Editorial Policies

Errors, updates and corrections

If an error is reported to us, or if a paper we have covered is retracted, where appropriate, we will carry out an investigation, conducted in an open and inquisitive manor. Depending on the severity of the error, we may choose to respond in one of the following ways.

Minor corrections

A minor correction would be appropriate for spelling and grammar errors, and any corrections that bear no impact to the interpretation of facts within the article will be updated immediately, without a note being left.

Major corrections

A major correction would be appropriate for a serious factual error(s) that could impact the interpretation of facts within a piece of content, such as the date of a discovery are corrected promptly, clearly, and appropriately.

Where a serious factual error has been corrected, a note will be added to the bottom of the page on which it featured, detailing the nature of the error and how it has been corrected. This process will usually be overseen by a senior member of the editorial staff and if the correction is of significant severity, such that it could impact future scientific works, the corrected page will be repromoted to highlight the change.

Page removal [internal only]

At any time, we may choose to remove a page. This may be on the request of a client or if a piece of content is out of date and no longer deemed relevant to our audience. Where a factual error or if coverage of a retracted article has been published that is deemed irreparable by correction, we may also choose to remove a page.

Image policy

Image types on Bioanalysis Zone

Header images

Header images are images that feature at the top of content pieces and articles and serve as the image that will represent the piece on website landing pages and on social media by default. These images are purely for decorative purposes.

These images are usually created on Canva or feature licensed stock images. In addition to this, occasionally images are provided to us by an external party for use in the header image, or taken from sources relevant to the content, following our copyright and licencing policies outlined below.

Illustrative images

Illustrative images are images that are featured within content pieces to illustrate a point or principle documented in the content. These may include images of data, graphs, tables, symbols, icons or diagrams, amongst other formats. Where these images have been provided by an external party or press release, the correct permissions, as outlined in our image copyright and licencing policies below, must be followed.

Icons and symbols may be sourced from Canva or created by our in-house graphics department. Where they have been created by the in-house graphics team, the creator will be noted alongside the content.

Advertising

Leaderboard and MPU images feature throughout the website. These are either provided by our partners or are created in-house to promote our own projects. In both instances, the imagery used must follow the relevance and accuracy standards, content appropriateness guidelines, and image copyright and licensing policies outlined below.

Relevance and accuracy standards

Content on site must be accurate and relevant, following the principles below.

Content connection: Images must directly relate to and support the accompanying content.

Contextual accuracy: Visual content should accurately represent the subject matter being discussed and proper context must be provided for any symbolic or representative images.

No misleading associations: Images cannot create false impressions or suggest connections that don’t exist.

Content appropriateness guidelines

Content on site must not be offensive, inappropriate or culturally insensitive. The following examples are restricted on site.

Graphic violence: Excessive gore or disturbing imagery without clear editorial justification.

Explicit sexual content: Inappropriate nudity or sexual imagery.

Hate symbols: Images containing racist, discriminatory, or extremist symbols without proper context.

Privacy violations: Unauthorized personal images, especially of private citizens.

Exploitative content: Images that exploit tragedy, suffering, or vulnerability without editorial merit.

Cultural sensitivity: Awareness of religious, cultural, and social sensitivities.

Dignity standards: Maintaining human dignity in all visual representations.

Image copyright and licensing

Content submitted for use on site must have the appropriate rights to be used, which may be by being copyright free, under an appropriate Creative Commons license or published with the permission of the copyright holder.

Proper attribution: All images must be properly credited to photographers/sources where requested.

Usage rights: Verification of legal right to use images must be provided for any images that could be subject to copyright.

Stock photo guidelines: Appropriate use of stock imagery with proper licensing.

Generative AI policies

Generative AI images

Where an image serves a purely decorative function, meaning that they do not contribute to the content at all, or act as an illustrative image, AI may be used without note, providing the image follows all of the image policies outlined above.

Where an image serves an illustrative purpose, the use of AI must be noted clearly alongside the image. For full detail refer to the Taylor & Francis AI policy.

Generative AI in content production

In-house content

Generative AI may be used by in-house teams to assist with idea generation, subject research and content structuring. Where AI-assisted tools support our creative process, all content is edited, fact-checked and approved by our editorial team to ensure it meets our standards and is in line with our house style guidelines prior to publication.

Externally contributed content

The use of AI must not breach journalistic ethics, and its use must be declared and clearly explained. Writers who use AI or AI-assisted tools during the writing process must disclose their use upon submission of the draft. For full detail refer to the Taylor & Francis AI policy.

Competing interests and disclosures

Competing interest statement

Description: A conflict of interest can also be known as ‘competing interest’. A conflict of interest can occur when you, or your employer, or sponsor have a financial, commercial, legal, or professional relationship with other organizations, or with the people working with them, that could influence your research.

