This page states BMU-wide publishing principles. It does not replace journal-specific author guidelines, peer-review descriptions, fee schedules or discipline-specific ethical requirements. Operational claims apply only where implemented by the relevant journal or publisher system.
Editorial separation
Advertisers, sponsors, donors or commercial partners must not select reviewers, determine acceptance, suppress justified criticism or control correction and retraction decisions.
Sponsored content
Sponsored material should be identified in a way that enables readers to distinguish sponsorship from editorial endorsement. The nature and source of material support should be disclosed when relevant.
Advertising standards
Advertising should not be deceptive, unlawful or presented as independent editorial content. Placement should not imply that a journal or BMU endorses a product merely because an advertisement appears on a platform.
Marketing communications
Calls for papers, promotional materials and service descriptions should accurately represent scope, review, charges, publication routes and current capabilities. Claims should not exploit authors through false urgency, guaranteed acceptance or misleading prestige.
Indexing and recognition
A journal should claim indexing, preservation, accreditation, membership or endorsement only where current participation is independently verifiable. Application status or technical readiness should not be described as confirmed inclusion.
Responsible metrics
Impact factors, citation indicators, usage statistics and other metrics should be presented with enough context to avoid misleading interpretation. Metrics should not be manipulated through coercive citation, citation trading or selective presentation.
Media and public communication
Press releases, social media and other public communications should distinguish published findings from preliminary claims and avoid exaggerating certainty, causality or clinical relevance beyond what the underlying evidence supports.
Institutional and commercial partnerships
A partnership may be described only to the extent actually established. Commercial or institutional importance does not create preferential scholarly treatment.
Policy basis and interpretation
Adapted principally from JHWCR Policy 29. The BMU version generalises journal-specific material into a publisher framework and removes details that should remain title-specific. Where a journal publishes a more specific requirement that is consistent with these principles, the journal-specific rule governs that journal's submissions.
Questions about this framework may be sent to info@bmuventures.com.