Publishing excellence

Publishing Excellence: introduction

As trusted sources of information, The Lancet Group sets extremely high standards for publishing, and we are committed to ensuring that our editorial processes meet our standards of excellence. From peer review, through our in-house editing process, production, to publication and beyond, the entire Lancet team brings a wealth of expertise in scholarly publishing.

The Lancet journals follow best practice guidance on publishing excellence from the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals issued by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and adhere to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines. Our editors are members of the ICMJE and COPE.

The Lancet Group's editorial policies will evolve in line with best practice in the sector as well as the changing nature of scientific research and scholarly publishing. When relevant, Lancet editors may publish updates to our policies – which may go beyond the requirements of the ICMJE - these have been included below.

Further information about our policies can be found in our Information for Authors guidelines, or you can follow the journey of a paper with the Lancet journals.

In this section, you will find a summary of the Lancet journals’ editorial policies, including



Peer review

All research articles submitted to the Lancet journals are first reviewed by our in-house team of expert editors. A high proportion of research papers are rejected on the basis of in-house assessment alone. If editors wish to proceed with a paper, they will select appropriate peer reviewers.

During peer review, editors select reviewers to reflect relevant expertise, diversity, and geographical backgrounds. All original research articles published in the Lancet journals have undergone independent, external peer review, including statistical review. A research article is usually peer reviewed by three clinical or subject-based experts and a statistical reviewer.

Peer reviewers have access to the submitted manuscript and any appendices included by the authors. If the paper is a randomised controlled trial, peer reviewers will also have access to the trial protocol. Reviewer comments are sent to the authors anonymously, unless peer reviewers wish to have their names shared.

Peer review assists editors in their decision on whether to publish an article and helps authors revise and improve their manuscripts. Peer reviewers make suggestions for improvements, critique the analysis, and provide recommendations to the authors and the editors. If extensive revisions are required, the revised article may be shared with peer reviewers for further comments. At The Lancet Group, our editors treat communication with authors as confidential, and details of peer review including dates and peer review comments are not shared publicly.

After peer review, the research article is discussed at a multi-disciplinary editorial meeting. Editors from across all Lancet journals attend the meeting, and provide their expert views on the research, including its relevance for the individual journal, importance, and quality. Editors will also discuss which Lancet journal a research paper will be best suited to.

Peer reviewers may be invited to write a linked Comment to be published alongside the research article. If papers are rejected from the Lancet journals after peer review, peer review comments are shared with the authors to help improve their manuscript for submission to another journal.

Other types of content are sometimes peer reviewed – especially if there are original data included. Find out more about what we publish.

Fast-track publication

Our fast-track process means that The Lancet aims to peer review and publish papers within four weeks of submission, if no extensive revisions are required (ten weeks for Lancet specialty journals). This option is available for randomised controlled trials, and papers of major health importance, and the timeframe allows for full peer review as well as comprehensive editing, to the same standard as all other peer reviewed papers published in our journals.

 

Competing interests

Competing interests for authors

Transparency about research funding and the proper declaration of competing interests are essential for editors, peer reviewers and readers to appropriately scrutinise the findings of scientific research. Upon submission, authors of research articles are asked to declare all sources of funding as well as the role of the funders in the conduct of the study, and to disclose all relationships in which there is a potential or actual competing interest. This information can help inform editorial decisions, and the journal will publish all disclosures and funding sources that authors have declared to us.

Competing interests for Editors at The Lancet’s journals

Editors at The Lancet’s journals are required to report any competing or conflicting interests that could affect, or be perceived to affect, their editorial judgement. Competing interests must be reported as soon as they arise, and in any case through an annual declaration, so that they can be assessed and mitigated or resolved. Editorial competing interests may be disclosed on the journal’s website for ongoing competing interests (such as holding a patent), and/or on published papers for competing interests related to the specific paper. 

 Competing interests for editors include both financial and non-financial interests, such as:  

  • Current academic affiliations or other editorial roles. Examples include: employment, consultancies, professional affiliations, advisory positions, board memberships, or acting as an expert witness (in each case whether paid or unpaid).    
  • Financial interests, including patents or patent applications, travel grants, ownership, directorship. Minor investments in publicly traded stock (less than 1% of the outstanding shares of the publicly traded company) or investments through mutual funds/pension funds/401Ks are excluded.  