Examples of financial conflicts of interests include:

Employment or voluntary involvement.

Collaborations with advocacy groups relating to the content of the article.

Grants from an entity, paid to the author or organization.

Personal fees received by the authors as honoraria, royalties, consulting fees, lecture fees, or testimonies.

Patents held or pending by the authors, their institutions, funding organizations, or licensed to an entity, whether earning royalties or not.

Royalties being received by the authors or their institutions.

Stock or share ownership.

Benefits related to the development of products as an outcome of the work.

Examples of non-financial conflicts of interests:

Receipt of drugs, specialist equipment, tools, computer programs, or digital applications.

Access to data repositories, archival resources, museum collections, by an entity that might benefit, or be at a disadvantage financially or reputationally from the published findings.

Holding a position on the boards of industry bodies or private companies that might benefit or be at a disadvantage financially or reputationally from the published findings.

Writing assistance or administrative support from a person or organization that might benefit or be at a disadvantage from the published findings.

Personal, political, religious, ideological, academic and intellectual competing interests which are perceived to be relevant to the published content.

Involvement in legal action related to the work.

Important: if there are no competing interests to declare, authors should include a statement to the article to confirm that there are no relevant financial or non-financial competing interests to report.

For contributors and interviewees

If you are participating in or submitting a feature to Bioanalysis Zone, you will need to submit your relevant disclosures. The editor working with you on this article will request this alongside your submission, prior to publication. These disclosures will be included at the bottom of the page hosting your feature in the format documented below.

If disclosures are present:
[Contributor] has reported their disclosures of relevance to the topics discussed in this feature. They are as follows:

List item 1

List item 2

If no disclosure is given:
“No potential competing interest was reported by the contributor to this feature.”

Contributed content

We welcome submissions that align with the editorial style of our publication and fall within Bioanalysis Zone’s scope. We aim to provide informative content that provides true value to our readers.

Contributed content must be original and the author’s own work. Any use of others’ data, words, or imagery requires proper permission and appropriate citation as described in Taylor and Francis’s page Key considerations for using third party content in your article.

Contributors to Bioanalysis Zone should review our code of conduct for contributors. Publication of all submitted materials is subject to approval by Bioanalysis Zone’s editorial team.

Content on site: where does it come from, how is it composed and who is responsible?

Bioanalysis Zone publishes a range of content types that fall into four overlapping categories that can be plotted on an X/Y axis: Editorial vs sponsored content on the X axis and internally vs externally contributed content on the Y axis.

Editorial content

Editorial content includes any type of content designed purely to meet the needs of our audience. Editorial content receives no external funding and generates no direct revenue. Editorial content can be created exclusively in-house, for instance Editor-written listicles or opinion articles. Alternatively, it can be contributed by key opinion leaders (KOLs), for instance interview features, externally contributed opinions and editorial webinars. These KOLs can sometimes come from industry, but in these instances are only being used due to their expertise, and we don’t allow them to “plug” their company’s products.

Examples of our editorial content

News articles

These pieces are either written up by a member of our editorial team (example), in which case they are marked as an author at the top of the piece, or are rehosted from press releases emailed to us or published on news aggregator sites (example), in which case the original release is included at the top of the page. This approach allows us to dive into the pieces from the week we deem most important to cover in depth for our readers, while enabling us to cover the wide range of topics.

Interviews

Lots of our long-form content comes from interviews with experts in their field. These are typically recorded calls, transcribed and edited into Q&A style articles (example) or written up as feature pieces (example).

Examples of our sponsored content

In Focus

These month-long topic highlights (example) feature an interview, infographic and video. The infographic and video scripts are produced in collaboration with the sponsor, and the interview is conducted with an expert selected by the sponsor, typically a representative of the sponsor or a user of their services. Editorial versions of these features are also produced and are notable by their lack of sponsor branding.

eBooks

These downloadable PDFs or ePubs (example) feature articles from across the Taylor & Francis portfolio and are compiled in-house into one document to provide an overview of a particular topic or theme. When sponsored, these eBooks feature client provided page ads and White Papers that feature as their own articles within the eBook. These pages are clearly identifiable as separate from the Taylor & Francis produced content due to their presence of sponsor branding directly on the article pages. Editorial eBooks are also produced. They are notable due to their lack of sponsor branding on the front covers and the lack of sponsor content within the eBook.

In-house created content

Our Editors write and put together a lot of the features on site, including the writing of news articles, listicles, opinion pieces, recording of podcasts and occasionally the curation and assembly of eBooks and In Focusses, which include videos and infographics created in collaboration with our video and graphics teams. These can still feature contributions to the pieces from external sources, such as a quote from a KOL in an opinion piece.

