The journal adheres to the ethical guidelines for research and publication described in the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Guidelines (https://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines), the ICMJE Recommendations (https://www.icmje.org), and the Good Publication Practice Guideline for Medical Journals (https://www.kamje.or.kr/board/view?b_name=bo_publication&bo_id=13). Furthermore, all processes addressing research and publication misconduct shall follow the flowchart of COPE (https://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts). Any attempts to duplicate publications or engage in plagiarism will lead to automatic rejection and may prejudice the acceptance of future submissions.

Table of Contents

• 1. Authorship
• 2. Originality, Plagiarism, and Duplicate Publication
• 3. Secondary Publication
• 4. Conflicts of Interest
• 5. Statement of Human and Animal Rights
• 6. Statement of Informed Consent and IRB Approval
• 7. Protection of Privacy, Confidentiality, and Written Informed Consent
• 8. Management of Research and Publication Misconduct
• 9. Editorial Responsibilities

1. Authorship

An author is considered an individual who has made substantive intellectual contributions to a published study and whose authorship continues to have important academic, social, and financial implications. To be listed as an author, authorship credit should be based on one’s contribution substantially to all four categories established by the ICMJE: (1) conception and design, or acquisition, or analysis and interpretation of data; (2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and (3) final approval of the version to be published; and (4) agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. If any persons do not meet the above four criteria, they may be listed as contributors in the Acknowledgments section.

• A list of each author’s role should accompany the submitted paper. The contributions of all authors must be described using the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT; https://credit.niso.org/).

• Correction of authorship: Any requests for such changes in authorship (adding author(s), removing author(s), or re-arranging the order of authors) after the initial manuscript submission and before publication should be explained in writing to the editor in a letter or email from all authors. This letter must be signed by all authors of the paper. Additionally, each author must complete the copyright assignment.

• Role of corresponding author: The corresponding author takes primary responsibility for communication with the journal during the manuscript submission, peer review, and publication process. The corresponding author typically ensures that all of the journal’s administrative requirements, such as providing the details of authorship, ethics committee approval, clinical trial registration documentation, and conflicts of interest forms and statements, are properly completed, although these duties may be delegated to one or more coauthors. The corresponding author should be available throughout the submission and peer review process to respond to editorial queries in a timely manner and after publication should be available to respond to critiques of the work and cooperate with any requests from the journal for data or additional information or questions about the article.

• Use of AI-assisted technologies: Research in Vestibular Science (RVS) has adopted policies, as specified by the ICMJE, regarding the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the preparation of materials intended for publication in the journal. Generative AI, including language models, chatbots, image creators, machine learning, or similar technologies, may be employed to enhance readability and language accuracy in scientific writing. However, chatbots or other AI-assisted technologies cannot be listed as authors. Authors are required to disclose whether AI-assisted technologies were used in the production of the submitted work at the time of manuscript submission. This disclosure should provide details about the specific tools used, including the model name, version, and manufacturer, along with an explanation of the capacity in which they were utilized. Authors should affirm that there is no plagiarism of text or images in materials produced by AI. It is not acceptable to cite AI-generated material as a primary source.

• Recommendations for working with people with personal connections: Authors who intend to include minors (under the age of 19) or their family members (such as spouse, children, and relatives) in their research, including when publishing or presenting papers jointly with them, should clearly indicate this in the cover letter. For further information, please refer to the “Guidelines for Preventing Illegitimate Authorship” by the National Research Foundation of Korea (https://www.nrf.re.kr/eng/main).

2. Originality, Plagiarism, and Duplicate Publication

All submitted manuscripts should be original and should not be under consideration for publication by other scientific journals at the same time. No part of an accepted manuscript should be duplicated in any other scientific journal without the permission of the Editorial Board. If duplicate publication of any paper published in this journal is detected, the authors will be announced in the journal, their institutions will be informed, and penalties will be imposed upon the authors.

Plagiarism: Similarity Check is used to screen submitted manuscripts for possible plagiarism or duplicate publication upon arrival. RVS defines plagiarism as a situation in which a paper reproduces another work with at least 25% similarity and without citation. If evidence of plagiarism is found before/after acceptance or after publication of the paper, the author will be offered a chance for rebuttal. If the arguments are not found to be satisfactory, the manuscript will be retracted and the author sanctioned from publishing papers for a period to be determined by the responsible editor(s). Figures and tables can be used freely if the original source is verified according to the Creative Commons Non-Commercial License. It is mandatory that all authors resolve any copyright issues when citing a figure or table from a different journal that is not open access.

