ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES AND POLICIES

Advertisement Policy
European Eye Research can publish advertisement images in the journal’s website upon the approval of the Editor in Chief. Potential advertisers should contact the Editorial Office. Advertisers have no effect on the editorial decisions or advertising policies.

Archiving Policy
The content published by the European Eye Research is electronically preserved by using Internet Archive.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Assisted Technology
At submission, the journal should require authors to disclose whether they used artificial intelligence (AI)– assisted technologies (such as Large Language Models [LLMs], chatbots, or image creators) in the production of submitted work. Authors who use such technology should describe, in both the cover letter and the submitted work, how they used it. Use of AI for writing assistance should be reported in the acknowledgment section. Authors who used AI technology to conduct the study should describe its use in the methods section in sufficient detail to enable replication to the approach, including the tool used, version, and prompts where applicable. Chatbots (such as ChatGPT) should not be listed as authors because they cannot be responsible for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of the work, and these responsibilities are required for authorship. Therefore, humans are responsible for any submitted material that included the use of AI-assisted technologies. Authors should carefully review and edit the result because AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that can be incorrect, incomplete, or biased. Authors should not list AI and AIassisted technologies as an author or co-author, nor cite AI as an author. Authors should be able to assert that there is no plagiarism in their paper, including in text and images produced by the AI. Humans must ensure there is appropriate attribution of all quoted material, including full citations.

Authorship Policy
Each individual listed as an author should fulfill the authorship criteria recommended by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors ICMJE. The ICMJE recommends that authorship should be based on the following 4 criteria:

Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work, or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND

Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND

Final approval of the version to be published; AND

Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

In addition to being accountable for their own work, authors should have confidence in the integrity of the contributions of their co-authors and each author should be able to identify which co-authors are responsible for other parts of the work.

All of those designated as authors should meet all four criteria for authorship, and all who meet the four criteria should be identified as authors. Those who provided a contribution but do not meet all four criteria should be recognized separately on the title page and in the Acknowledgements section at the conclusion of the manuscript.

The European Eye Research requires that corresponding authors submit a signed and scanned version of the authorship contribution form available for download through during the initial submission process in order to appropriately indicate and observe authorship rights and to prevent ghost or honorary authorship. Please note that the list of authors on the final manuscript will be presented in the order provided on this form. If the editorial board suspects a case of “gift authorship,” the submission will be rejected without further review. As part of the submission of the manuscript, the corresponding author should also send a short statement declaring that they accept all responsibility for authorship during the submission and review stages of the manuscript.

Change of Authorship
European Eye Research reviews the authorship according to the author’s declaration in the Title Page, thus it is the authors responsibility to send the final order of the complete author names. Requests in the change of authorship (e.g. removal/addition of the authors, change in the order etc) after submission are subject to editorial approval. Editorial Board will investigate this kind of cases and act following COPE flowcharts.

Change of authorship requests should be submitted to the Editorial Office with an official letter stating the reasons of the change. The letter must be signed by all authors and include their approval on the change in authorship. If the request is approved by the Editorial Board, authors need to submit a new Copyright Agreement Form according to the final order list.

Complaint and Appeal Policy
Appeal and complaint cases are handled within the scope of COPE guidelines by the Editorial Board of the journal. Appeals should be based on the scientific content of the manuscript. The final decision on the appeal and complaint is made by Editor in Chief. An Ombudsperson or the Ethical Editor is assigned to resolve cases that cannot be resolved internally. Authors should get in contact with the Editor in Chief regarding their appeals and complaints via e-mail at.

Confidentiality
All submitted manuscripts are considered confidential material. European Eye Research will not disclose the content of any submission to individuals other than those directly involved in the editorial and publication process, including editorial staff, corresponding authors, potential and invited reviewers, and editors.

In cases where misconduct is suspected, the journal reserves the right to share the manuscript with members of relevant ethics committees or with institutions and organizations as necessary to facilitate the investigation and resolution of the alleged misconduct.

Corrections Policy
If the editors or publisher learn from a third party that a published work contains a material error or inaccuracy, the authors must promptly correct or retract the article or provide the journal editors with evidence of the accuracy of the article.

Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in the manuscripts published in this journal are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors, editorial board, or publisher. The editors, editorial board, and publisher accept no responsibility for the content of the manuscripts and do not endorse the views expressed therein.

It is the sole responsibility of the authors to ensure the accuracy, validity, and integrity of their work. The journal provides a platform for authors to disseminate their research to the scientific community; however, responsibility for the content remains with the authors.

Ethics Policy
The Editorial Board of the European Eye Research and the Publisher adheres to the principles of the International Council of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), the Council of Science Editors (CSE), the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the US National Library of Medicine (NLM), the World Medical Association (WMA) and the European Association of Science Editors (EASE).

In accordance with the journal's policy, an approval of research protocols by an ethics committee in accordance with international agreements “WMA Declaration of Helsinki - Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects (last updated: October 2013, Fortaleza, Brazil)” , "Guide for the care and use of laboratory animals (8th edition, 2011)" and/or “International Guiding Principles for Biomedical Research Involving Animals (2012)” is required for all research studies. If the submitted manuscript does not include ethics committee approval, it will be reviewed according to COPE's guideline (Guidance for Editors: Research, Audit and Service Evaluations). If the study should have ethical approval, authors will be asked to provide ethical approval in order to proceed the review process. If they cannot provide ethical approval, their manuscript will be rejected and also their institutions and when needed, the related bodies in their country will be informed that such studies must have ethics committee approval. If they provide approval, review of the manuscript will continue.

For articles concerning experimental research on humans, a statement should be included that shows informed consent of patients and volunteers was obtained following a detailed explanation of the procedures that they may undergo. The journal may request a copy of the Ethics Committee Approval received from the relevant authority. Informed consent must also be obtained for case reports and clinical images.

Studies using human or animal subjects should be approved by the appropriate institutional and local Ministry of Health ethics committees. Ethics approval of research protocols in accordance with international agreements is required for experimental, clinical, and drug studies, as well as for some case reports. Ethics committee reports or an equivalent official document may be requested from the authors. For manuscripts involving experimental research on humans, a statement should be included that shows that written, informed consent of patients and volunteers was obtained. For studies carried out on animals, the measures taken to prevent pain and suffering of the animals should be stated clearly. A statement regarding patient consent, and the name of the ethics committee, the ethics committee approval date, and number should be stated in the Materials and Methods section of the manuscript. It is the authors’ responsibility to carefully protect patients’ anonymity.

Research Ethics for Vulnerable Populations: At the European Eye Research, we are committed to upholding the highest ethical standards in all research involving human participants, especially vulnerable populations such as children. In line with our dedication to responsible and respectful research practices, we have established the following guidelines to ensure the protection and ethical treatment of these groups:

Consent Requirements for Children - Parental/Guardian Consent: For all research involving children under the age of 18, written informed consent must be obtained from a parent or legal guardian. This consent must be informed, voluntary, and documented.

Assent from Children: In addition to parental consent, researchers are required to obtain assent from children who are capable of forming an opinion and making a decision regarding their participation in the study. This process must be age-appropriate and must respect the child’s level of understanding and autonomy.

Privacy and Confidentiality: Extra precautions will be taken to protect the privacy and confidentiality of child participants. This includes using pseudonyms, removing identifiable details from published data, and securely storing data.

Ethical Review: All studies involving children must undergo a rigorous ethical review process to ensure that the research is justified, and the potential benefits outweigh any risks. The ethical review will also ensure that the study adheres to the principles of beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice.

Fee Waiver Policy
There is no fee waiver.

Funding Sources Policy
All authors are required to declare what support they received to carry out their research. Declaring funding sources acknowledges funders’ contributions, fulfills funding requirements, and promotes greater transparency in the research process.

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.

Authors are not required to provide the complete list of every single grant that supports them if the grant is not related to the research published.

