Proactive Health is an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal published by Higher Education Press (HEP Journals) on behalf of Southern Medical University. The journal is guided by the core principles of editorial independence, scholarly integrity, and transparency. This policy outlines the ethical and professional standards that govern all editorial decisions and processes. The journal’s editorial board and publisher adhere to the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), and the Declaration of Helsinki, among other relevant guidelines.

1. Editorial Independence

Editorial decisions are made solely on the basis of the scientific merit, originality, and relevance of the submitted work to the journal’s scope. The Editor-in-Chief and the editorial board exercise full authority over the editorial content of the journal, the peer review process, and the acceptance or rejection of manuscripts. The publisher and the sponsoring institution (Southern Medical University) do not interfere with editorial decisions. No commercial or financial interest influences the review or publication process.

2. Peer Review Process

Proactive Health employs a rigorous single-blind peer review model, in which reviewers know the authors’ identities, but authors do not know the reviewers’ identities. All research articles, reviews, brief reports, and protocols are subject to this process.

• Initial screening: All submissions are assessed by the editorial office for completeness, adherence to ethical standards, and fit with the journal’s aims and scope. Manuscripts that do not meet these criteria may be rejected without external review.

• External review: Manuscripts that pass the initial screen are assigned to at least two independent experts with no conflicts of interest. Reviewers are asked to evaluate the work’s validity, originality, methodological rigor, and clarity. They provide constructive comments to help the authors improve the manuscript.

• Decision: The Editor-in-Chief makes the final decision based on the reviewers’ recommendations. Possible decisions are: accept, minor revision, major revision, or reject. Revised manuscripts may be sent back to the original reviewers for re-evaluation.

All reviewers are required to follow the COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers and to treat manuscripts as confidential documents. Any reviewer who feels unqualified to assess the work or cannot meet the deadline should decline the invitation promptly.

3. Publication Ethics and Misconduct

The journal takes all allegations of research and publication misconduct seriously. Misconduct includes, but is not limited to, plagiarism, data fabrication or falsification, duplicate publication, inappropriate authorship (including ghostwriting and gift authorship), and failure to disclose conflicts of interest. The editorial team will investigate any concerns raised, whether prior to or after publication, in accordance with the COPE flowcharts and best practices. Depending on the severity of the case, actions may range from a request for correction to retraction of the published article and notification of the authors’ institutions.

All submitted manuscripts are screened using plagiarism detection software. Any overlap with previously published work, including the authors’ own, must be appropriately cited and clearly indicated. Redundant or duplicate publication is not tolerated.

4. Authorship and Contributorship

Proactive Health follows the ICMJE criteria for authorship. To be recognized as an author, a contributor must meet all four of the following conditions:

1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data;

2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content;

3. Final approval of the version to be published;

4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Contributors who do not meet all four criteria should be acknowledged rather than listed as authors. The specific contributions of each author must be described using the CRediT taxonomy. Any change to the author list after submission requires written approval from all authors and a clear justification provided to the editor.

The corresponding author serves as the primary contact with the journal throughout the submission, peer review, and publication process. They are responsible for ensuring that all authors have approved the manuscript and agree with its submission to Proactive Health.

5. Conflicts of Interest

All authors, reviewers, and editors are required to disclose any financial, personal, or professional relationships that could be perceived as influencing the work. A conflict of interest statement must be included in the title page and at the end of the manuscript. If no conflicts exist, the following declaration should be used: “The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.”

Reviewers and editors are expected to recuse themselves from the evaluation process if they have a conflict that could bias their judgment. Authors may be asked to provide a completed ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest upon request.

6. Ethical Oversight for Research Involving Humans, Animals, and Cell Lines

Human subjects: All research involving human participants, human material, or identifiable data must comply with the Declaration of Helsinki. A statement identifying the approving ethics committee and the reference number must appear in the manuscript. Informed consent must have been obtained from all participants, and a confirmatory statement is required. For case reports or studies involving potentially identifiable images or personal data, explicit written consent for publication is mandatory.