3. Secondary Publication

It is possible to republish a manuscript if it satisfies the condition of secondary publication of the ICMJE Recommendations, available from: https://www.icmje.org/ as follows:

(1) Certain types of articles, such as guidelines produced by governmental agencies and professional organizations, may need to reach the widest possible audience. In such instances, editors sometimes deliberately publish material that is also published in other journals with the agreement of the authors and the editors of those journals.

(2) Secondary publication for various other reasons, in the same or another language, especially in other countries, is justifiable and can be beneficial provided that the following conditions are met. The authors have received approval from the editors of both journals (the editor concerned with secondary publication must have a photocopy, reprint, or manuscript of the primary version). The priority of the primary publication is respected by a publication interval of at least one week (unless specifically negotiated otherwise by both editors).

(3) The paper for secondary publication is intended for a different group of readers; therefore, an abbreviated version could be sufficient. The secondary version faithfully reflects the data and interpretations of the primary version. The footnote on the title page of the secondary version informs readers, peers, and documenting agencies that the paper has been published in whole or in part and states the primary reference. A suitable footnote might read: “This article is based on a study first reported in the [title of a journal, with full reference].”

4. Conflicts of Interest

The corresponding authors should ensure that information about any conflict of interest related to the submitted manuscript is included in the manuscript, and they should take responsibility for it. A potential conflict of interest should be disclosed in the manuscript even when the authors are confident that their judgments have not been influenced in preparing the manuscript. All authors should disclose their conflicts of interest, i.e., (1) financial relationships (such as employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony), (2) personal relationship, (3) academic competition, and (4) intellectual passion. These conflicts of interest must be included as a footnote on the title page. Each author should certify the disclosure of any conflict of interest with his/her signature.

5. Statement of Human and Animal Rights

Any investigations involving humans and animals should be approved by the Research Ethics Committee (REC) or the Institutional Review Board (IRB) and Animal Care Committee, respectively, of the institution where the experiment was performed. For those investigators who do not have formal ethics review committees, the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki (https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/). RVS will not consider any studies involving humans or animals without appropriate approval. Informed consent should be obtained, unless waived by the IRB, from patients who participated in clinical investigations. In the case of an animal study, a statement should be provided indicating that the experiment process, such as the breeding and the use of laboratory animals, was approved by the REC of the institution where the experiment was performed or that it does not violate the rules of the REC of the institution or the NIH Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (Institute of Laboratory Animal Resources, Commission on Life Sciences, National Research Council). The authors should preserve raw experimental study data for at least 1 year after the publication of the paper and should present this data if required by the editorial board.

6. Statement of Informed Consent and IRB Approval

Copies of written informed consent and IRB approval for clinical research should be kept. If necessary, the editor or reviewers may request copies of these documents to resolve questions about IRB approval and study conduct. In addition, for studies conducted with human subjects, the method by which written informed consent was obtained from the participants also needs to be stated in the Methods section. For clinical studies involving animal subjects, a certificate, agreement, or approval from the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) is required.

7. Protection of Privacy, Confidentiality, and Written Informed Consent

The ICMJE has recommended the following statement for the protection of privacy, confidentiality, and written informed consent: The rights of patients should not be infringed without written informed consent. Identifying details (patient's names, initials, hospital numbers, dates of birth, or other personal or identifying information, protected healthcare information) should not be published in written descriptions. Images of human subjects should not be used unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and explicit permission has been given as part of the consent. Even where consent has been given, identifying details should be omitted if they are not essential. If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, authors should provide assurances that such alterations do not distort scientific meaning. If consent has not been obtained, it is generally not sufficient to anonymize a photograph simply by using eye bars or blurring the face of the individual concerned.

8. Management of Research and Publication Misconduct

When the journal faces suspected cases of research and publication misconduct, such as a redundant (duplicate) publication, plagiarism, fabricated data, changes in authorship, undisclosed

conflicts of interest, an ethical problem discovered with the submitted manuscript, a reviewer who has appropriated an author’s idea or data, complaints against editors, and other issues, resolution processes will follow the applicable COPE flowchart (https://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts). Suspected cases will be discussed and decided upon by the Editorial Board of RVS.

9. Editorial Responsibilities

The Editorial Board will continuously work to monitor and safeguard publication ethics: guidelines for retracting articles; maintaining the integrity of the academic record; precluding business needs from compromising intellectual and ethical standards; publishing corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when needed; and ensuring that there is no plagiarism and fraudulent data in publications Editors maintain the following responsibilities: the responsibility and authority to reject and accept articles; avoiding any conflict of interest with respect to articles they reject or accept; the acceptance of a paper when reasonably certain; promoting publication of corrections or retractions when errors are found; and preserving the anonymity of reviewers.