MAS requires all individuals involved in the journal’s editorial and publishing processes to adhere to the core practices of publication ethics and to follow the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines on handling allegations of misconduct.

The journal strictly abides by recognized guidelines and best-practice standards, including:  

• the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors（ICMJE）recommendations on conduct, reporting, editing, and publication of scholarly work in medical journals; and  

• the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing jointly issued bythe Committee on Publication Ethics( COPE), Directory of Open Access Journals（DOAJ), Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association（OASPA）, and World Association of Medical Editors（WAME）.

Editors take every suspected misconduct seriously. If editors, authors, or readers identify content in a submitted or published article that may constitute academic fraud, research misconduct, or publication malpractice, they may report their concerns to the journal. All allegations or complaints will be addressed promptly and appropriately. Correspondence should be sent directly to the Editor.

Plagiarism in any form is expressly prohibited. Editors may, at their discretion, employ similarity-detection software to verify the originality of submissions. Papers containing clear and substantial plagiarism will be rejected outright at the submission stage (desk reject) or during peer review. Authors are therefore urged to comply with contemporary ethical standards in scholarly writing and publishing.

MAS maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward any form of academic misconduct or ethical violation in research and publication, irrespective of severity. Prohibited acts include, but are not limited to, plagiarism, fabrication of research, falsification of data, submission of another person’s manuscript as one’s own, simultaneous submission of the same manuscript to multiple venues, and infringement of intellectual-property rights. Whenever suspected misconduct is reported, an investigation panel will be convened. If the allegation is substantiated, the manuscript in question will be rejected, and all authors will be notified. If the paper has already been published, a retraction initiated by the authors or the journal will be required, and a retraction notice will be published. The panel’s decision will be communicated to the authors by e-mail; any appeal must be submitted to the Editor within 28 days of the decision date.