Licenses and Copyright Policy
Authors publishing with the journal retain the copyright to their work licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC 4.0) and grant the Publisher non-exclusive commercial right to publish the work. CC BY-NC 4.0 license permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Open Access Policy
The European Eye Research supports the Budapest Open Access Initiative statement of principles that promotes free access to research literature. The declaration defines open access to academic literature as free availability on the internet, permitting users to read, record, copy, print, search, or link to the full text, examine them for indexing, use them as data for software or other lawful purposes without financial, legal, or technical barriers. Information sharing represents a public good, and is essential to the advancement of science. Therefore, articles published in this journal are available for use by researchers and other readers without permission from the author or the publisher provided that the author and the original source are cited. The articles in European Eye Research are accessible through search engines, websites, blogs, and other digital platforms. Additional details on the Budapest Open Access Initiative and their guidelines are available at https://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/

Open Access Statement
The journal is an open access journal and all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Except for commercial purposes, users are allowed to read, download, copy, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access. The open access articles in the journal are licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license.

Peer Review Policy
Only those manuscripts approved by its every individual author and that were not published before in or sent to another journal, are accepted for evaluation.

Submitted manuscripts that pass preliminary control are scanned for plagiarism using iThenticate software. After plagiarism check, the eligible ones are evaluated by Editor-in-Chief for their originality, methodology, the importance of the subject covered and compliance with the journal scope. Editor-in-Chief evaluates manuscripts for their scientific content without regard to ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, citizenship, religious belief or political philosophy of the authors and ensures a fair double-blind peer review of the selected manuscripts.

The selected manuscripts are sent to at least two national/international referees for evaluation and publication decision is given by Editor-in-Chief upon modification by the authors in accordance with the referees’ claims.

Editor-in-Chief does not allow any conflicts of interest between the authors, editors and reviewers and is responsible for final decision for publication of the manuscripts in the Journal.

Reviewers’ judgments must be objective. Reviewers’ comments on the following aspects are expected while conducting the review.

• Does the manuscript contain new and significant information?
• Does the abstract clearly and accurately describe the content of the manuscript?
• Is the problem significant and concisely stated?
• Are the methods described comprehensively?
• Are the interpretations and consclusions justified by the results?
• Are adequate references made to other Works in the field?
• Is the language acceptable?

Reviewers must ensure that all the information related to submitted manuscripts is kept as confidential and must report to the editor if they are aware of copyright infringement and plagiarism on the author’s side.

A reviewer who feels unqualified to review the topic of a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse himself from the review process.

The editor informs the reviewers that the manuscripts are confidential information and that this is a privileged interaction. The reviewers and editorial board cannot discuss the manuscripts with other persons. The anonymity of the referees is important.

Manuscripts Submitted by Editors and Editorial Board Members: When a manuscript is submitted by the Editor-in-Chief, an Associate Editor, a Guest Editor, or a member of the journal’s permanent Editorial Board, the authoring editor or Editorial Board member is excluded from all stages of the evaluation and decision-making process.

Such manuscripts are assigned to an External Editor whose name and institutional affiliation are publicly available on the journal’s Editorial Board page. The External Editor independently manages the entire editorial process for the manuscript, including the selection of reviewers, evaluation of the reviewers’ reports, communication of revision requests, and formulation of the editorial decision. The submitting editor or Editorial Board member does not have access to the peer-review process and does not participate in any editorial decision concerning the manuscript.

This procedure is implemented to ensure editorial independence, impartiality, and the appropriate management of potential conflicts of interest.

Responsibilities of Reviewers: Reviewers are required to inform the handling editor of any actual or potential conflicts of interest concerning the research, the authors, the authors’ institutions, or the research funders. Reviewers must treat all information relating to submitted manuscripts as confidential and must notify the Editor-in-Chief if they become aware of suspected plagiarism, copyright infringement, duplicate publication, or any other form of research or publication misconduct.

Reviewers must maintain the confidentiality of the manuscript and must not upload the manuscript, any part of the manuscript, or unpublished information contained within it to generative artificial intelligence tools, external software, or other technologies unless confidentiality, data security, and authors’ rights can be fully assured and such use has been explicitly permitted by the journal.

Plagiarism Policy
All submissions are screened using similarity detection software at least two times: on submission and after completing revisions. In the event of alleged or suspected research misconduct, e.g., plagiarism, citation manipulation, or data falsification/fabrication, the editorial board will follow and act in accordance with COPE guidelines. Plagiarism, including self-plagiarism, that is identified at any stage will result in rejection of the manuscript.