Responsibility: For all content created in-house, we strive to achieve the highest standards of accuracy and will never knowingly publish material that is inaccurate. Any factual mistakes highlighted to us will be investigated and may be corrected, in line with the errors, updates and corrections policy above.

Examples of our in-house created content

Listicle and opinion pieces

In these pieces, our Editors will create an article from the ground up, either relying solely on research (example), or involving quotes and information provided by a collection of interviews with relevant experts (example).

Podcasts

Similar to our interviews, these features are typically recorded calls that we edit in-house into a structured podcast format and host on our Acast or Soundcloud platforms (example).

Externally contributed content

Some content on site is provided by external sources, such as companies or individual researchers. These include White Papers and application notes from sponsors; press releases directly uploaded from those provided over emails or on PR aggregator sites like EureakAlert and Science Daily; opinion or feature length articles from expert contributors. Any content posted as its own WordPress page has been checked and edited for house style, spelling, grammar and accuracy. Any content that is rehosted on a page as a pdf has not been edited by our team but will be reviewed to ensure they meet our code of conduct requirements. Webinar presentations provided by external parties are not checked in advance if live, but contributors are asked to ensure they comply with our code of conduct requirements.

Responsibility: Contributing parties are solely responsible for the accuracy of their content submissions.

Examples of our externally contributed content

Webinars

Our webinars feature presentations from experts in their field, often followed by a Q&A session. These can be sourced by sponsors for a sponsored webinar (example), or can be editorially selected for editorial webinars (example). Sponsored webinars will always contain the sponsors branding on the registration page, alongside a mention of the sponsor’s support on the page and in the introductory slides of the webinar.

Application notes, White Papers and product sheets

These sponsor-provided pieces of content are typically hosted on a webpage directly as a PDF (example), or they can be placed behind a registration wall or download button (example). They are typically marked with our ‘New products’ or ‘Company news’ category tags. Partner provided press releases can also be published as full WordPress pages, reviewed and edited for house style, grammar, spelling and marked with these same tags. Where a sponsor has paid for the inclusion of any of these features, it will be marked with their branding and a statement noting their support at the bottom of the page.

Code of conduct for contributors

Our pledge

We pledge to make our community welcoming, safe, and equitable for all.

We are committed to fostering an environment that respects and promotes the dignity, rights, and contributions of all individuals, regardless of characteristics including race, ethnicity, caste, color, age, physical characteristics, neurodiversity, disability, sex or gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, language, philosophy or religion, national or social origin, socio-economic position, level of education, or other status. The same privileges of participation are extended to everyone who participates in good faith and in accordance with this covenant.

Encouraged behaviors

While acknowledging differences in social norms, we all strive to meet our community’s expectations for positive behavior. We also understand that our words and actions may be interpreted differently than we intend based on culture, background, or native language.

With these considerations in mind, we agree to behave mindfully toward each other and act in ways that center our shared values, including:

Respecting the purpose of our community, our activities, and our ways of gathering.

Engaging kindly and honestly with others.

Respecting different viewpoints and experiences.

Taking responsibility for our actions and contributions.

Gracefully giving and accepting constructive feedback.

Committing to repairing harm when it occurs.

Behaving in other ways that promote and sustain the well-being of our community.

Restricted behaviors

We agree to restrict the following behaviors in our community. Instances, threats, and promotion of these behaviors are violations of this code of conduct.

Harassment. Violating explicitly expressed boundaries or engaging in unnecessary personal attention after any clear request to stop.

Character attacks. Making insulting, demeaning, or pejorative comments directed at a community member or group of people.

Stereotyping or discrimination. Characterizing anyone’s personality or behavior on the basis of immutable identities or traits.

Sexualization. Behaving in a way that would generally be considered inappropriately intimate in the context or purpose of the community.

Violating confidentiality. Sharing or acting on someone’s personal or private information without their permission.

Endangerment. Causing, encouraging, or threatening violence or other harm toward any person or group.

Behaving in other ways that threaten the well-being of our community.

Misleading identity. Impersonating someone else for any reason, or pretending to be someone else to evade enforcement actions.

Failing to credit sources. Not properly crediting the sources of content you contribute.

Promotional materials. Sharing marketing or other commercial content in a way that is outside the norms of the community.

Irresponsible communication. Failing to responsibly present content which includes, links or describes any other restricted behaviors.

Attribution

This code of conduct is adapted from the contributor covenant, version 3.0, permanently available at https://www.contributor-covenant.org/version/3/0/.

Contributor covenant is stewarded by the Organization for Ethical Source and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

For answers to common questions about contributor covenant, see the FAQ at https://www.contributor-covenant.org/faq. Translations are provided at  https://www.contributor-covenant.org/translations. Additional enforcement and community guideline resources can be found at https://www.contributor-covenant.org/resources. The enforcement ladder was inspired by the work of Mozilla’s code of conduct team.

Editorial Policies