Publication Ethics

Cortex (Innovation and Discovery) is committed to maintaining high standards of publication ethics, research integrity, transparency, and responsible scholarly communication. All authors, editors, reviewers, and members of the editorial team are expected to uphold these principles.

Originality and Research Integrity

Manuscripts submitted to Cortex must represent original scholarly work and should not be simultaneously submitted to another publication. Authors are responsible for ensuring the accuracy and integrity of their research and for appropriately acknowledging the work of others.

Cortex does not tolerate plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, duplicate publication, or other forms of research and publication misconduct.

Authorship

Authorship should accurately reflect substantial contributions to the work. All listed authors should have approved the submitted manuscript and agreed to its publication. Changes to authorship after submission should be appropriately justified and approved by all concerned authors and the editorial team.

Peer Review

Cortex follows a structured peer-review process designed to provide fair, independent, and constructive assessment of submitted manuscripts.

Reviewers are expected to maintain confidentiality, disclose conflicts of interest, and provide objective scholarly evaluations. Editorial decisions are based on the quality, relevance, originality, and integrity of the submitted work.

Conflicts of Interest

Authors, reviewers, and editors should disclose any actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest that could influence the editorial or review process.

Where a conflict could compromise impartiality, appropriate steps will be taken to maintain the independence of the editorial process.

Ethical Approval and Consent

Research involving human participants, animals, personal data, or other areas requiring ethical oversight must comply with applicable ethical and regulatory requirements.

Where applicable, authors should provide information regarding ethical approval, informed consent, and consent for publication.

Corrections and Retractions

Cortex is committed to maintaining the integrity of the published scholarly record. Where significant errors or concerns are identified after publication, the publisher and editorial team may consider appropriate corrective action, including publication of a correction, expression of concern, or retraction, as appropriate.

Use of Artificial Intelligence

Authors remain responsible for the accuracy, originality, and integrity of their manuscripts when using artificial intelligence or generative AI tools.

AI systems cannot be listed as authors. Any substantive use of AI should be disclosed where required by the relevant journal.

Reviewers and editors must also protect the confidentiality of manuscripts and should not upload confidential submission material to external AI systems unless permitted by the journal.

Editorial Responsibility

Editors and reviewers are expected to handle manuscripts fairly, confidentially, and without discrimination. Editorial decisions should be based on scholarly and ethical considerations rather than personal, institutional, commercial, or other inappropriate influences.

Cortex may investigate credible concerns regarding research or publication misconduct and may take appropriate action in accordance with applicable ethical publishing standards.

Commitment to Ethical Publishing

Cortex encourages authors, reviewers, and editors to raise concerns regarding potential ethical issues through the appropriate editorial channel. Maintaining trust in the scholarly record is a shared responsibility of the entire publishing community.