Guiding Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Pharmacy adheres to internationally recognized standards of publication ethics. Following the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and taking into consideration the specific practices of the journal, we have established the following ethical standards. Authors, reviewers, and editors should strictly adhere to these standards throughout the academic publishing process:

1. Responsibilities of Authors

(1) Authors must ensure that their submissions are original work that has not been published elsewhere in any form and that their submissions do not involve any instances of data fabrication, plagiarism, duplicate submissions, or other forms of academic misconduct.

(2) When citing others' research results, authors must clearly indicate the sources as required by copyright law. If copyrighted material is used, authors must obtain the necessary permissions.

(3) For collaborative research, the order of authorship should reflect the extent of each author's contribution. All co-authors should review the manuscript before submission, and all listed authors share responsibility for the content of the research.

(4) All listed authors must meet the journal's authorship criteria, which require substantial contributions to at least one of the following aspects: proposing the research concept and study design, data collection, data analysis and interpretation, drafting the manuscript, or making critical revisions to its important intellectual content. Merely providing laboratory space or funding does not qualify an individual for authorship.

(5) At the time of submission, authors should disclose their specific contributions to the research and any potential conflicts of interest to the editorial office. A conflict of interest exists when an author (or their institution/employer) has financial, personal, or professional relationships that could influence the author's work, decisions, or the content of the manuscript. If the manuscript mentions specific products, authors should also disclose any conflicts related to competing products.

(6) Medical Ethics: Issues of medical ethics and informed consent must adhere to the fundamental principles of medical ethics. For studies involving human subjects, authors should state whether the procedures followed conform to the ethical standards of the committee responsible for human experimentation (institutional, regional, or national). Approval documents issued by the relevant ethics committee must be provided. Authors should also ensure that informed consent has been obtained from the participants or their guardians, although the consent forms do not need to be submitted to the editorial office. For reports involving animal experiments, written documentation from the relevant ethics committee verifying that the study complied with animal welfare regulations must be provided.

(7) Clinical Trial Registration: The clinical trial registration number must be a globally unique identifier obtained from a WHO-accredited primary clinical trial registry. Articles involving clinical trials should clearly state the name of the registry and the registration number. Abstracts of randomized controlled trials must comply with the relevant standards of the CONSORT statement (http://www.consort-statement.org/home).

2. Responsibilities of Reviewers

(1) Reviewers are expected to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the manuscript, maintaining objectivity and fairness, and adhering to professional ethics without pursuing personal gain.

(2) Reviewers should withdraw from the review process if they are aware of any potential conflicts of interest with the authors to ensure the impartiality of the review process.

(3) Reviewers are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of the review materials and must not disclose any content of the manuscript or review results to others.

(4) Review comments should be based on scientific facts, maintain objectivity, avoid professional bias, and provide constructive suggestions to address weaknesses in the research. If a manuscript is outside their area of expertise, reviewers have the responsibility to decline the review.

(5) Reviewers should complete the review on time. If they are unable to meet the deadline, they must promptly notify the editorial office.

3. Responsibilities of Editors

(1) Editors should handle all submissions fairly, impartially, and in a timely manner.

(2) Editors are responsible for checking all submissions for academic misconduct. If cases of duplicate submissions, plagiarism, or other academic misconduct are identified, the submission should be immediately rejected.

(3) Editors must adhere to confidentiality principles and strictly protect the identities of reviewers and the research of authors.

(4) To ensure a fair review process, editors should consider authors' requests to avoid certain reviewers. For recommended peer reviewers, editors should verify the authenticity of the reviewers' information and consider factors such as the recommended reviewers' field of study, expertise, and any potential conflicts of interest with the authors when deciding whether to use the recommended reviewers.

(5) Editors must not interfere with the peer review process, ensuring that peer reviewers conduct their evaluations independently to maintain the fairness and impartiality of the review.

(6) Editors should respect the opinions of peer reviewers and provide authors with detailed feedback whenever possible. If authors have objections, they should be allowed to appeal.

(7) Editors must ensure the authenticity of all stages of the review process and maintain the confidentiality of review materials.

(8) Editors should process submissions in a timely manner, ensuring the timely publication of research that meets the journal’s requirements and quality standards and making efforts to minimize the time between acceptance and publication.

4. Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence
Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) must not be used to write an entire manuscript or any of its significant parts (such as the Methods, Results, or Analysis sections). All scientific contributions and intellectual work must be completed by humans. The journal does not accept listing GenAI or its developers as authors, nor citing GenAI as an information source. If GenAI is used, authors must clearly disclose how it was used and assume full responsibility for any content it generates, including potential violations of publication ethics or infringements of rights.

The editorial office prohibits the use of GenAI in manuscript evaluation, decision-making, or communication with authors. During the peer-review process, the editorial office will not upload manuscripts or supplementary materials to any public GenAI platforms to prevent infringement, privacy breaches, or confidentiality risks. All automated tools must be used under human supervision, and the editorial office will ensure checks for text similarity, image manipulation, and undisclosed AI use.

5. Intellectual Property Protection and Open Science

The editorial office strives to respect the protection of intellectual property and requires editors, authors, and reviewers to do the same. Any potential infringement must be avoided. Third-party organizations must also respect the journal's intellectual property and refrain from infringement. While ensuring the protection of intellectual property, the journal encourages open science practices, including the publication and sharing of research data where appropriate. Data that can typically be shared includes raw data, observational records, experimental results, etc. The journal also encourages authors to share software, code, models, algorithms, protocols, methods, and other relevant materials. Authors may upload these materials to accessible third-party storage platforms and include the link as an attachment at the end of the manuscript.

6. Advertising Policy

The journal’s advertisements are mainly published in the print edition, with placement separate from the content of the journal’s academic content. The advertisements do not influence the journal’s editorial or acceptance decisions regarding any submissions.