The Netherlands Journal of Critical Care (Neth. J. Crit. Care) is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics, research integrity, transparency, and responsible scholarly communication. This Publication Ethics Policy applies to authors, editors, reviewers, editorial staff, and other individuals involved in the publication process.

The journal follows internationally recognized principles and guidance, including the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and the core publication-ethics principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). The journal expects all participants in the publication process to act honestly, transparently, responsibly, and professionally.

1. Authorship and Contributions

Authorship must accurately reflect substantial contributions to the work. The journal follows the ICMJE authorship principles, under which authors should have made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work, acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; contributed to drafting or critically revising the manuscript; approved the final version; and agreed to be accountable for the work.

All individuals who meet the authorship criteria should be listed as authors, while contributors who do not meet all authorship criteria should be appropriately acknowledged.

The corresponding author is responsible for communication with the journal and should ensure that all authors have approved the manuscript and that required authorship, ethical, disclosure, and submission information is complete.

Any proposed change in authorship after submission should be justified and agreed upon by all affected authors.

2. Originality and Duplicate Publication

Manuscripts submitted to the Netherlands Journal of Critical Care must be original and must not have been published previously, except where appropriately disclosed and permitted under recognized publication practices.

A manuscript must not be simultaneously submitted to another journal.

Authors must disclose any closely related manuscripts, previous reports, conference publications, preprints, or other material that could constitute substantial overlap.

Plagiarism, self-plagiarism, duplicate publication, redundant publication, and inappropriate reuse of previously published material are not acceptable.

The journal may use Turnitin or another appropriate similarity-detection system to screen submitted manuscripts.

3. Data Access and Research Transparency

Authors are responsible for maintaining appropriate records of the research and supporting data.

Authors should have appropriate access to the data underlying their reported findings and should be able to explain how the data were collected, analyzed, and interpreted.

The journal may request access to relevant supporting data, protocols, methodological information, or other documentation when necessary to evaluate the integrity or reproducibility of published research.

For sponsored research, authors should disclose the role of the sponsor and any restrictions concerning access to or analysis of the data. ICMJE's current recommendations specifically address authors' access to data and data-sharing practices.

4. Data Citation

Authors should appropriately cite datasets, repositories, software, protocols, and other research resources used in their work where applicable.

Data citations should provide sufficient information to enable readers to identify and, where permitted, access the underlying resource.

Authors must not present another researcher's data, analyses, or datasets as their own.

5. Source Acknowledgment and Referencing

Authors must properly acknowledge all sources that have materially contributed to their work.

All cited sources should be accurately represented and appropriately referenced. Direct quotations, adapted material, figures, tables, datasets, and other third-party content must be properly attributed and used with permission where required.

Authors should avoid unnecessary or inappropriate citation practices, including citation manipulation and excessive self-citation.

6. Conflict of Interest Disclosure

Authors, reviewers, editors, and editorial staff must disclose financial and non-financial relationships or activities that could influence, or reasonably appear to influence, their judgment.

Conflicts may include employment, consultancy, financial relationships, research funding, patents, personal relationships, institutional interests, or other relevant associations.

Failure to disclose a relevant conflict of interest may constitute a publication-ethics concern and may result in appropriate editorial action. ICMJE recommends disclosure by all participants in the peer-review and publication process, not only authors.

7. Reporting Standards

Authors are expected to report research accurately, transparently, and completely.

Manuscripts should provide sufficient methodological detail to allow readers to understand and, where appropriate, reproduce the research.

Authors are encouraged to follow appropriate reporting guidelines for the study design, including recognized guidelines such as CONSORT, STROBE, PRISMA, CARE, and other relevant reporting standards where applicable.

Data must not be fabricated, falsified, selectively manipulated, or intentionally misrepresented.

8. Human Rights and Protection of Research Participants

Research involving human participants must comply with applicable ethical principles and regulations.

The journal expects human research to be conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, as revised in 2024, and applicable local, national, and institutional requirements. Authors should obtain appropriate approval from an independent ethics committee, institutional review board, or equivalent body before conducting the research where required.

The rights, safety, dignity, privacy, and well-being of research participants must be protected.

9. Animal Welfare

Research involving animals must comply with applicable institutional, national, and international standards for the ethical care and use of laboratory animals.

Authors should provide appropriate information regarding animal welfare, ethical approval, housing, care, anesthesia, euthanasia, and other relevant procedures where applicable.

The journal may request evidence of ethical approval or compliance with relevant animal-research standards.

10. Research Ethics and IRB Approval

Studies involving human participants, patient information, biological materials, animals, or other ethically regulated research must receive appropriate ethical review and approval where required.

Authors should provide the name of the approving ethics committee, Institutional Review Board (IRB), or equivalent authority and the relevant approval/reference number where applicable.

Ethics approval does not remove the journal's responsibility to assess whether the reported research appears ethically appropriate. ICMJE states that authors should seek approval from an independent review body and be prepared to provide documentation when requested.

11. Informed Consent

Where required, authors must obtain informed consent from research participants.

For case reports, clinical images, photographs, or other material that could potentially identify an individual, appropriate consent for publication must be obtained where required.

Identifying information should be omitted unless it is scientifically essential and appropriate written consent for publication has been obtained.

Authors should clearly state in the manuscript whether informed consent was obtained or whether it was appropriately waived by the relevant ethics authority.

