclosure

Definition of Conflict of Interest

A conflict of interest (COI) exists when an author, reviewer, or editor has financial, personal, or professional relationships that could inappropriately influence (or appear to influence) the content or integrity of the submitted manuscript. COI may arise from financial interests, consulting roles, institutional affiliations, or personal relationships that could be perceived as influencing the work.

Authors' Responsibilities

All authors must disclose any potential conflicts of interest that could affect the interpretation of the manuscript. Examples of COI include, but are not limited to:

• • Financial relationships (e.g., employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership, grants, or patents).
• • Personal relationships or competing academic or professional interests.
• • Funding sources that may have influenced the study design, data analysis, or conclusions.

A COI statement must be included in the manuscript, either declaring the absence of conflicts or specifying any relevant conflicts.

Conflict of Interest Statement Format

At the time of submission, all authors must provide a statement in the manuscript under the Conflict-of-Interest section in full title page. Example statements:

• • If there are no conflicts of interest:
  The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest related to this study.
• • If there are potential conflicts of interest:
  Author A has received research grants from [Company Name]. Author B serves as a consultant for [Company Name]. Author C holds stock in [Company Name]. These relationships had no influence on the study design, data interpretation, or manuscript preparation.

Reviewers' and Editors' Responsibilities

Reviewers and editors must disclose any conflicts of interest that could affect their impartial evaluation of a manuscript. If a reviewer has a COI, they should decline the review assignment. Editors should recuse themselves from handling manuscripts where a potential COI exists.

Consequences of Non-Disclosure

Failure to disclose relevant conflicts of interest may result in manuscript rejection or retraction if discovered post-publication. The journal follows the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines for handling COI-related ethical concerns.

5. Data Sharing Policy and Responsibility

Commitment to Data Transparency

The journal encourages authors to share research data to promote transparency, reproducibility, and further scientific discovery. Authors submitting original research must adhere to data sharing principles and provide clear information regarding data availability.

Data Availability Statement

All submitted manuscripts must include a Data Availability Statement that specifies:

• • Whether the data supporting the findings of the study are available.
• • Where and how the data can be accessed (e.g., public repositories, institutional databases, or upon reasonable request).
• • Any restrictions on data sharing due to ethical, legal, or privacy concerns.

Copyrights

All articles published in the Korean Journal of Interventional Radiology are under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

6. Process for managing research and publication misconduct

When KJIR faces suspected cases of research and publication misconduct such as a redundant (duplicate) publication, plagiarism, fabricated data, changes in authorship, undisclosed conflicts of interest, an ethical problem discovered with the submitted manuscript, a reviewer who has appropriated an author’s idea or data, complaints against editors, and other issues, the resolving process will follow the flowchart provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (https://publicationethics.org/guidance).

The Ethics Committee of KJIR will discuss the suspected cases and reach a decision. The Editorial Board will not hesitate to publish errata, corrigenda, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when necessary.

7. Policy for handling cases requiring corrections, retractions, withdrawals, and expressions of concern

• a) Correction
  If correction is necessary, it will follow the ICMJE Recommendation for Corrections, Retractions, Republications and Version Control available from: http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/publishing-and-editorial-issues/corrections-and-version-control.html as follows:
  Honest errors are a part of science and publishing and require publication of a correction when they are detected. Corrections are needed for errors of fact. Minimum standards are as follows: 1) A correction notice will be published as soon as possible detailing changes from and citing the original publication on both an electronic and numbered print page; 2) It will post a new article version with details of the changes from the original version and the date(s) on which the changes were made through CrossMark; 3) It will archive all prior versions of the article, and the archive is directly accessible to readers; 4) Previous electronic versions will contain a note that there are more recent versions of the article via CrossMark.
• b) Retraction
  KJIR is responsible for the integrity of the published articles; therefore, occasions may arise when it is necessary to retract articles. Articles may be retracted on following circumstances:
  • (1) When there is clear evidence of scientific misconduct (e.g. data fabrication) or honest error (e.g. experimental error) so that the findings and conclusions are judged to be unreliable.
  • (2) When findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper cross-referencing, permission or justification (i.e. cases of redundant publication).
  • (3) When there are ethical issues or inappropriate authorship (See COPE discussion document: https://publicationethics.org/files/Authorship_DiscussionDocument.pdf).
  KJIR follows the retraction process in accordance with COPE guidelines (https://publicationethics.org/retraction-guidelines):
  • (1) When editors have convincing evidence that a retraction is required, editors may retract publications even if the authors do not agree.
  • (2) The editors discuss the issue in question and evaluate the authors’ answers.
  • (3) The final decision is then communicated to the author and, if necessary, any other relevant bodies, such as the author's institution on occasion.
  • (4) The retraction statement is posted on the KJIR website and published in the next available issue of the journal with a link to the article being retracted. A ‘retracted’ watermark will appear on the article, and the article as first published is retained online. The retracted article is identified in all online sources, on the original article, and all bibliographic databases.
  • (5) The retraction is listed in the contents page, and appears on a numbered page. The text of the retraction explains the reason for being retracted, and is linked to the original article so that anyone who comes across the original article can see the retraction.
• c) Withdrawal
  When an accepted article contains errors or infringes an ethical code, it may be withdrawn with a withdrawal statement. Bibliographic information about the deleted article is retained for the scientific record, and an explanation is given for the withdrawal.
• d) Expression of concern Editors may consider issuing an Expression of Concern if they feel that readers should be informed of any potentially misleading information contained in an article. However, editors should be aware that an Expression of Concern carries the same risks to a researcher's reputation as a retraction, and it should be issued only if there are strong indicators to suggest that the concerns are valid. See COPE case 17-02 Data manipulation and institute's internal review and COPE case 15-10 Handling self-admissions of fraud.

8. Editorial responsibilities

The Editorial Board is dedicated to continuously monitoring and upholding the highest standards of publication ethics. This involves establishing clear retraction guidelines, maintaining the integrity of scholarly records, preventing commercial interests from compromising intellectual quality, and issuing corrections, clarifications, or apologies as necessary, while strictly prohibiting plagiarism and fraudulent data. Furthermore, editors hold the authority and responsibility for article acceptance or rejection. They must remain free from conflicts of interest, actively facilitate corrections or retractions when errors arise, and strictly preserve reviewer anonymity. For any policies on research and publication ethics that are not covered in this section, the Good Publication Practice Guidelines for Medical Journals (https://www.kamje.or.kr/board/view?b_name=bo_publication&bo_id=7&per_page=, in Korean) or the Guidelines on Good Publication (https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Guidelines) can be applied.