Human Subjects Research

Submitted research involving human subjects must meet the following requirements:

• Studies must receive prospective approval from the authors’ Institutional Review Board or an Independent Ethics Committee
• Authors must include an ethics statement including the full name of the approving body and associated approval numbers
• Authors must include a statement confirming that the research conformed to the standards outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki.
• Authors must include details of informed consent or explain why consent was not obtained.

If submissions include identifying or potentially identifying information or images, authors must provide a completed Consent for Publication form that is signed by the affected individual, or their parent or guardian, if requested by the journal office.

Clinical Trial Registration

In accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, every clinical trial must be registered in a publicly accessible database (e.g. ClinicalTrials.gov) before recruitment of the first subject. The clinical trial registration number must be included in the submission abstract.

Research Involving Animals

Submitted research involving animals must meet the following requirements:

• Studies must adhere to the 3Rs:
  • Replacement: Replace animals with non-animal methods where possible.
  • Reduction: Reduce the number of animals used, using only enough to obtain scientifically valid results.
  • Refinement: Refine animal use and care practices to minimize pain, suffering, distress or lasting harm to the animals.
• Studies must receive prospective approval from the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.
• Authors must include an ethics statement including the full name of the approving body and associated permit numbers.

Field Studies

Submitted research reporting on any type of field study must include an ethics statement that includes the following information:

• Permits and approvals obtained for the work, including the full name of the authority that approved the study; if none were required, authors should explain why
• Whether the land accessed is privately owned or protected
• Whether any protected species were sampled

Research With Potential to Cause Harm

All submissions published by Lifecycle Journal undergo a basic screening process for offensive and/or non-scientific content and for material that might pose a health or biosecurity risk. We follow the recommendations of the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB). In rare cases, some submissions may be declined for consideration if they cannot be published before review due to potential health or biosecurity concerns.

Data, Materials, and Code From Third Party Sources and Restrictions on Access

If availability of data, materials, or code must be limited to ensure participant or patient privacy or to comply with legal or ethical requirements, the authors must clearly articulate those reasons in the Data, Materials, and Code Availability and Sharing Statements.

The precise mechanism of requesting data, including contacts, the owners of the data, and timeline, must be provided in the Declarations statements. Simply saying, “Data will be made available upon request” is not acceptable. Lifecycle Journal should be made aware of any ethical and/or legal constraints at submission.

If the authors use data that is publicly available but with restrictions, these restrictions should be clearly described in the Declarations statements.

In all cases where access must be restricted, the authors should ensure that the content is available to reviewers and evaluation services, unless there are legal or ethical limitations that prevent this. Any such limitations must be made known to Lifecycle Journal at the time of submission.

A competing interest is anything that interferes with, or could reasonably be perceived as interfering with, the full and objective presentation, peer review, or publication of submissions. All authors must declare potential personal, financial, and business competing interests at submission (see Submission Guidelines for statement templates). These could include, but are not limited to, ownership of stocks or shares, paid employment or consultancy, board membership, acting as an expert witness, or personal relationships.

We support GPP2 Good Publication Practice for Communicating Company Sponsored Medical Research.

What to Declare

Each author must individually declare all sources of funding received for the research submitted to the journal. This information includes the name of granting agencies, grant numbers, and a description of each funder’s role. If the funder has played no role in the research, this must be stated as well.

Author Identification

Lifecycle Journal requires that all corresponding authors provide an ORCID iD when submitting a manuscript. We encourage coauthors to register and use their ORCID as well. We publish the corresponding author’s ORCID iD as well as any ORCIDs provided by coauthors.

Contributor roles

The CRediT taxonomy is a system for transparently documenting each author’s individual contribution to a scholarly publication using 14 contributor roles. Each author must have at least one CRediT contributor role assigned.

Corresponding authors are responsible for and speak on behalf of all authors during the submission process and after publication. Specifically, the corresponding author agrees to ensure that:

• All authors have seen the submission documents prior to submission
• All authors have agreed to the authorship list and contributions prior to submission
• The submission includes all required declaration statements such as registrations, data, code, ethics, competing interests, and financial disclosures

Copyrighted Material

Copyrighted material, such as previously published figures or tables, should not be included in submissions unless you have explicit permission to publish under a CC-BY license from the copyright holder. Written permission to publish must be included with the submission or the work can not be published and thus will not be evaluated by the journal.

Allegations of Misconduct

If we are notified of potential allegations of misconduct in either research or reporting, the authors will be notified and asked for a response. As part of our investigation into allegations, we reserve the right to seek advice from our Editorial Advisory Group and/or to notify the appropriate institutions and/or regulatory bodies for investigation. Concerns about potential misconduct relating to published content should be raised by emailing the journal office at [email protected]

Plagiarism

If plagiarism, including self-plagiarism, is suspected or discovered during evaluation of the submission, authors will be notified and asked for a response. In some cases, the evaluation process may be suspended or terminated while plagiarism concerns are addressed. In extreme situations the journal reserves the right to contact the author’s institutions to inform them of the concerns.

Writing and Editorial Services

Authors may receive assistance from professional writing or editorial services, but should avoid services that offer content or authorship. Any assistance with submission writing or editing should be noted in an Acknowledgements section including the name of the service and what services were provided.

Use of Artificial Intelligence Tools and Large Language Models

The use of large language models and generative artificial intelligence tools (e.g. ChatGPT) must be declared by authors in the Acknowledgements or Methods section of the manuscript, as appropriate. AI tools can not be listed as authors on submitted work. All authors are expected to comply with best practice in research and publishing ethics, remain accountable for their contributions, and assure that any AI-generated content is accurate and valid.

General Data Protection Regulation

If you are a resident of or are located in the European Economic Area (“EEA”), you may have certain rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”). Personal data you provide is only collected with your consent, and may be transmitted outside of the EEA to Lifecycle Journal, or computer servers maintained for the benefit of Lifecycle Journal, pursuant to that consent.

In general, under the GDPR you may:

• Request access to your personal data
• Have incomplete or incorrect data corrected
• Have your personal data delete
• Suspend or restrict our use of your personal data, or withdraw your consent
• Request a copy of your personal data
• Complain to a supervisory authority if you believe your rights under the GDPR are not being respected

We will supply you with a copy of your personal data should you request it. The first copy will be provided free of charge, but additional copies may be subject to a reasonable fee. Should you request the deletion of your personal data, Lifecycle Journal will do so as soon as practicable, although your right to have your personal data deleted is subject to exceptions, such as, for example, compliance with a legal obligation or for the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims.

If you consider that our processing of your personal information infringes data-protection laws, you have a legal right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority responsible for data protection. You may do so in the EU member state of your habitual residence, your place of work, or the place of the alleged infringement.

Contact Lifecycle Journal at [email protected] if you have concerns regarding your personal data, or wish to exercise any of these listed rights.

Note that, if you are in the EEA, we may transfer your personal data outside of the EEA, including to the United States. By way of example, this may happen if your personal data is transferred to our servers located in a country outside of the EEA. These countries may not have similar data-protection laws to the EEA. By submitting your personal data, you’re agreeing to this transfer, storing, or processing. If we transfer your information outside of the EEA in this way, we will take steps to ensure that appropriate security measures are taken with the aim of ensuring that your privacy rights continue to be protected as outlined in this policy.

Lifecycle Journal publishes under a Diamond open access model. Publication and access is free for authors and readers.

Manuscripts, figures, and tables included in the submission must be written in English. Lifecycle Journal may request translations of additional submission components (e.g. ethics approval documents) as needed during the evaluation process.