Governance

Publication Ethics

Aesthetic Intelligence aligns its editorial standards with the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME). The statements below describe how those principles are applied in practice.

Authorship

Authorship follows the ICMJE four-criterion definition: substantial contribution to conception or analysis; drafting or critical revision; final approval of the version to be published; and agreement to be accountable for the work. Contributors who do not meet all four criteria are listed in the Acknowledgements with a short description of their contribution.

All authors must declare their contributions using the CRediT taxonomy on submission. Changes to authorship after submission require written consent from all authors and an explanation addressed to the Editor-in-Chief.

Conflicts of interest

All authors must declare financial and non-financial interests relevant to the submitted work, including consultancies, speaker fees, equity, patents, device or product endorsements, and relationships with manufacturers of products discussed in the article. Disclosures are published with the article. The absence of a declared interest must be stated explicitly.

Plagiarism and originality

All submissions are screened for textual overlap on receipt. Manuscripts that reuse the authors' own previously published text without clear attribution, or that reuse the work of others without attribution, are returned to the corresponding author and may be rejected without further review.

Research integrity and data

Fabrication, falsification, image manipulation and selective reporting are grounds for rejection at any stage and, where the article has already been published, for correction or retraction. Authors must be prepared to share de-identified study data with the editorial office on reasonable request.

Ethical approval and patient consent

Studies involving human participants must have prior approval from an appropriate research ethics committee and must comply with the Declaration of Helsinki. Case reports and clinical photographs require written, informed consent from the patient (or the patient's legal representative) for publication; the consent statement must appear in the Methods or Ethics section.

AI-assisted writing and analysis

Use of generative AI tools (for drafting, language editing, image generation, statistical analysis, or literature synthesis) must be disclosed in a dedicated "AI use" statement at the end of the Methods section. AI tools are not eligible for authorship and cannot accept accountability for the work. Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality and integrity of the submitted manuscript.

Peer review

Single-blind external peer review by at least two qualified reviewers is the standard model for research and review articles. Editorials, commentaries and Editor's Notes are reviewed editorially. The journal's full peer-review procedure, including reviewer selection criteria and the editorial decision flow, is set out on the Peer Review page.

Corrections, expressions of concern, and retractions

Corrections of substantive errors are published as a dated Corrigendum linked to the original article, which is annotated to reflect the correction. Expressions of concern and retractions follow COPE guidance. Retracted articles remain accessible but are clearly watermarked as Retracted, with the reason recorded in the retraction notice.

Complaints and appeals

Complaints about editorial process, peer review or published content should be addressed to the Editor-in-Chief at journal@harleystreetinstitute.com. The Editor-in-Chief will respond within 10 working days and escalate to an independent reviewer where appropriate.

Editorial independence

Aesthetic Intelligence is editorially independent of the commercial training activities of the Harley Street Institute. No advertising is accepted. Editorial decisions are not influenced by the Institute's commercial relationships, by sponsors, or by advertisers.