The Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Biology (APJCB) is an open-access electronic journal, which covers all aspects of cancer research including basic, preclinical, clinical, translational, molecular, epidemiological, prevention, therapy, and rehabilitation. It lays a strong grounding forum for Oncologists, physicians, General Surgeons, Gynecologists, Dermatologists, Gastroenterologists, Pulmonologists, Radiologists, Pathologists, Epidemiologists and Researchers as Cancer research is one of the most cited fields. The journal was launched in 2016 as the official publication of the Asian Pacific Organization for Cancer Prevention. All manuscripts published in the Asia Pacific Journal of Cancer Biology, are under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. This permits anyone to copy, distribute, transmit, and adapt the published work, provided the original work and source are appropriately cited.
The Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Biology's objective is to be a medium of information on the biological basis of cancer, cancer microenvironment, translational cancer research, and all aspects of clinical cancer research across Asia and the Pacific Region and internationally. It publishes original research articles, systematic and narrative literature reviews, clinical trial protocols, guest editorials, and letters to the Editor related to the basic science of cancer. The editor welcomes contributions from a wide spectrum of the basic science of cancer, especially in the fields of:
The journal adheres to the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, issued by the International Committee for Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
All articles that are due to be published in the APJCB are subject to rigorous blind peer review (a single-blind review in which authors are blinded to reviewers but reviewers can see the name and affiliation of the authors) by field-related researchers and editorial decisions are made by an appropriate team of active-academics in the field, supported by a team of internationally known cancer scientists. Articles are reviewed by at least two independent reviewers. APJCB journal attempts to make a policy of encouraging the contribution of authors to expedite the reviewing process through their commitment to undertake alternative manuscript reviews. The optional mutual collaboration of journal and authors will contribute to the benefits of our authors and readers as an added incentive to the undertaken reviewing of manuscripts. On the other hand, the journal approves the authors’ suggestion for reviewers to undertake their manuscript in the field. Should any dependency on the work be found in the review process, it will be at the journal's discretion to replace the reviewer with an independent new one. In line with APJCB policy to develop inter-collaboration among researchers, it will be more prospecting to be chosen if the suggested reviewers are from a different research community from another country. The articles are asked to be reviewed within a two-week period with prompt five-day interval reminders to reviewers during this step. Reviewers must declare a conflict of interest.
APJCB has adopted transparent and thorough instructions for best working practices in scientific publishing, working in conjunction with our academic partners. Such policies will benefit our authors, editors, and readers as we strive for a trustworthy, transparent, and efficient publishing process. Responsibility for the journal and its policies lies with the Editor-in-Chief in conjunction with the Publisher; any concerns either regarding specific papers or general policies should be directed to the Editor-in-Chief.
Articles published in the Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Biology are 'open access'. A universally accepted definition of the term is provided in the Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing in 2003:
The article is universally and freely accessible via the Internet, in an easily readable format and deposited immediately upon publication, without embargo, in a PDF format in the Journal's site
The author(s) or copyright owner(s) irrevocably grant(s) to any third party, in advance and in perpetuity, the right to use, reproduce, or disseminate the research article in its entirety or in part, in any format or medium, provided that no substantive errors are introduced in the process, proper attribution of authorship and correct citation details are given, and that the bibliographic details are not changed. If the article is reproduced or disseminated in part, this must be clearly and unequivocally indicated.
Articles in the Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Biology are published under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY) to ensure the implementation of open access as defined.
The Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Biology's Archive is preserved in PORTICO's repository system. The agreement was signed last year and the APJCB was added to the agreement in May 2017.
APJCB is very sensitive to research misconduct and uses all means available to prevent publishing miscounted research. Though there is no standard definition of research misconduct, the Council of Science Editors defines research misconduct broadly in three categories of action and conduct:
APJCB uses this definition of misconduct in its dealing with the issue and follows strictly the COPE Flow chart in dealing with research misconduct. In addition, For each component of the research misconduct, APJCB has many assurance policies as follows
APJCB does not publish manuscripts that do not declare a statement about the protection of human subjects and acquisition of informed consent when the subject of research is human. Normally, the journal requires that a statement is declared that research has been reviewed by an institutional review board (IRB) either in the material method section of the manuscript or in the acknowledgment section of the manuscript. APJCB encourages authors to report the registry number of the IRB in countries where a central registrar of the IRB exists as is the case in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Falsification and Fabrication of data:
Fabrication is defined as making up data without actually collecting or synthesizing scientific data. Falsification is defined as the manipulation of research material to reach a favorable result. Fabrication and falsification could happen at any stage of research (in the field) up to the publication of the manuscript where a misuse of citation can happen (referencing to a citation when the citation does not support the argument). APJCB tries to identify any kind of fabrication or falsification in all levels of manuscript processing, from initial screening to comprehensive evaluation of a revised manuscript and even after a manuscript has been published. Report of any fabrication and falsification is an ethical duty of our authors, co-authors, reviewers, editors, and readers. In any event of falsification or fabrication, APJCB keeps its right to retract or withdraw the fabricated or falsified article. APJCB strictly follows the COPE follow chart in dealing with fabrication and falsification.
