Journal Policies

The Journal of Functional Neurology and Integrated Systems is a fully open access journal. All published articles are freely and permanently available online to any reader, anywhere in the world, immediately upon publication. There are no subscription fees, no paywalls, and no embargo periods.

JFNIS is committed to making high-quality scientific work accessible to researchers, clinicians, educators, and the public. Open access supports the responsible dissemination of knowledge and maximizes the reach and impact of published research.

Publication costs are covered through Article Processing Charges (APC) paid by authors or their institutions upon acceptance. APC waivers are available. See the APC policy for details.

Authors retain copyright of their published work. By submitting to JFNIS, authors grant the journal the right of first publication and non-exclusive rights to publish, distribute, and archive the article in perpetuity.

All articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). This license allows others to copy, distribute, remix, and build upon the work for any purpose, including commercially, provided appropriate credit is given to the original authors and source.

No APC is charged at submission. The Article Processing Charge (APC) is invoiced only upon conditional acceptance of a manuscript following peer review. Rejection after peer review incurs no charge under any circumstances.

JFNIS is committed to ensuring that financial constraints do not prevent publication of high-quality science. Full or partial APC waivers are available and will be granted on request to:

APCs may be covered by institutional open access funds, research grants, or funder mandates. JFNIS invoices can be addressed to institutions or grant accounts upon request. Contact the editorial office to discuss institutional billing arrangements.

JFNIS is committed to the highest standards of research integrity and publication ethics. All editorial processes follow the guidelines of COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics). The journal expects all parties (authors, reviewers, and editors) to uphold these standards.

Allegations of data fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, inappropriate authorship, undisclosed conflicts of interest, or other misconduct are investigated following COPE flowcharts and guidelines. The editorial office takes all credible allegations seriously. Confirmed misconduct will result in rejection, retraction, or formal notification to authors' institutions as appropriate.

All authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose any financial, professional, institutional, or personal relationships that could reasonably be perceived to influence the submitted work, the review process, or editorial decisions.

Editorial board members who are authors of a submitted manuscript, or who have any declared conflict of interest with a submission, are excluded from all editorial decisions relating to that manuscript. An independent editor handles the review process in such cases.

JFNIS requires authors to disclose any use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the preparation of manuscripts submitted for publication. This includes, but is not limited to: large language models for writing assistance or editing, AI tools for data analysis or visualization, automated literature search or synthesis tools, and AI-assisted figure generation.

AI tools cannot be listed as authors. Authorship requires accountability for the work, which AI tools cannot provide. The named authors are fully and solely responsible for the accuracy, originality, completeness, and integrity of all submitted content, regardless of what tools were used in preparation.

Authors must include a brief statement in the Methods section or in an Acknowledgements subsection describing which AI tools were used and for what purpose. Example: "ChatGPT (OpenAI, version GPT-4) was used to assist with language editing of the manuscript. All scientific content, data interpretation, and conclusions are the sole responsibility of the authors."

Reviewers may not use AI tools to generate review content that is presented as their own evaluation. Reviewers may use AI tools for spell-checking or grammar assistance only. The substantive scientific evaluation must be the reviewer's own work.

Editorial decisions at JFNIS are based solely on scientific merit, relevance to scope, methodological quality, ethical compliance, and contribution to the field. The publisher, Integrated Systems Press OÜ, does not influence editorial decisions for commercial, institutional, or personal reasons.

The Editor-in-Chief holds full and final responsibility for all editorial decisions. No accepted manuscript will be rejected, and no rejected manuscript will be accepted, as a result of commercial, political, or personal pressure from any party, including the publisher, funders, or institutional affiliates.

Authors who believe their manuscript has been handled with bias or in violation of this policy are encouraged to contact the editorial office. If the concern cannot be resolved internally, authors may contact COPE for independent guidance.

JFNIS operates a double-blind peer review process. All submitted manuscripts that pass initial editorial assessment are evaluated by a minimum of two independent external reviewers. Neither reviewers nor authors are aware of each other's identities at any stage of the review process.

When two reviewers reach substantially different conclusions. For example,, one recommends acceptance and another recommends rejection, the handling editor first assesses whether the disagreement is fundamental or concerns revisable aspects of the manuscript. If the disagreement is fundamental, a third independent reviewer is invited to provide an additional evaluation.

The third reviewer's recommendation is advisory, not binding. The handling editor reads all three reports and makes a final independent editorial decision based on the totality of the scientific evidence and the manuscript's overall merit. The final decision rests with the editor, not with any individual reviewer or combination of reviewers.

When an author is an editor or editorial board member of JFNIS, the reviewer selection process is subject to additional safeguards beyond those applied to standard submissions.

JFNIS welcomes and actively encourages submissions from members of its Editorial Board, including the Editor-in-Chief and Associate Editor-in-Chief. Scholarly engagement from board members is a sign of confidence in the journal and contributes to the quality and relevance of the published record. Board membership confers no editorial advantage whatsoever. The standards applied to board member submissions are identical to, and the process more closely scrutinised than, those applied to any external author.

This policy is established in full accordance with COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) guidelines on handling submissions from editors and board members. Every procedural safeguard described below is applied without exception.