Editors are required to comply with Elsevier’s policy on the publication of research articles in Elsevier journals which discourages them from submitting research papers for publication in Elsevier journals, other than when the research was conducted before they joined Elsevier or in exceptional situations such as where the work was presented at a conference and the full conference proceedings are eventually published in an Elsevier journal. In all cases where a research paper is submitted for publication in an Elsevier journal, the Elsevier employee must disclose the conflict to the editor of the journal upon submission and the journal will ensure that all editorial processes are fully independent of the editor-author. If the article is accepted for publication, the article’s declaration of interest statement should disclose that Elsevier is the current employer of an author and that the peer review was fully independent of said author. 

Editors at The Lancet’s journals must also comply with Elsevier’s policy regarding non-involvement of editors in papers which they have written or which have been written by family members or colleagues or which relate to products or services in which the editor has an interest.  

In addition, editorial staff are forbidden to use information acquired through their work for personal gain.  

Relevant declarations of interest received for The Lancet’s journals are as follows:

Dr Jashelle Caga-Meller, Deputy Editor, The Lancet Regional Health—Western Pacific

  1. Clinical Senior Lecturer, University of Sydney, Australia (unpaid). 

Prof David Collingridge, Editor-in-Chief, The Lancet Oncology

  1. Visiting Professor of Global Oncology, Kings College London, UK (unpaid)

Dr Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief, The Lancet

  1. Board member, Physicians for Human Rights
  2. Member, Advisory Committee, Friends of the Global Fund Europe

Dr Pooja Jha, Editor-in-Chief, The Lancet Regional Health—Europe

Patent on plasma and liver lipid species as biomarkers of fatty liver, shared with Prof Johan Auwerx (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland). Filed in US and Europe in 2019 via EPFL-TTO

 Dr Joan Marsh, Editor-in-Chief, The Lancet Psychiatry:

  1. Chair of Gender Policy Committee and Associate Editor of European Science Editing, European Association of Science Editors (unpaid).
  2. Member of the Board of Trustees, Mac Keith Press (unpaid)
  3. Advisory board, Traumascapes

Data access

Data validity

During peer review, editors and reviewers have access to methods, results, and discussion provided by the authors in the submitted research articles, including any appendices. However, Lancet journals do not have access to, nor do they store, raw data related to research studies, and data verification remains the responsibility of the authors who have conducted the original research.

Upon submission, authors are asked to confirm that more than one author has directly accessed and verified the data reported in the research paper, and that all authors had access to the data and accept responsibility for submitting the article for publication. The journal will publish all relevant statements provided by the authors.

Data sharing

The Lancet journals are committed to open science, and require that all research papers include a data sharing statement from the authors that details what data will be shared, whether additional documents will be shared (e.g. the study protocol), when data will become available, and by what access criteria data will be shared. A data sharing statement will be published in the article.

Read a statement from the editors on data sharing statements for clinical trials (published June 2017) and a further update to our requirements on data access and sharing, published September 2020.

Post-acceptance editorial review

As part of our commitment to the integrity of the scientific record, and as a continuation of the peer review process, The Lancet Group applies a final layer of scrutiny before a paper is published. In a detailed edit, assistant editors check the paper for inconsistencies, inaccuracies, and ambiguities. Any final questions are then discussed with the author. They work closely with the production team, who convert the paper and its illustrations to a professional format, and apply the final quality control checks. This process helps to reduce errors that might require correction after publication, and ensures that the research can be fully understood by a wide international readership - maximising its impact on the world. For some content types in our Open Access journals, we partner with specialised editing and typesetting companies who work closely with our in-house teams. Follow the journey of a paper to find out more.

Maintaining the integrity of the scientific record

The primary responsibility of editors and journals is to maintain the validity of the scientific record and to inform readers promptly and transparently of any concerns regarding the reliability of research articles.

Editors have several options depending on the circumstances, including Correspondence letters, discussion in the comment or editorial sections, notice of duplicate or redundant publication, or an expression of concern or retraction.

Scientific debate

Scientific discussion and debate are an important part of the scientific process, and The Lancet Group welcome responses from readers and the wider scientific community to content published in the journals. Responses to published research are published in the journal's Correspondence section. If relevant, editors may also invite the authors of the original research to respond, in order to publish the full exchange in the journal.

Corrections

Corrections are issued for substantial factual errors in published content. Editors might be alerted to errors in published content by authors or readers, and the journal will publish corrections in a timely manner. The Lancet corrections policy is available here.