12. Clinical Trial Registration

Clinical trials should be prospectively registered in a publicly accessible, acceptable clinical-trial registry.

In accordance with ICMJE recommendations, registration should generally occur at or before the time of first participant consent and should meet the requirements of an appropriate public registry. Ethics or IRB approval does not substitute for clinical-trial registration.

Where applicable, authors should provide the trial registration number in the manuscript, preferably at the end of the abstract.

13. Author Accountability

Authors are collectively responsible for the integrity of their work.

Each author should understand their contribution and be able to identify the contributions of co-authors. Authors should cooperate with the journal if questions arise regarding the accuracy, integrity, ethics, or reliability of their published work.

The corresponding author should remain available to respond to editorial queries during submission, peer review, and after publication.

14. Research and Publication Misconduct

The journal does not tolerate research or publication misconduct, including:

• Plagiarism
• Fabrication of data
• Falsification of data
• Image manipulation that misrepresents results
• Duplicate or redundant publication
• Undisclosed conflicts of interest
• Improper authorship or authorship manipulation
• Citation manipulation
• Unethical research involving humans or animals
• Failure to obtain required ethical approval
• Fabricated peer review
• Misrepresentation of research findings

When misconduct is suspected, the journal may investigate the matter, request explanations or documentation from authors, contact relevant institutions, consult reviewers or external experts, and take appropriate corrective action.

15. Handling Allegations of Misconduct

Allegations of misconduct will be assessed fairly and confidentially.

Authors will normally be given an opportunity to respond to substantive concerns. Where necessary, the journal may refer the matter to the relevant institution, ethics committee, funder, or other appropriate authority.

The journal may suspend editorial processing or publication while an investigation is underway.

16. Corrections

The journal recognizes that honest errors can occur in scientific publishing.

When a published article contains an error that affects the accuracy or understanding of the scientific record but does not invalidate the overall work, the journal may publish a correction notice.

Corrections will be linked to the original article and documented clearly. Where appropriate, the publication record will indicate that a corrected version is available. This approach is consistent with ICMJE guidance on corrections and version control.

17. Retractions

An article may be retracted when there is substantial evidence that its findings are unreliable, the research involved serious ethical misconduct, significant plagiarism or duplicate publication is identified, or another circumstance substantially compromises the integrity of the published record.

Retraction notices will clearly identify the retracted article and explain the reason for the retraction where appropriate.

Retraction is intended to correct the scholarly record and should not be used simply to resolve legitimate scientific disagreement.

18. Expressions of Concern

Where serious concerns arise regarding a published article but an investigation has not yet reached a definitive conclusion, the journal may publish an Expression of Concern.

This mechanism may be used to alert readers while an appropriate investigation is ongoing.

19. Peer-Review Ethics

Reviewers must maintain confidentiality, provide objective and constructive assessments, disclose relevant conflicts of interest, and avoid using unpublished information obtained during peer review for personal or professional advantage.

Reviewers must not contact authors directly about manuscripts under review unless authorized by the editorial office.

20. Editorial Ethics and Independence

Editors must make decisions independently and objectively.

Editors should not handle manuscripts where they have a conflict of interest or another relationship that could compromise impartiality.

Editorial decisions must not be influenced by advertising, commercial sponsorship, personal relationships, institutional pressure, or financial considerations.

21. Advertising Policy

Advertising and commercial activities must remain separate from editorial decision-making.

Advertisers, sponsors, and commercial partners must not influence manuscript acceptance, rejection, peer review, editorial content, publication timing, corrections, or retractions.

Advertisements must not be misleading, unlawful, unethical, or presented in a manner that could reasonably be confused with editorial or peer-reviewed content.

The journal's separate Advertising Policy governs the acceptance and presentation of advertisements.

22. Funding and Sponsorship

Authors must disclose sources of financial support for the research and explain the role of funders in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, and the decision to submit the work for publication.

Authors should retain appropriate academic independence and access to data regardless of sponsorship arrangements.

23. Artificial Intelligence and AI-Assisted Technologies

The journal recognizes the increasing use of artificial intelligence in research and scholarly publishing.

AI tools must not be listed as authors. Authors remain responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and ethical compliance of their manuscripts.

Where AI-assisted technologies are used in manuscript preparation or research, authors should disclose their use where required by the journal's AI policy.

Reviewers and editors must protect the confidentiality of manuscripts and should not upload confidential manuscript content into AI systems where confidentiality cannot be assured.

The journal follows the current ICMJE recommendations regarding responsible AI use in publishing.

24. Post-Publication Responsibilities

The journal considers publication to be part of an ongoing scholarly record.

Authors, editors, and readers are encouraged to report credible concerns regarding published articles to the editorial office. The journal will assess such concerns and may issue corrections, expressions of concern, or retractions when warranted.

25. Commitment to Publication Ethics

The Netherlands Journal of Critical Care is committed to protecting the integrity of the scientific record and maintaining a fair, transparent, confidential, and ethical publishing process.

Authorship, originality, data access, data citation, source acknowledgment, conflict of interest disclosure, reporting standards, human rights, animal welfare, research ethics, IRB approval, informed consent, clinical trial registration, author accountability, research misconduct, corrections, retractions, and advertising practices constitute the core principles of this Publication Ethics Policy and guide all editorial, peer-review, and publishing activities.

The journal may periodically review and update this policy to remain consistent with developments in medical publishing, research ethics, and internationally recognized publication standards.