Advertising, Sponsorship and Commercial Activities

1. Purpose and Scope

AMG Transcend Association maintains a clear separation between scholarly editorial processes and advertising, sponsorship, commercial partnerships, and other revenue-generating or promotional activities.

This policy establishes publisher-level principles governing advertising, sponsorship, commercial relationships, sponsored activities, externally supported editorial content, and related arrangements across the journals published by AMG Transcend Association.

These principles apply whether commercial or sponsored material appears on a journal website, within or alongside published content, in supplements or special collections, through events or partnerships, or through other publisher-controlled channels.

2. Fundamental Principle of Editorial Independence

Advertising revenue, sponsorship, commercial relationships, partnerships, donations, or other financial support must not influence the scientific or editorial evaluation of manuscripts.

Commercial considerations must not determine:

• whether a manuscript is submitted for editorial consideration;
• whether it is sent for peer review;
• the selection or approval of peer reviewers;
• the content of reviewer reports;
• revision requirements;
• acceptance or rejection decisions;
• the timing of an editorial decision;
• the interpretation or presentation of scientific findings; or
• post-publication editorial action.

Advertisers, sponsors, commercial partners, and other external organizations must not have authority over individual editorial decisions.

Editorial decisions must remain with the journal’s authorized editors in accordance with the Editorial Independence and Governance policy.

3. Separation of Commercial and Editorial Functions

Commercial and promotional activities must be managed separately from the scientific evaluation of manuscripts.

Individuals involved in advertising sales, sponsorship negotiations, commercial partnerships, fundraising, or similar activities must not use those roles to influence editorial decisions.

Editors must not be instructed to accept, reject, delay, accelerate, or otherwise handle a manuscript differently because of:

• an existing or potential advertiser;
• a sponsor or commercial partner;
• the financial value of a relationship;
• an author’s relationship with a commercial organization;
• the commercial implications of the findings;
• the potential effect of an article on a product, company, or organization; or
• concern that an editorial decision may affect advertising or sponsorship revenue.

Commercial personnel must not receive confidential manuscript or peer-review information solely for commercial purposes.

4. Advertising

Where advertising is accepted, it must be clearly identifiable as advertising and distinguishable from peer-reviewed editorial content.

Advertising must not be presented in a manner that could reasonably lead readers to believe that:

• the advertisement is scholarly editorial content;
• the advertised product, service, organization, or claim has been endorsed by the journal, its editors, or AMG Transcend Association; or
• publication of related research constitutes endorsement of the advertised product or service.

Advertising must not be sold or placed on the condition that it appear together with a particular article, topic, author, editorial decision, or favorable scientific conclusion.

Placement should avoid creating a misleading association between an advertisement and editorial content concerning the same or a closely related product, service, or commercial interest.

5. Acceptance and Refusal of Advertising

AMG Transcend Association reserves the right to accept, refuse, suspend, or remove advertising in accordance with its publishing standards and applicable requirements.

Acceptance of advertising does not imply endorsement of the advertiser or of any product, service, claim, organization, or viewpoint appearing in the advertisement.

Advertising may be refused or removed where it is reasonably considered:

• unlawful;
• fraudulent or materially misleading;
• deceptive regarding its commercial nature;
• inconsistent with applicable ethical or professional standards;
• likely to compromise the credibility or independence of the journal;
• likely to create confusion between advertising and editorial content; or
• otherwise incompatible with the publisher’s responsibilities to readers and the scholarly record.

A decision to accept or refuse advertising must not be used as a mechanism for influencing scholarly editorial content.

6. Advertising and Editorial Content

Advertisers must not be permitted to purchase favorable editorial coverage.

Advertising arrangements must not include commitments concerning:

• publication of a particular manuscript;
• publication of articles favorable to an advertiser or its products;
• suppression or delay of unfavorable findings;
• commissioning of scientific content for promotional purposes without transparent editorial treatment;
• selection of reviewers or editors;
• citation of specific commercial products; or
• modification of scientific conclusions.

An advertiser must not receive privileged access to confidential manuscripts, peer-review reports, editorial deliberations, or unpublished editorial schedules for the purpose of influencing or coordinating advertising with scholarly content.

Scientific articles concerning products or services that are also advertised must be evaluated according to the same editorial, ethical, conflict-of-interest, and peer-review standards as other manuscripts.

7. Sponsorship and Financial Support

Sponsorship or financial support may be accepted only where the arrangement preserves editorial independence and can be disclosed transparently where relevant.