Pre- and Post-Publication Process
The journal has a clear and transparent policy on pre- and post-publication issues:

Corrections and Errata: If errors are discovered post-publication that do not undermine the findings of the research, the journal will publish a correction or erratum.

Article Withdrawal (Prior to Acceptance): Authors may request to withdraw their manuscript at any stage before formal acceptance. Withdrawal requests must be submitted in writing using a signed form that includes the signatures of all authors and the reason for withdrawal. The journal reserves the right to accept or deny the withdrawal request based on the stage of peer review and editorial consideration.

Responsibilities of the Editorial Board: The editorial board of the European Eye Research has the obligation to initiate an investigation into any suspected copyright infringement, ethical statement violation, or plagiarism regarding studies that are published ahead of print, or under review. If the editorial board determines that there is a violation of copyright, ethical statement, or plagiarism in the work under evaluation, it withdraws the work from the evaluation and returns it to the authors by citing the detected situations in detail. In the event that copyright infringement or plagiarism is determined to have occurred in a published work or a work in early view, the Editorial Board may recommend to the publishers or editorial boards, of which study was previously published, to ensure the validity and reliability of the published studies or to withdraw them.

Preprint Policy
European Eye Research does not consider the posting of manuscripts on non-commercial preprint servers as prior publication. Authors are permitted to share and discuss their findings via such platforms prior to formal submission to the journal.

However, authors must disclose the existence of the preprint during the initial submission process, including the name of the preprint server and the corresponding DOI or persistent link.

If the manuscript is accepted and published by the journal, it is the authors’ responsibility to update the preprint record by linking it to the final, published version of the article. This practice ensures transparency and allows readers to access the most reliable and up-to-date version of the work.

Publication Charges Policy
This European Eye Research assesses no submission fees, publication fees, or page charges.

Retraction Policy
The publisher will take all appropriate measures to modify the article in question, in close cooperation with the editors, in cases of alleged or proven scientific misconduct, fraudulent publication, or plagiarism. This includes the prompt publication of an erratum, disclosure, or retraction of the affected work in the most severe case. Together with the editors, the publisher will take reasonable steps to detect and prevent the publication of articles in which research misconduct occurs and will under no circumstances promote or knowingly allow such abuse to occur.

Self-Archiving Policy
Authors retain the right to self-archive their work on institutional or personal websites, as well as in open access repositories, following publication. Authors are expected to appropriately acknowledge the original publication and include the DOI when sharing their articles. Additionally, authors should provide a link from the deposited version to the publisher’s website URL. This practice ensures that the online version published by the publisher is recognized as the definitive version of record, thereby maintaining the integrity and authenticity of the scientific record.

Withdrawal Policy
The European Eye Research is committed to providing high quality articles and uphold the publication ethics to advance the intellectual agenda of science. We expect our authors to comply with, best practice in publication ethics as well as in quality of their articles.

Withdrawal of a manuscript will be permitted only for the most compelling and unavoidable reasons. For withdrawal of a manuscript authors need to submit an "Article withdrawal Form", signed by all authors mentioning the reason for withdrawal to the Editorial Office. The form is available from the web page of the journal. Authors must not assume that their manuscript has been withdrawn until they have received appropriate notification to this effect from the editorial office.

In a case where a manuscript has taken more than five months’ time for review process, that allows the author to withdraw manuscript.

Manuscript withdrawal penalty: After receiving the Article withdrawal Form, European Eye Research Editorial Board will investigate the reason of withdrawal.

If the reason finds to be acceptable, the author is allowed to withdraw the manuscript without paying any withdrawal penalty. If not European Eye Research will not accept any manuscripts from the same author for one year.

Important notes: Manuscripts may be withdrawn at any stage of review and publication process by submitting a request to the editorial office. Manuscript withdrawal will be permitted after submission only for the most compelling and unavoidable reasons.

If the author wants to withdraw a manuscript, the author needs to submit a completed "Article withdrawal Form", signed by all authors of the manuscript stating the reasons for manuscript withdrawal.

The manuscript will not be withdrawn from publication process until a completed, signed form is received by the editorial office. Authors must not assume that their manuscript has been withdrawn until they have received appropriate notification to this effect from the European Eye Research editorial office.