Animal studies: Research involving animals must follow relevant institutional and national guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals. The manuscript should state the name of the ethical review committee that approved the study and the permit number. Authors are encouraged to comply with the ARRIVE guidelines for reporting in vivo experiments.

Cell lines: For studies using cell lines, the source, authentication status, and mycoplasma testing results should be reported.

7. Data Sharing and Reproducibility

Proactive Health supports the principles of open data and research transparency as a means to advance proactive health science. Authors are required to include a Data Availability Statement describing how the data supporting the study’s findings can be accessed. Where ethically and legally permissible, the underlying data should be deposited in a recognized, publicly accessible repository (e.g., Figshare, Dryad, Zenodo) and a persistent identifier (DOI) provided. If data cannot be shared, the reason must be clearly stated in the data availability statement.

The journal encourages the use of established reporting guidelines listed on the EQUATOR Network (e.g., CONSORT, STROBE, PRISMA) to ensure clarity and completeness of reporting. Completed checklists should be submitted as supplementary files when appropriate.

8. Preprint Policy and Prior Publication

Proactive Health welcomes submissions that have been previously posted on recognized preprint servers (e.g., medRxiv, Research Square). Authors must disclose the preprint DOI in the cover letter and cite it in the manuscript. The manuscript must not be under consideration for publication in another journal, nor should it have been formally published elsewhere.

9. Corrections, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern

The journal is committed to preserving the integrity of the published record. Post-publication corrections are issued promptly when errors that affect the scholarly accuracy or interpretation of the work are identified.

• Corrigendum (author error): Corrects significant errors made by the authors.

• Erratum (publisher error): Corrects errors introduced during the production process.

• Retraction: An article may be retracted if findings are unreliable due to misconduct (e.g., fabrication, plagiarism) or honest error, or if there is redundant publication. Retractions follow the COPE Retraction Guidelines. A retraction notice, clearly linked to the original article, states the reasons for the retraction and who initiated it. The original article remains online but is marked as retracted.

• Expression of Concern: An expression of concern may be published if an investigation of alleged misconduct is ongoing and its outcome is inconclusive or will take considerable time.

All such notices are published with full transparency and are linked bidirectionally to the original publication.

10. Open Access, Copyright, and Licensing

Proactive Health is a fully open access journal, meaning that all content is freely available to readers worldwide immediately upon publication. All articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). Under this license, authors retain copyright and grant anyone the right to download, reuse, reprint, modify, distribute, and copy the content, provided the original authors and source are properly credited.

There are no subscription fees or access charges. Readers may use, share, and adapt the work without prior permission, in accordance with the license terms.

11. Article Processing Charges (APCs)

Currently, no article processing charges or submission fees are levied. All publication costs are covered by Southern Medical University and Higher Education Press. Should this policy change in the future, clear advance notice will be posted on the journal’s website, and the change will not affect manuscripts already under review or accepted.

12. Digital Preservation

The publisher, Higher Education Press, ensures the long-term digital preservation of all content published in Proactive Health. All articles are deposited in the publisher’s permanent digital archive. The journal is committed to investigating additional preservation services (e.g., CLOCKSS, Portico) to guarantee the perpetual accessibility of its content. Authors may contact the editorial office for further information about the archiving arrangements.

13. Appeals and Complaints

Authors who believe their manuscript was unfairly rejected or mishandled may submit a formal appeal to the editorial office. The appeal must include a detailed explanation of the grounds for appeal and any supporting evidence. The Editor-in-Chief will review the appeal and the original manuscript’s handling, and may seek additional review. The decision on the appeal is final. Complaints regarding ethical breaches, reviewer or editor conduct, or the publication process will be investigated thoroughly in line with COPE procedures.

14. Diversity and Inclusion

Proactive Health is committed to fostering equity, diversity, and inclusion in all aspects of its operations. The journal values contributions from researchers regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, disability, national origin, or career stage. The editorial board actively encourages submissions from underrepresented groups and works to ensure that the review process is fair and free of bias.