Expression of concern

Editors may decide to publish an Expression of Concern when serious scientific questions about the reliability of a paper have been brought to their attention, and they judge it important that readers are alerted about a concern as soon as possible. An Expression of Concern is usually published while an external investigation is ongoing, and will be updated when the investigation is complete and a decision can be made on the validity of the paper.

Retractions

Retractions are a rare but important part of the publishing process. Retractions may be required when the magnitude of the error is such that a research paper is no longer reliable. In some cases, a retraction and republication may be appropriate if it is the result of an honest error.

Cases of scientific misconduct may also lead to a retraction. Retractions are usually requested by some or all of the authors of the original article, and in some circumstances, by the editors themselves. Each case is assessed on an individual basis and decisions will often depend on the outcome of an independent investigation led by one or more of the authors' institutions. Editors will ensure that any decisions are communicated transparently and promptly to readers. All retracted articles are available online and are clearly labelled as Retracted.

We abide by Elsevier’s Principle of Editorial Independence.

The use of AI and AI-assisted technologies in scientific writing

Where authors use Artificial Intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process, these technologies should only be used to improve readability and language of the work and not used to replace researcher tasks such as producing scientific insights, analysing and interpreting data, or drawing scientific conclusions. Applying these technologies should only be done with human oversight and control, and authors should carefully review and edit the result because AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that can be incorrect, incomplete, or biased. Authors should not list AI and AI-assisted technologies as an author or co-author, nor cite AI as an author. Authors are ultimately responsible and accountable for the originality, accuracy, and integrity of the work; and should disclose the use of AI and AI-assisted technologies in a statement at the end of the article.

Access Elsevier's policy on The Use of AI and AI-assisted Technologies in Scientific Writing.

Publication ethics and scientific misconduct

The Lancet Group take issues relating to scientific misconduct extremely seriously. Each potential case of scientific misconduct is unique, and the primary responsibility of journals and editors when faced with possible cases of misconduct is to ensure the validity of the scientific record.

During the peer review process, editors will explicitly ask reviewers if they have concerns about research integrity or publication ethics in relation to the manuscript they are reviewing. In serious cases, if a concern is raised during peer review – and even if the paper is not published - our editors will inform the authors and their institutions for further investigation.

Types of scientific misconduct

If editors are made aware of an allegation of scientific misconduct related to a submitted or published paper – such as data fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, or unethical research practices - they will inform the author’s institution and request an independent investigation. Authors’ institutions are best placed to lead these types of investigations as they will have access to all relevant information.

Other unacceptable research practices – such as failure to disclose competing interests, authorship disputes (including omission of authors), intellectual property disputes, or poor record keeping, among others – may also lead to further investigation.

Cases of publication misconduct, or unacceptable or inappropriate publication practices will usually be investigated by editors but may also involve the authors’ institutions.

Pre-publication communication

Embargo policy

The standard embargo time across all Lancet journals is 23.30 UK time, and corresponds to the time the paper is available online. Press releases for selected papers across The Lancet Group are issued either the day before publication, or the morning of, under embargo to 23.30 UK time.

During the short embargo period, journalists are given access to the full text article, and contact details for corresponding authors. We believe that this protected window allows journalists to develop their stories and contact external sources, and encourages more accurate and responsible reporting of science and medical research to inform public discussion.

There may be occasions when articles are published without an embargo, in which case press releases are issued for immediate release. The Lancet Group's information for press page contains further information.

Sharing results pre-publication & Preprints

We encourage authors to share unpublished papers that have been submitted to The Lancet Group directly with relevant medical and public health bodies, and funders, as well as via preprint servers. Sharing results pre-publication at a scientific conference, or on a preprint server does not conflict with submission to the Lancet journals. Find out more about Preprints with The Lancet

If you have any further questions about submitting to Preprints with The Lancet please visit our Preprint FAQS, or email us at [email protected]

Equity, diversity, and inclusion

Advancing equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) is a commitment to health for all. The Lancet Group believes science can be an instrument for positive social change, and that journals have an important part to play in challenging systems that do not benefit everyone everywhere. In December 2022, we issued a statement addressing offensive historical content published by The Lancet . Find out more about how we are advancing EDI in the work that we publish, our editorial policies, and our own workforce.

The Lancet Ombudsperson

If authors or readers need to question an editorial process, the first step should be to contact the relevant Lancet journal. The next point of contact is the Lancet Ombudsperson whose task is to record and, when required, investigate allegations of editorial maladministration. Find out more about the Lancet Ombudsperson.