PBE's Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement is based, in large part, on the guidelines and standards developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

We expect authors, reviewers and editors commit to these publication ethics in order to ensure high quality of published contributions in PBE conference proceedings. The relevant duties and expectations of all parties are set out below:

Responsibilities of Authors:

• Authors certify that their manuscripts are their own original work.
• Authors certify that the manuscript has neither been published previously or is not currently being considered for publication elsewhere.
• Authors must notify editors of any conflicts of interest.
• Authors certify that all sources of financial support for the research are disclosed in the manuscript.
• Authors must identify all sources used in the creation of their manuscript by means of appropriate citations.
• Authors are responsible for the reliability of information which the published manuscript contains.
• Authors must report any errors they discover in their manuscript.
• The corresponding author certifies that all co-authors are included on the paper.
• The corresponding author certifies that all listed co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and agreed to its publication in PBE conference proceedings.

Responsibilities of PBE's reviewers:

• Reviewers perform their work for the conference on a volunteer basis.
• Reviewers are free to decline invitations to review particular manuscripts at their discretion.
• Reviewers must notify editors of any conflicts of interest.
• Reviewers must evaluate manuscripts only for their intellectual content.
• Reviewers must keep privileged information or ideas belonging to the manuscript confidential.
• Reviewers must at any time evaluate manuscripts as objectively as possible.
• Reviewers must explain and justify all recommendations made.
• Reviewers must bring to the attention of editors any information that may be reason to reject publication of a manuscript.

Responsibilities of PBE Scientific Committee and Editors

• The PBE SC&Ed. has ultimate responsibility for making publication decisions for submitted manuscripts.
• The PBE SC&Ed. must evaluate manuscripts only for their intellectual content.
• The PBE SC&Ed. will not disclose any information about a manuscript under consideration to anyone other than the author(s), reviewers and potential reviewers.
• The PBE SC&Ed. will make every effort to ensure the integrity of the blind review process by not revealing the identity of the author(s) of a manuscript to the reviewers, and vice versa.
• The PBE SC&Ed. must disclose any conflicts of interest.