Plagiarism:
Plagiarism is defined as the appropriation of another person's ideas, processes, results, or words without giving appropriate credit. Another category of plagiarism is self-plagiarism when the author publishes his idea, data, and text in different journals when no need for such duplication exists. APJCB uses all means to detect plagiarism. As a matter of quality assurance, a similarity of more than 30 percent in the text of a manuscript will be returned to the author to remove the similarities and reduce the chance of plagiarism. APJCB strictly follows the COPE follow chart in dealing with plagiarised articles.
APJCB considers an author as a person who has substantially contributed in all stages of research that the manuscript reports its result. On the other hand, all authors who are listed in a manuscript have contributed to the research, and the manuscript was submitted to the journal. There are many different definitions of authorship among different bodies that oversee authorship rights and responsibilities. The COPE defines authorship as “The term authorship can refer to the creator or originator of an idea (eg, the author of the theory of relativity) or the individual or individuals who develop and bring to fruition the product that disseminates intellectual or creative works (eg, the author of a poem or a scholarly article).” The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) bases the authorship on the following four criteria:
APJCB policies in maintaining its high standard of ethics have many provisions that help the editorial to establish the authorship requirement that was defined by COPE or ICMJE. For this, APJCB uses its editorial management system to validate the authorship of a manuscript submitted. APJCB’s initial engagement with authors is through its “Editorial Management System”. The system functionally deals with the corresponding author but informs other authors of any changes or major steps that are taken in the process of submission, review, revision, editing, and final steps of publication. The only means of communication with authors is by email. All listed authors are required to verify their contribution to a submitted manuscript by receiving an email that informs them of the submission and the nature of authorship of the manuscript (author list with the order that is registered in the EMSS). The email clearly validates the contribution of the listed authors in the manuscript. In the case that an author disputes the submitted manuscript or his contribution, the journal returns the manuscript to the corresponding author and asks to resubmit when the dispute is resolved. Any authorship dispute, after the initial step, is managed as the COPE recommends. Authors that may need information on authorship rights and responsibility and the way to handle disputes are referred to the COPE publication on how to handle authorship disputes at (https://publicationethics.org/files/2003pdf12_0.pdf) or to Defining the Role of Authors and Contributors in ICMJE ‘s web site at (http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html). We expect that all authors listed in a manuscript will receive the journal’s email and read and the content of the email that is provided for the purpose of authorship validation.
APJCB promotes the ethical aspect of research on animals. All research involving animals (no matter large animals or small), must provide evidence of an ethical review board. The evidence could be a statement indicating that the research has been approved by an independent ethical committee placed either in the material and method section of the manuscript or as an acknowledgment at the end of the manuscript.
In addition, a manuscript submitted to APJCB that involves animals must meet the minimum standard described in ARRIVE guidelines. The guideline consists of information that scientific publications reporting animal experimentation should report. APJCB encourages its author to read through the guideline and try to provide the minimum information that the guideline recommends, especially details of animal welfare, including information about housing, feeding, and steps taken to minimize suffering, including the use of anesthesia and method of sacrifice.
The APJCB does not charge any submission, page, or color fees. However, to defray costs of formatting and preservation, server maintenance, etc., there is a minimal publication charge based on the country of residency’s World Bank classification for accepted manuscripts. The charges are as follows:
Low-income economies 150 US dollars
Middle-income economies (lower and Upper): 200 US dollars (for the following countries: India, Egypt, Syria, Yaman, Nepal, Vietnam, and lower middle incomes countries of Africa the charge is 150 US dollars)
High-income: 300 US dollars
To find the category of your country, please download the World Bank Calcification Table.
The affiliation of the corresponding author determines the country of residence. If more than one, corresponding author from different categories of World Bank classification, the charge will be based on the higher income category.
-- Students (MS, Ph.D., Research fellows)/ visiting faculties from low and lower categories who study/visit in the upper and high-income categories can pay the same as the country of their origin if they are considered international students (they must provide a certificate from the international office of the university).
-- Corresponding authors who may have two or more affiliations from different countries in different categories of the World Bank, must pay according to the country of the higher income category.
Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Biology (APJCB ) does not charge any Submission Charges.