A sponsor must not receive authority to:

• select or approve peer reviewers;
• determine whether a manuscript is accepted or rejected;
• prevent publication of results;
• require favorable interpretation of findings;
• suppress unfavorable or negative results;
• determine scientific conclusions;
• override journal policies; or
• interfere with legitimate corrections, expressions of concern, retractions, or other post-publication actions.

Where sponsorship is relevant to published scholarly content, the nature of the support and the sponsor’s role must be disclosed sufficiently for readers to assess any potential influence.

8. Research Funding and Sponsorship of Research

Funding of the underlying research is distinct from sponsorship of the journal or publication, although both may create interests requiring disclosure.

Authors must disclose funding and relevant sponsor involvement in accordance with the Conflict of Interest and Competing Interests policy and applicable journal requirements.

Where a commercial or other sponsor supported the research, authors must accurately describe the sponsor’s role, where applicable, in:

• study design;
• data collection;
• data analysis;
• interpretation of findings;
• manuscript preparation or review; and
• the decision to submit the work for publication.

A sponsor’s involvement in research does not automatically make the work unsuitable for publication.

Commercially funded research must nevertheless satisfy the same scientific, ethical, peer-review, data-integrity, authorship, and disclosure requirements as other research.

9. Sponsored Supplements, Special Issues, and Collections

Where a journal publishes a supplement, special issue, thematic collection, conference-related collection, or similar content with external financial support, the source and nature of that support must be transparently disclosed.

External sponsorship must not transfer editorial control to the sponsor.

The journal must retain authority over:

• editorial standards;
• appointment and oversight of editors or guest editors;
• manuscript eligibility;
• reviewer selection;
• peer-review procedures;
• acceptance and rejection decisions;
• conflict-of-interest management; and
• corrections or other post-publication actions.

Sponsors may not require publication of particular submissions or exclude manuscripts because their findings are unfavorable to the sponsor, its products, or its interests.

Where guest editors are involved, they must comply with the same requirements concerning editorial independence, confidentiality, peer review, competing interests, and recusal as other editors.

10. Disclosure in Commercially Sponsored Collections

Where published scholarly content forms part of a commercially sponsored supplement, special issue, collection, or similar arrangement, sponsorship must be disclosed at a level that allows readers to understand its relevance to the individual article.

Where applicable, each article must disclose:

• the identity of the commercial sponsor;
• the nature of the sponsor’s support;
• the sponsor’s role in the research or publication process; and
• relevant financial or other relationships between the authors, editors, and sponsor.

Where no relevant relationship exists, this should be stated where required by the applicable journal or indexing requirements.

A general disclosure applying only to the issue or collection must not be used as a substitute for article-level disclosures where the sponsorship or competing interests are relevant to individual articles.

11. Sponsored and Promotional Content

Paid, sponsored, promotional, advertorial, or other commercially influenced material that is not independent peer-reviewed scholarly content must be clearly identified as such.

Its presentation must distinguish it from ordinary journal articles and must not imply that it has undergone independent peer review unless it has in fact been subjected to the journal’s normal peer-review and editorial requirements.

Commercial organizations must not purchase the appearance of independent peer-reviewed publication.

The labels, presentation, and surrounding context of sponsored or promotional material must provide readers with a reasonable basis for understanding its commercial nature.

12. Partnerships, Conferences, and External Activities

AMG Transcend Association or its journals may participate in academic, institutional, professional, educational, conference, or other external partnerships.

Such relationships must not compromise editorial independence.

A partnership, event arrangement, promotional cooperation, exchange of visibility, or use of a journal or publisher name or logo must not be represented as scientific endorsement of an organization, product, service, or research conclusion unless such endorsement has been explicitly and legitimately authorized.

Organizations participating in partnerships or events must not obtain privileged influence over manuscript evaluation or publication decisions because of that relationship.

Where a relationship creates a relevant competing interest, it must be disclosed and managed in accordance with the applicable policies.

13. Publisher and Editor Conflicts of Interest

Commercial interests involving AMG Transcend Association, its representatives, Editors-in-Chief, editors, Editorial Board members, or other individuals involved in editorial decision-making must be appropriately disclosed and managed where relevant.

An editor who has a significant financial, commercial, institutional, or other competing interest concerning a manuscript must recuse themselves from its handling.

Where publisher-level and journal-level responsibilities are held by the same individual, commercial or organizational interests must not be used to influence the individual manuscript decision.

Responsibility must be transferred to another qualified and independent editor where necessary.

