Editorial policy
BMJ Oncology adheres to the highest standards concerning its editorial policies on publication ethics and scientific misconduct, consent and peer review. The journal follows guidance produced by bodies including the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), the Council of Science Editors and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). To view all BMJ Journal policies, including information about editors’ roles and responsibilities, please refer to the BMJ Author Hub policies page.
Authors are required to submit a statement that their study obtained ethics approval (or a statement that it was not required and why) and that participants gave informed consent. Editors will consider whether the work is morally acceptable as determined by the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Helsinki. In addition to this, in line with UK General Medical Council guidelines, an article that contains personal medical information about an identifiable living individual requires patients’ explicit consent (in the form of a signed BMJ patient consent form) before we will publish it. Please find further details on research ethics policies (human participants and animals) and consent for publication.
To make the best decision on how to deal with a manuscript, BMJ Oncology needs to know about any competing interests authors may have; this includes any commercial, financial or non-financial associations that may be relevant to the submitted article. Authors must download and complete a copy of the ICMJE Conflict of Interest disclosure form. In addition to this BMJ Oncology ensures that all advertising and sponsorship associated with the journal does not influence editorial decisions, is immediately distinguishable from editorial content and meets all other BMJ guidelines. Please find more information about competing interests.
We take seriously all instances of possible misconduct. If an editor, author or reader has concerns that a submitted article describes something that might be considered to constitute misconduct in research, publication or professional behaviour they should contact BMJ directly. The publisher will deal with allegations appropriately following ICMJE and COPE guidelines. Corrections and retractions are considered where an article has already been published; a correction, expression of concern or retraction notice will be published as appropriate in line with the correction and retraction policy.
Copyright and authors’ rights
As an open access journal, BMJ Oncology adheres to the Budapest Open Access Initiative definition of open access. Articles are published under an exclusive licence or non-exclusive licence for UK Crown employees or where BMJ has agreed CC-BY applies. For US Federal Government officers or employees acting as part of their official duties, the terms are as stated in accordance with our licence terms. Authors or their employers retain copyright. Such open access articles can be reused under the terms of the relevant Creative Commons licence to facilitate reuse of the content. More information on copyright and authors’ rights.
When publishing in BMJ Oncology, authors choose between two Creative Commons licence types – CC-BY-NC and CC-BY (if required by the research funder) – which require payment of an article processing charge (see below). As an author you may wish to post your article in an institutional or subject repository, or on a scientific social sharing network. You may also link your published article to your preprint (if applicable). What you can do with your article, without seeking permission, depends on the licence you have chosen and the version of your article. Please refer to self-archiving and permissions policies for more information.
Preprints
Preprints foster openness, accessibility and collaboration by allowing authors to make their findings immediately available to the research community and receive feedback on an article before it is submitted to a journal for formal publication.
BMJ fully supports and encourages the archiving of preprints in any recognised, not-for-profit server such as medRxiv and bioRxiv. BMJ does not consider the posting of an article in a dedicated preprint repository to be prior publication.
Preprints are reports of work that have not been peer-reviewed; preprints should therefore not be used to guide clinical practice, health-related behaviour or health policy. For more information, please refer to our Preprint policy page.
Article processing charge
BMJ Oncology is an open access journal and levies an article processing charge (APC) of 2,500 GBP (excluding VAT for UK and EU authors) on papers accepted for publication. There are no submission, colour or page charges.
A number of institutions have open access agreements with BMJ which may cover the whole cost of open access publishing for authors at participating institutions or can allow authors to receive a discount of the APC. Visit BMJ’s open access agreements page to find out whether your institution is a member and whether you are entitled to a discount.
In recognition of reviewers’ contributions, authors who have reviewed for the journal are entitled to 25% off the APC if they submit a paper (as the corresponding author) to BMJ Oncology within 12 months of completing their review.
Waivers and discounts
BMJ may grant APC waivers and discounts in specific circumstances, including for authors based in low-income countries; for more information please visit our Author Hub. Please note that applications for waivers or discounts should be made before or during initial submission and not after an article has been accepted. Editors are not involved in this process and the ability to pay has no bearing on editorial decisions. Payment will not be required unless your article is accepted. Accepted articles will not be published until payment has been received. BMJ does not refund APCs once paid.
For more information on open access, funder compliance, discounts and waivers, please refer to the BMJ Author Hub open access page.
Provenance and peer review
BMJ Oncology submissions are predominantly unsolicited (not commissioned) and all original research and review articles are subject to peer review. All submissions undergo initial screening by the editor; papers that are out of scope for the journal, very poorly written or scientifically flawed may be rejected without peer review. Other papers will proceed to peer review. The journal operates single blind peer review (reviewers’ identities are hidden from the author). The handling editor will obtain at least two external reviewer reports before making a first decision of accept, reject or revise (major or minor revision); further rounds of review and revision may be required before a final accept or reject decision is made. Articles authored or co-authored by a member of the editorial team are independently peer reviewed; an editor will have no involvement in the peer review of their own article. For more information on what to expect during the peer review process please refer to the BMJ Author Hub.
BMJ is committed to transparency. Every article we publish includes a statement of its provenance (commissioned or not commissioned) and whether it was internally or externally peer reviewed.
BMJ requests that all reviewers adhere to a set of basic principles and standards during the peer review process; these are based on the COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers. Please refer to our peer review terms and conditions.
Plagiarism is the appropriation of the language, ideas or thoughts of another without crediting their true source and representation of them as one’s own original work. BMJ is a member of CrossCheck by CrossRef and iThenticate. iThenticate is a plagiarism screening service that verifies the originality of content submitted before publication. BMJ runs all manuscripts through iThenticate during the peer review process. Authors, researchers and freelancers can also use iThenticate to screen their work before submission by visiting www.ithenticate.com.
