Ethics statement

The ethics declaration for Ungsinn is formulated in accordance with the guidelines for publication ethics and core practices described by COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics). In drafting the declaration, we have followed COPE's guidelines for editors and publishers. In cases of suspected misconduct, we use the procedures outlined in the flowcharts developed by COPE (https://publicationethics.org/). Furthermore, it refers to Ungsinn's Criteria and Procedures for the Assessment of Intervention Classification (hereafter referred to as the criteria) and the authorship requirements described by the Committee of Medical Journal Editors (https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html).

 

Journal Management

All articles in Ungsinn are systematic reviews of evidence on individual interventions aimed at children and adolescents. To ensure a consistent approach in the assessment of various interventions, authors follow Ungsinn's criteria, which all authors and peer reviewers are trained in. This method ensures that all articles investigate the same research question and each article follows a set template. Workshops are held regularly to maintain and further develop competence and understanding of the role of an Ungsinn author.

The editorial team decides which interventions should be summarised in Ungsinn. Suggestions for which interventions should be summarised can come from the editorial team or external parties. The editorial process for the preparation and publication of articles is described in the criteria. This involves the editorial team contacting the owners of the interventions to gather specific information, while also conducting a systematic literature search to collect existing research on the intervention. The information and research results collected are provided to the authors at the start of their writing process.

Authors write the articles on commission from the editorial team in accordance with the criteria. After a first draft is submitted, a revision process begins where the editor assesses the quality of the article. The article undergoes peer review, and authors revise the article according to the feedback provided. This process continues until the article meets the strict quality requirements of the manual and is approved by the editor. The editorial team then ensures the preparation and publication of the article.

 

Authorship and Contributors

Ungsinn follows the authorship requirements developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), also known as the Vancouver Convention. Authorship should be based solely on the following four criteria:

  • Significant contributions to the conception and design, or data collection, or analysis and interpretation of data AND
  • Drafting the manuscript or critically revising the article's intellectual content AND
  • Approval of the version of the article to be published AND
  • Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work, ensuring that questions related to accuracy and integrity are appropriately investigated and resolved.

These criteria must also be followed if authors are added or removed during the updating of articles. If contributors do not fully meet the criteria, their contributions should instead be credited in an acknowledgement to contributors (see the author guide).

All authors are asked to provide an ORCID when submitting a manuscript. ORCID is recorded along with author information in Septentrio.

 

Peer Review Process

Ungsinn conducts a non-anonymous peer review, where the identities of both authors and reviewers are known to all involved parties.

Ungsinn uses two scientific peer reviewers to assess the quality of the article. Additionally, Ungsinn has a practice peer reviewer whose main function is to provide feedback on whether the text is understandable from a practice perspective. All peer reviewers have completed Ungsinn's author training and follow Ungsinn's guidelines for scientific or practice peer reviewers, respectively.

 

Conflicts of Interest and Impartiality

Authors, peer reviewers, and editors must assess whether they have potential conflicts of interest that could bias them or impair their ability to provide a fair and impartial assessment.

Those involved in the assessment of an intervention in Ungsinn (authors, peer reviewers, and editors) cannot have a vested interest in the intervention. They cannot have been involved in the development, evaluation, implementation, or have commercial interests in the intervention. Furthermore, conflicts of interest may also include personal or professional relationships or competing interests.

To ensure a high degree of transparency, Ungsinn's editors emphasise openness about their research background and any affiliations. A detailed description of each editor is available here (https://uit.no/ungsinn/om/sub?p_document_id=798704). Editors will not be involved in any part of the process related to an article if they can be considered biased.

Authors must include a conflict of interest statement in the article.

 

Data and Reproducibility

In addition to the expectation that standard research ethical guidelines are followed, reproducibility and transparency in Ungsinn are ensured by preparing all evidence reviews using the same method, described in the criteria. Along with the article, Ungsinn publishes the conducted literature search for the evidence review.

For references and the reference list, articles in Ungsinn follow the latest version of the APA Publication Manual.

 

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the Writing Process

If authors use AI and AI-assisted technology in the writing process, it should only be used to enhance readability and language. The use of the technology must be conducted with human oversight and control, and authors must carefully review and edit the result afterwards. AI and AI-assisted tools should not be listed as authors or co-authors or cited as authors. If AI and AI-assisted tools are used in the writing process—particularly language models (e.g., ChatGPT and Copilot)—authors should disclose their use by adding a statement at the end of the manuscript. It is not necessary to disclose the use of basic AI and AI-assisted tools for grammar, spelling, references, etc. (e.g., Word, Grammarly, and EndNote).

 

Ethical Oversight

Authors, peer reviewers, and editors are expected to follow relevant institutional and national guidelines for research ethics.

Ungsinn conducts a plagiarism check on all submitted articles as part of the editorial process. The editor and authors are informed of the results of this check.

The intervention owner receives the article at the same time it is sent for peer review, allowing them to provide feedback on any misrepresentations or misunderstandings. However, the intervention owner cannot oppose the publication of articles.

 

Intellectual Property

Authors of articles published in Ungsinn retain the copyright to their work and grant permission to Septentrio Academic Publishing to distribute their work under a Creative Commons licence. By default, the CC-BY-NC licence is used, but authors may choose another if they wish.

 

Complaints and Appeals

Complaints to Ungsinn should be made in writing and sent via email (post.rkbu@helsefak.uit.no) to the Regional Centre for Child and Youth Mental Health and Child Welfare, North (RKBU North), which is primarily responsible for the journal. Complainants must describe the subject and nature of their complaint and should provide supporting documentation. An independent party will assess any complaint on its merits, implement any necessary corrective actions, and respond to the complainant. COPE's guidelines for appeals (https://publicationethics.org/appeals) and the research ethical guidelines (https://www.forskningsetikk.no/) will guide the handling of the complaint.

 

Post-Publication Corrections

Once an article has been published in Ungsinn, errors that affect the significance of the content or relate to data or citations may be corrected. A correction notice (errata) including a list of changes, the publication date of the original article, and the date of the correction, as well as where to obtain the original article, will be added to the end of the corrected articles.

In rare cases, serious errors may invalidate an article's results or conclusions. In such cases, COPE's retraction guidelines (https://publicationethics.org/retraction-guidelines) will be followed. A retraction statement will then be published, indicating which parts of the article are erroneous and the basis for the retraction.