Detailed requirements concerning disclosure and recusal are established in the Conflict of Interest and Competing Interests and Editorial Independence and Governance policies.

14. Access to Editorial Information

Advertisers, sponsors, donors, commercial partners, and other external organizations must not receive privileged access to confidential editorial information because of their financial or organizational relationship with the publisher or journal.

This includes confidential information concerning:

• submitted manuscripts;
• reviewer identities where confidential under the journal’s peer-review model;
• peer-review reports;
• editorial deliberations;
• unpublished decisions;
• author correspondence;
• planned post-publication actions; and
• other information protected by editorial confidentiality.

Information may be shared where legitimately required for editorial, ethical, legal, regulatory, or production purposes and where appropriate confidentiality safeguards apply.

15. Commercial Influence and Publication Metrics

Advertising, sponsorship, and commercial arrangements must not be linked to requirements intended to manipulate citations, journal metrics, readership indicators, or other measures of scholarly performance.

Commercial partners must not be promised citations, favorable references, preferential visibility within scholarly content, or editorial outcomes in return for financial or other support.

Editorial decisions and citation recommendations must remain based on legitimate scholarly considerations.

16. Complaints and Concerns

Concerns that advertising, sponsorship, or a commercial relationship may have improperly influenced editorial content or decision-making may be raised through the applicable journal or publisher complaints procedure.

The matter must be assessed by an individual who is sufficiently independent of the commercial relationship and the editorial decision under review.

Depending on the circumstances, appropriate action may include:

• clarification or additional disclosure;
• correction of published information;
• termination or modification of a commercial arrangement;
• reassignment of editorial responsibility;
• review of an affected editorial process;
• removal or relabeling of advertising or promotional material; or
• other proportionate corrective action.

Where the concern affects the reliability or integrity of scholarly content, the relevant publication-ethics and post-publication procedures also apply.

17. Current Status and Future Transparency

At the date of publication of this policy, AMG Transcend Association does not display or sell advertising through its journals or publisher-controlled publishing platforms, has not received sponsorship for its journals or scholarly publishing activities, and does not currently conduct commercial promotional activities connected with editorial content.

Accordingly, advertising revenue, commercial sponsorship, and commercially sponsored editorial content do not currently form part of the funding or editorial operation of the AMG Transcend Association journal portfolio.

If AMG Transcend Association introduces advertising, accepts sponsorship, enters into a commercially supported publishing arrangement, or undertakes another commercial activity relevant to its journals in the future, the existence and nature of that relationship will be disclosed transparently on the publisher’s website.

Where appropriate, the disclosure will identify:

• the sponsoring, advertising, or commercial organization;
• the nature and purpose of the relationship or support;
• the journal, activity, collection, or publication to which the relationship applies; and
• any other information reasonably necessary to understand the relationship.

Such disclosures will include a clear statement that advertising, sponsorship, financial support, or another commercial relationship does not confer editorial authority and must not influence manuscript selection, peer review, reviewer selection, editorial evaluation, acceptance or rejection decisions, scientific conclusions, or post-publication editorial actions.

Where sponsorship or another commercial relationship is relevant to an individual article, supplement, special issue, collection, or other published content, disclosure will also be provided at the appropriate journal, collection, or article level rather than relying solely on a general publisher-level statement.

Any future advertising, sponsorship, or commercial arrangement will remain subject to the editorial-independence, competing-interest, disclosure, and transparency requirements established in this policy and in the other applicable AMG Transcend Association policies.

18. Transparency and Accountability

AMG Transcend Association is responsible for ensuring that commercial activities conducted under its authority are compatible with editorial independence and scholarly publishing standards.

Commercial support must not be concealed where disclosure is relevant to the interpretation, provenance, or editorial independence of published content.

The publisher will maintain an appropriate separation between commercial relationships and manuscript decision-making and will take reasonable action where that separation has been compromised.

19. Relationship with Other Policies

This policy should be read together with applicable AMG Transcend Association and journal policies concerning:

• Editorial Independence and Governance;
• Conflict of Interest and Competing Interests;
• Peer Review Principles;
• Publication Ethics and Research Integrity;
• Authorship and Contributor Responsibilities;
• Research Ethics;
• Data Integrity and Reproducibility;
• Corrections, Retractions and Expressions of Concern; and
• Complaints and Appeals.

Individual journals may establish additional requirements concerning advertising, sponsorship, supplements, special issues, partnerships, or other commercial activities consistent with these principles.