At Life and Science, we deal with allegations of scientific misconduct on a case to case basis following guidance provided by Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), (COPE), World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). WAME provides an overview of misconduct, using an amended version of the US Office of Research Integrity definition of scientific misconduct including:

Falsification of data	Ranging from fabrication to deceptive selective reporting of findings and omission of conflicting data, or willful suppression and/or distortion of data.
Plagiarism	The appropriation of the language, ideas, or thoughts of another without crediting their true source, and representation of them as one's own original work.
Improprieties of authorship	Improper assignment of credit, such as excluding others, misrepresentation of the same material as original in more than one publication, inclusion of individuals as authors who have not made a definite contribution to the work published; or submission of multi-authored publications without the concurrence of all authors.
Misappropriation of the ideas of others	An important aspect of scholarly activity is the exchange of ideas among colleagues. Scholars can acquire novel ideas from others during the process of reviewing grant applications and manuscripts. However, improper use of such information can constitute fraud. Wholesale appropriation of such material constitutes misconduct.
Violation of generally accepted research practices	Serious deviation from accepted practices in proposing or carrying out research, improper manipulation of experiments to obtain biased results, deceptive statistical or analytical manipulations, or improper reporting of results.
Material failure to comply with legislative and regulatory requirements affecting research:	Including but not limited to serious or substantial, repeated, willful violations of applicable local regulations and law involving the use of funds, care of animals, human subjects, investigational drugs, recombinant products, new devices, or radioactive, biologic, or chemical materials.
Inappropriate behavior in relation to misconduct	This includes unfounded or knowingly false accusations of misconduct, failure to report known or suspected misconduct, withholding or destruction of information relevant to a claim of misconduct and retaliation against persons involved in the allegation or investigation.

If an editor has concerns that a submitted article describes something that might be considered to constitute misconduct in research, publication, we may discuss the case in confidence with Life and Science Ethics Committee. The case will be process based upon the deliberations of the L&S Ethics Committee. The committee may decide to contact author for clarification, if the case cannot be resolved by discussion with the author(s), and the committee still has concerns, he/she may report the case to the appropriate authorities