As an open access journal, ASJ follows the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (https://doaj.org/bestpractice) developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), Directory of Open Access Journals, Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association, and World Association of Medical Editors.

1. Website

The URL of the official journal website is https://asianspinejournal.org.
The ASJ team endeavors to make a good website. The ASJ website demonstrates that care has been taken to ensure high ethical and professional standards. It does not contain any misleading information, including any attempt to mimic another journal/publisher’s site.

2. Name of Journal

The official journal title is Asian Spine Journal (herein “ASJ”); the ISO abbreviation is Asian Spine J. Prior to launching ASJ, thorough checks are made to ensure that no journal of a similar name already exists.

3. Peer Review Process

ASJ has an online submission and peer review system at https://mc04.manuscriptcentral.com/asianspinejournal.
ASJ reviews all manuscripts received. A manuscript is first reviewed for its format and adherence to the aims and scope of the journal. If the manuscript does not fit the aims and scope of the journal or does not adhere to the Instructions for Authors, it may be returned to the author immediately after receipt and without a review. Before reviewing, all submitted manuscripts are inspected by Similarity Check powered by iThenticate, a plagiarism screening tool.
Manuscripts are sent to two editorial members and one outside reviewer. The Editor-in-Chief will make the final decision regarding acceptance of a peer-reviewed paper. The average time between receipt of a submitted manuscript and the decision regarding its publication is six weeks, but it can be longer.

4. Ownership and Management

This journal is owned by the publisher, the Korean Society of Spine Surgery (http://www.spine.or.kr/).

5/6. Governing Body/Editorial Team and Contact Information

The governing body is the journal’s Editorial Board. The full names and affiliations of the journal’s editors and members of the journal management team are displayed in the About (Editorial Board & Journal Management Team) tab of the journal homepage, and the contact information of the Editor and editorial office is available in the About (Contact Us) tab.

7. Copyright and Licensing

Copyright of all published materials is owned by the Korean Society of Spine Surgery. All authors must agree to the copyright transfer during the submission process.

7. Copyright and Licensing

Copyright of all published materials is owned by the Korean Society of Spine Surgery. All authors must agree to the copyright transfer during the submission process.

ASJ is an open access journal. Articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. To use ASJ tables or figures in other journals, books, or media for scholarly and educational purposes, permission requests to the ASJ publisher are unnecessary. All contents of the journal are available immediately upon publication without an embargo period.

8. Author Fees

There is no author’s submission fee or other publication-related fees; these costs are borne by the publisher.

9. Process for Identification of and Dealing with Allegations of Research Misconduct

The ASJ Editorial Board has carefully examined all submitted manuscripts for compliance with the ICMJE and COPE ethical guidelines. The published articles include statements on conflict of interest, institutional review boards, informed consent, and human/animal rights.
When the journal faces suspected cases of research and publication misconduct, such as redundant (duplicate) publication, plagiarism, fabricated data, changes in authorship, undisclosed conflicts of interest, ethical problem discovered with the submitted manuscript, a reviewer who has appropriated an author’s idea or data, complaints against editors, or other issues, the resolution process will follow the COPE flowchart (http://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts). The ASJ Editorial Board will discuss suspected cases and reach a decision. ASJ will not hesitate to publish errata, corrigenda, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when needed.

10. Publication Ethics

ASJ follows the Guideline on Good Publication of COPE (https://publicationethics.org), Recommendations of International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (http://www.icmje.org/recommendations), and Good Publication Practice Guidelines for Medical Journals of Korean Association of Medical Journal Editors (http://kamje.or.kr). Our publication ethics are displayed in the Editorial Policy (Publication Ethics) tab of the journal homepage.

11. Publishing Schedule

ASJ is published six times (February, April, June, August, October, and December) per year. The e-pub versions of all articles are viewable after acceptance in the journal homepage and PubMed Central (PMC).

12. Access

ASJ is an open access journal. A free, full-text service both in XML and PDF formats is available immediately upon publication without an embargo period.

13. Archiving

The full text of ASJ has been archived in PMC (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/journals/1212/) and the National Library of Korea (http://www.nl.go.kr) since the first volume was published in 2007. According to the deposit policy (self-archiving policy) of Sherpa/Romeo (http://www.sherpa.ac.uk), authors cannot archive pre-print (i.e., pre-refereeing), but they can archive post-print (i.e., final draft post-refereeing). Authors can archive the publisher’s version/PDF. ASJ provides the electronic backup and preservation of access to the journal content in the event that the journal is no longer published by archiving in PMC and the National Library of Korea.

14. Revenue Sources

The journal’s revenue sources are from the publisher (The Korean Society of Spine Surgery), the Korean Government, and advertising rates.

15. Advertising

ASJ accepts advertisements. The advertising policy is displayed in the Editorial Policy (Advertising Policy) tab of the journal homepage.

16. Direct Marketing

Journal propagation has been conducted through the journal website and distribution of an introduction pamphlet. Invitations to submit a manuscript are usually directed toward presenters at conferences, seminars, or workshops if the topic is related to the journal’s aims and scope.