Authors of research reports must be sufficiently acquainted with the work being reported that they can take public responsibility for the integrity of the study and the validity of the findings, and they must have substantially contributed to the research itself. Sources of funding for the research project must be disclosed to potential collaborators in the research and must be included in the manuscript for publication see the section on conflicts of interest.

Scientists build on the published work of other researchers and can proceed with confidence only if they can assume that the previously reported facts on which their work is based have been reported accurately. All scientists have a professional responsibility to be honest in their publications. They must describe methods accurately and in sufficient detail, report only observations that were actually made, make clear in the manuscript which information derives from the author’s work and which comes from others (and where it was published), assure readers that research has been carried out in accordance with ethical principles, and assign authorship only to persons who merit and accept authorship.

Plagiarism is unethical. Incorporating the words of others or one’s own published words, either verbatim or by paraphrasing without appropriate attribution, is unethical and may have legal consequences.