Advertising, Sponsorship and Commercial Activities

Current status as of: 1 June 2026

1. Purpose and Scope

AMG Transcend Association maintains a clear separation between scholarly editorial processes and advertising, sponsorship, commercial partnerships, promotional activities, and other financial or organizational relationships that could create or appear to create commercial influence.

This policy establishes publisher-level principles governing advertising, sponsorship, commercial relationships, sponsored activities, externally supported editorial content, promotional material, 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, special issues or thematic collections, through conferences, events or partnerships, or through other publisher-controlled channels.

Individual journals may establish additional requirements appropriate to their editorial activities, subject areas, and types of commercial or sponsored arrangements.

2. Fundamental Principle of Editorial Independence

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

Commercial or financial considerations must not determine or improperly influence:

• whether a manuscript is submitted or considered for publication;
• 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;
• corrections, expressions of concern, retractions, or other post-publication editorial action.

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

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

3. Separation of Commercial and Editorial Functions

Commercial, financial, fundraising, advertising, sponsorship, and promotional activities must be managed separately from the scientific evaluation and editorial handling of manuscripts.

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

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

• an existing or potential advertiser;
• a sponsor, donor, 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, organization, or commercial interest;
• concern that an editorial decision may affect advertising, sponsorship, partnership, or other revenue.

Individuals performing commercial or promotional functions must not receive confidential manuscript or peer-review information merely because of those responsibilities.

4. Advertising

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

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

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

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

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

5. Acceptance and Refusal of Advertising

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

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

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

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

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

6. Advertising and Editorial Content

Advertisers must not be permitted to purchase favorable editorial coverage or influence scholarly content.

Advertising arrangements must not include commitments concerning:

• publication of a particular manuscript;
• publication of articles favorable to an advertiser or its products;
• suppression, alteration, or delay of unfavorable findings;
• commissioning or presentation of scientific content for promotional purposes without appropriate transparency and editorial treatment;
• selection of reviewers or editors;
• citation of particular commercial products or publications;
• modification of scientific interpretations or conclusions.

An advertiser must not receive privileged access to confidential manuscripts, peer-review reports, reviewer identities, editorial deliberations, unpublished decisions, or other protected editorial information 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 scientific, ethical, competing-interest, peer-review, data-integrity, and editorial standards as other manuscripts.

7. Sponsorship and Financial Support

Sponsorship or other 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 or require publication of results;
• require favorable interpretation of findings;
• suppress unfavorable, negative, or commercially inconvenient results;
• determine scientific conclusions;
• override journal or publisher policies;
• interfere with legitimate corrections, expressions of concern, retractions, or other post-publication actions.

Where sponsorship is relevant to published scholarly content, the identity of the sponsor, nature of the support, and relevant role of the sponsor 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, supplement, collection, publication, or publisher activity, although both may create relationships requiring disclosure and appropriate management.

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

Where the sponsor had no role in relevant scientific or publication activities, this should be stated where required by the applicable journal.

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

Commercially or externally funded research must nevertheless satisfy the same scientific, ethical, peer-review, data-integrity, authorship, disclosure, and editorial 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 or commercial support, the identity, source, and nature of that support must be transparently disclosed.

External sponsorship must not transfer scientific or 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;
• revision requirements;
• acceptance and rejection decisions;
• competing-interest management;
• correction, retraction, or other post-publication actions.

Sponsors must not require publication of particular submissions or prevent, suppress, or disadvantage manuscripts because their findings are unfavorable to the sponsor, its products, services, policies, or interests.

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

10. Disclosure in Commercially Sponsored Supplements, Special Issues, and Collections

Each article published as part of a commercially sponsored supplement, special issue, thematic collection, conference-related collection, or comparable sponsored publishing arrangement must include appropriate article-level disclosure of the relevant sponsorship.

The disclosure must identify, as applicable:

• the identity of the commercial sponsor or supporting organization;
• the nature and purpose of the sponsor’s support;
• the sponsor’s role, if any, in the underlying research;
• the sponsor’s role, if any, in the publication or collection;
• relevant financial or other relationships between the authors, editors, guest editors, and sponsor;
• any other information necessary for readers to understand potential commercial influence.

Where the sponsor had no role in manuscript evaluation, peer review, editorial decision-making, or preparation of the article, this may be stated explicitly where appropriate.

Where authors or editors have no relevant competing interests concerning the sponsor, this must be disclosed where required by applicable journal or indexing requirements.

A general disclosure applying only to the issue, supplement, or collection must not substitute for article-level disclosures where sponsorship, financial relationships, or competing interests are relevant to individual articles.

Article-level disclosures must be sufficiently clear to permit readers to distinguish sponsorship of the publication or collection from funding of the underlying research.

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 and prominently identified as such.

Its labeling, presentation, formatting, and surrounding context must distinguish it from ordinary peer-reviewed journal articles.

Such material must not state or imply that it has undergone independent peer review unless it has in fact been evaluated according to the journal’s applicable peer-review and editorial requirements.

Commercial organizations must not purchase the appearance, status, labeling, or presentation of independent peer-reviewed scholarly publication.

Readers must be provided with a reasonable basis for understanding the commercial or sponsored nature of such content.

12. Partnerships, Conferences, and External Activities

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

Such relationships must not compromise editorial independence.

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

Organizations participating in partnerships or events must not obtain privileged access to, or 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 applicable policies.

13. Publisher and Editor Competing Interests

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

An editor who has a relevant competing interest concerning a manuscript must recuse themselves from its editorial handling.

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

Where recusal is required, responsibility must be transferred to another appropriately qualified and independent editor with genuine authority over the relevant editorial process.

Detailed requirements concerning disclosure, recusal, and independent handling 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.

Protected editorial information may include:

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

Information may be shared where legitimately required for scientific, editorial, ethical, legal, regulatory, contractual, or production purposes and where appropriate confidentiality, privacy, and data-protection safeguards apply.

15. Commercial Influence and Publication Metrics

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

Commercial partners must not be promised:

• citations;
• favorable references;
• inclusion of particular products in scholarly content;
• preferential scholarly visibility;
• favorable peer-review outcomes;
• publication or editorial decisions;

in return for financial, commercial, promotional, or other support.

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

16. Complaints and Concerns

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

The concern must be assessed through a process sufficiently independent of both the relevant commercial relationship and the disputed editorial action.

Depending on the circumstances, appropriate action may include:

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

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

17. Current Commercial Status and Future Transparency

At the date stated, 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 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, publication, or service to which the relationship applies;
• the period or duration of the relevant arrangement where appropriate;
• other information reasonably necessary to understand the relationship.

Such disclosures will state clearly 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, and 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, confidentiality, and transparency requirements established in this policy and other applicable AMG Transcend Association policies.

The publisher will update this section when its commercial or sponsorship arrangements materially change.

18. Transparency and Accountability

AMG Transcend Association is responsible for ensuring that commercial activities conducted under its authority are compatible with editorial independence, transparent scholarly publishing, and applicable publisher and journal policies.

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

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

Transparency concerning a commercial relationship does not permit that relationship to influence scientific or editorial decisions.

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
• Complaints and Appeals

Individual journals may establish additional requirements concerning advertising, sponsorship, supplements, special issues, partnerships, commercial support, or promotional activities, provided that they remain consistent with the principles established in this policy.