Allegations of Misconduct. Allegations of scientific misconduct should be immediately reported to the Editor-in-Chief. Allegations of misconduct will be addressed according to COPE standards (www.publicationethics.org).
Authorship. Authors on a manuscript should have made significant contributions as established by the APA Ethics Code Standard 8.12a and the seventh edition of the APA Publication Manual. Concerns about authorship will be addressed according to COPE standards (www.publicationethics.org).
Complaints or Appeals. Complaints about aspects of the publication process should be forwarded to the Editor-in-Chief. Once received he/she will discuss the complaint with the Associate Editor, and communicate the outcome. Appeals to complaints may be forwarded to the Editor-in-Chief, citing specific reasons for the appeal.
Conflict of Interest Disclosure Statement. On the title page of each manuscript, each author should have a conflict of interest disclosure statement. These include any potential financial and non-financial interests or relationships. Conflicts related to authorship will be addressed according to COPE standards (www.publicationethics.org).
Important Considerations:
Transparency: The goal is to be transparent about any relationships or interests that could potentially bias the research.
Specificity: Provide specific details about the nature of the conflict, including names of organizations, companies, and funding sources.
Financial Interests: Disclose any financial interests, such as stock ownership, consulting fees, grants, and honoraria.
Non-Financial Interests: Also, disclose relevant non-financial interests, such as board memberships, advisory roles, and personal relationships.
Completeness: Ensure that all authors have disclosed any relevant conflicts of interest. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to collect and report this information.
If there is no conflict of interest to report, please indicate 'There is no conflict of interest to report.'
Data Sharing and Reproducibility. Health Behavior Research is committed to promoting transparency, rigor, and reproducibility in published research. To achieve this, we encourage and, where applicable, require authors to share their research data and materials in a manner that allows for verification and replication of findings. As such, on the title page there must be a 'Data Availability Statement' clearly indicating if data can be accessed. If data can be accessed, authors should also state how the data and materials supporting the findings of the study can be accessed.
Ethical Oversight: Health Behavior Research is committed to upholding the highest ethical standards in research and publication. All submitted manuscripts must adhere to ethical guidelines concerning human participants research, informed consent, data integrity, and conflicts of interest. Ethical misconduct will be addressed using the COPE standards (www.publicationethics.org).
Research Involving Human Participants
For all research involving human participants, authors must confirm that the study was conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments.
Institutional Review Board (IRB) Approval: Manuscripts reporting research involving human participants must include a statement in the Methods section indicating that the study was reviewed by an appropriate institutional review board (IRB) or equivalent ethics committee. The name of the approving body and the approval number (if applicable) should be provided.
Informed Consent: Authors must confirm that informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. If participants are minors or unable to provide consent, authors must confirm that informed consent was obtained from a legally authorized representative.
Anonymity and Confidentiality: Authors must ensure that participant anonymity and confidentiality are protected. Identifying information (e.g., names, specific locations) should be removed from the manuscript, figures, and supplementary materials unless explicit written consent for publication of identifying information has been obtained from the participant(s).
Intellectual Property: Authors are responsible for obtaining all necessary permissions to reproduce any copyrighted material (e.g., figures, tables, text excerpts) from other sources. Evidence of such permissions must be provided to the journal upon submission. Failure to obtain permissions may lead to delays in publication or rejection of the manuscript.
All submissions should be self-screened for originality using plagiarism detection software. Examples of free plagiarism detection software includes: Quetext, Plagiarisma, Originality.ai, Plagium, and Editpad. Any detected instances of plagiarism (or self-plagiarism) will be handled using COPE guidelines.
Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Manuscript Preparation: Authors must disclose any use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools or software in the preparation of their manuscript on the title page. While AI can support certain aspects of the research and writing process, its use must be transparent, ethical, and must not compromise the integrity, originality, or confidentiality of the work. AI tools cannot be credited as authors and may not take responsibility for any part of the research.
Acceptable Uses of AI include: Language editing or grammar checking (e.g., improving clarity or fluency of text); data analysis or image processing using established AI-powered software, with appropriate methodological transparency; generating figures or visualizations based on author-supplied data, with proper verification; assisting in literature searches or summarization, provided the output is critically reviewed by the authors.
Unacceptable Uses of AI include generating or fabricating data, images, or references; writing sections of the manuscript without proper review and editing by a human author; failing to disclose AI use that contributed significantly to the content; using AI to paraphrase or translate text in a way that obscures plagiarism or misrepresents source material; breaching confidentiality by inputting sensitive or identifiable data into public or unsecured AI tools.
Authors are fully responsible for all content submitted, including that assisted by AI. Failure to comply with this policy may result in manuscript rejection or retraction.
Options for post-publication discussions and corrections: Health Behavior Research is committed to maintaining the integrity of the scholarly record. We recognize that errors can occur and that ongoing scientific discourse is vital. This policy outlines the procedures for post-publication discussions, corrections, retractions, and expressions of concern.
a. Post-Publication Discussions: HBR encourages healthy scientific debate and feedback on published articles.
Current Issues and Commentaries: Readers may submit editorials in the form of current issues and commentaries regarding their views on published articles. These will be considered for publication at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief.
b. Corrections: If errors are identified in a published article that affect the interpretation or accuracy of the work but do not invalidate the overall findings, the author(s) should contact the Editor-in-Chief as soon as possible to initiate a correction.
Readers who identify errors should contact the Editor-in-Chief providing specific details and supporting evidence.