The Editor-in-Chief (Kenneth Jay, PhD) is entirely recused from all editorial handling of any manuscript on which he is listed as an author, co-author, or acknowledged contributor. Such manuscripts are assigned exclusively to the Associate Editor-in-Chief (Matthew Antonucci DC, DACNB), who assumes full editorial responsibility from initial assessment through final decision.

The Editor-in-Chief has no access to reviewer identities, review content, or editorial correspondence relating to his own submissions at any stage of the process. He receives only the same communications that any external author would receive.

The Associate Editor-in-Chief is similarly recused from all editorial handling of manuscripts on which he is listed as an author or contributor. Such manuscripts are managed exclusively by the Editor-in-Chief, with the same firewall of information access applied.

In cases where both the Editor-in-Chief and Associate Editor-in-Chief are co-authors on a submitted manuscript, an independent guest editor with no affiliation to the manuscript or its authors, who is appointed to manage the full editorial process, including reviewer selection, review coordination, and final decision. The identity of the guest editor is disclosed to the authors at time of assignment.

Editorial board members are encouraged to submit original research, reviews, and other article types within the journal's scope. Their submissions are handled by the Editor-in-Chief or Associate Editor-in-Chief, neither of whom has any professional or personal relationship with the submitting board member that would constitute a conflict of interest. If such a relationship exists, a guest editor is appointed.

Board members are never invited to review manuscripts submitted by other board members, by the editors, or by individuals with whom they have a declared relationship.

All submissions from board members and editors undergo the same double-blind peer review process as all other manuscripts: a minimum of two independent external reviewers with relevant expertise, no institutional or professional affiliation with the authors, and no prior knowledge of author identity. Reviewer selection is handled by the managing editor for that submission, not by the author.

Review criteria, reporting standards, and acceptance thresholds are identical regardless of author affiliation. There are no expedited timelines, reduced revision requirements, or preferential treatment of any kind.

Published articles from board members and editors include a clear disclosure statement in the Declarations section identifying the author's role at JFNIS and confirming that the manuscript was handled independently. Example: "Kenneth Jay, PhD, serves as Editor-in-Chief of JFNIS. This manuscript was handled in its entirety by the Associate Editor-in-Chief. The corresponding author had no involvement in reviewer selection, review assessment, or the editorial decision."

This disclosure appears in the published article, in the article metadata, and in the JATS XML file submitted for indexing.

When errors are identified in published articles that do not affect the integrity of the findings or conclusions, a correction notice (Corrigendum for author errors; Erratum for publisher errors) will be published and linked to the original article. Authors are encouraged to promptly report any errors they identify in their own published work.

An Expression of Concern may be issued when the editorial office receives credible evidence of problems with a published article that cannot yet be fully investigated, or when an investigation is ongoing. This alerts readers while the matter is reviewed.

Articles will be retracted when: the findings are demonstrated to be unreliable due to error or misconduct; the research was conducted unethically; key findings have been published elsewhere without attribution; or authorship is disputed in a way that invalidates the publication. Retracted articles remain visible on the journal website with a clear retraction notice. Retraction follows COPE retraction guidelines.

Readers, researchers, and institutions who have concerns about a published article are encouraged to contact the editorial office with specific, documented concerns. All credible post-publication concerns will be investigated.

Appeals against rejection: Authors who believe a manuscript was rejected on incorrect grounds or handled with procedural errors may submit a formal appeal to the editorial office within 30 days of the decision. Appeals must include specific grounds and should not simply re-argue the scientific case. Appeals are reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief or a delegated Associate Editor not involved in the original decision.

Complaints about the review process: Authors, reviewers, or readers who believe journal processes were not followed appropriately should contact the editorial office in the first instance. If not resolved satisfactorily, parties may seek guidance from COPE.

Integrated Systems Press OÜ is an independent academic publishing initiative focused on integrative, systems-based, and clinically relevant scientific work in neuroscience, rehabilitation, human performance, and applied physiology.

The publisher was established to support transparent editorial processes, digital publication infrastructure, long-term journal development, scholarly discoverability, and responsible dissemination of scientific knowledge. The publisher's role is administrative and infrastructural. It does not influence editorial decisions.

JFNIS operates on a cost-recovery basis, not a profit-driven model. Article Processing Charges are set to cover the direct and indirect costs of running the journal, including editorial management, DOI registration via Crossref, peer review honoraria, typesetting, platform infrastructure, and long-term digital preservation. Any surplus generated is reinvested into journal development, open access infrastructure, and APC waiver capacity for authors without institutional funding.

No profit is distributed to publishers, editors, or owners. JFNIS was founded as a purpose-driven scholarly initiative. The journal exists to advance scientific knowledge in functional neurology and integrated systems neuroscience, not to generate financial returns. The Editor-in-Chief and editorial leadership receive no salary or financial compensation from journal operations.

This model is consistent with the publishing philosophy of organisations such as the Public Knowledge Project (PKP), which developed Open Journal Systems, and reflects a broader commitment to sustainable, mission-aligned academic publishing.

JFNIS is committed to full transparency regarding indexing status. We will not claim indexing in any database until formal acceptance has been confirmed. All articles are published in JATS XML format from the first issue, ensuring technical readiness for retroactive indexing in all target databases upon acceptance.

Current indexing status and targets are published on the Indexing page and will be updated as applications progress. Authors who published before a specific database acceptance was secured will be notified when retroactive back-indexing is completed.