Publication Policies

WORLD NUTRITION POLICIES

Conflicts of interest
In the context of the journal World Nutrition, conflict of interest (CoI) can be defined as "a situation that is present when there is a meaningful risk that incompatible interests might unduly influence a primary professional interest." Awareness of CoI is important to authors and readers in maintaining the integrity of World Nutrition.
The existence of a CoI does not mean that someone is corrupt. They might not have allowed this CoI to influence what they think, how they do their research, or what they write. But the risk is there. The perception that this conflict MIGHT influence them is unavoidable.

A good deal of research does suggest that many researchers allow CoI to influence not only their judgement but also how they conduct, analyze, or report research. For example, published studies by drug companies routinely report a higher efficacy for those drugs than studies of the same drugs funded by others. Being suspicious of authors with CoI is not the same as drawing conclusions about the integrity of any particular author, but it is important to be aware of the risks CoI poses. Thus, we ask all authors to provide a statement about potential conflicts of interest.

CoI refers to relevant financial interests, activities, relationships, and affiliations, including, but not limited to, employment, funding and grants received or pending, consultancies, honoraria, membership in speakers' bureaus, stock ownership and options, expert testimony, royalties, and patents planned, pending, or issued. These disclosures should describe any potential conflicts of interest involving the work under consideration for publication (during the time involving the work, from initial conception and planning to present), any relevant financial activities outside the submitted work (over the 5 years prior to submission), and any other relationships or activities that readers could perceive to have influenced, or that give the appearance of potentially influencing what is written in the submitted work (based on all relationships that were present during the 5 years prior to submission).

Authors who are uncertain about what constitutes a relevant financial interest or relationship for an individual author or relevant support for the work being reported should err on the side of complete disclosure or contact the editor for clarification.

For all accepted manuscripts, summaries of the CoIs will be published in an Acknowledgment section of the article to ensure they are disclosed to readers.

World Nutrition will, at its discretion, consider publishing papers whose authors have only minor CoIs. However, if CoIs are judged to be so severe that the integrity of the article is in doubt, the manuscript may be rejected for that reason alone. Alternatively, the journal may publish a simultaneous commentary about that CoI and/or present an opposing point of view.

Publication Ethics Policy
Research on human subjects or animals must include a statement that an institutional research board/ethics committee has approved your research in advance or waived it. Indicate the name of the IRB. Approval is usually not required for secondary analyses, project evaluations, or data obtained through routine project monitoring.

World Nutrition follows COPE guidelines. Most relevant publication ethical issues are addressed above. The process for dealing with undisclosed conflicts of interest, if discovered, can be found here. Papers found to be based on plagiarism, serious errors, or falsification will be retracted. COPE Guidelines for this process are available here.

Plagiarism 
We take plagiarism seriously. We define it as copying a sentence or more from another author. We ask that you avoid copying too much, even from your own previously published work. Our methods for dealing with it are illustrated here. If you use a large language model, including AI, to write any part of your paper, please indicate this in your methods section.

Declaration of generative AI
Authors must declare any use they make of generative AI in their writing upon submission of their paper. In using the technology, authors must maintain oversight and control. They should carefully review and edit the result, as AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that can be incorrect, incomplete, or biased. Authors are ultimately responsible and accountable for the contents of the work they submit. It is unlikely that any paper primarily written by AI will be accepted for publication.

Policies for the withdrawal of manuscripts
Authors may withdraw submitted manuscripts before peer review by writing to the editor. However, it is a breach of publication ethics to withdraw a submitted manuscript at any later stage in the publication process. This may result in sanctions and other actions by World Nutrition.

All work done during peer review, editing, and typesetting is the exclusive property of World Nutrition and may not be used in any other way besides publication in World Nutrition by authors without written permission from the editor of World Nutrition.

Policies for error correction and retraction
World Nutrition operates the following policy for making corrections to its peer-reviewed content. A formal online notice must represent publishable amendments because they affect the publication record and/or the scientific accuracy of published information. These fall into one of three categories: erratum, corrigendum, or retraction.

Erratum: Notification of an important error made by the journal that affects the publication record or the scientific integrity of a paper, or the reputation of the authors or the journal.

Corrigendum: Notification of an important error made by the author(s) that affects the publication record or the scientific integrity of the paper, or the reputation of the authors or the journal.

Retraction: Notification of invalid results. All co-authors sign a retraction specifying the error, stating briefly how the conclusions are affected, and submit it for publication. In cases where one or more co-authors disagree, the publishing team will seek advice from independent referees and utilize the type of amendment that seems most appropriate, noting the dissenting author(s) in the text of the published version.

Other policies
Once their paper is published, authors are encouraged to offer a copy on Research Gate, Academia, and to announce it, providing a link to it on Facebook, X (Twitter,) LinkedIn, Bluesky, and other academic or social media websites to spread awareness of their work. There are no limitations to what you do with your published paper because you retain all copyrights. The only restriction is that you must indicate that it was first published in World Nutrition. For example, many authors wish to deposit a copy of their paper in an institutional or other repository of their choice. Our policy is that authors may deposit:

     • Submitted version
     • Accepted version (Author Accepted Manuscript)
     • Published version (Version of Record)
in an institutional or other repository of their choice without embargo. World Nutrition content is permanently archived at Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Texts, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine.

Copyright Notice
Authors retain all copyrights. In making a submission to World Nutrition, they are certifying that all material is theirs except quotations, as indicated, and that they have obtained permission for any photos, tables, or graphics taken from other publications or websites.

Privacy Statement
The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal. They will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.