At CLARA, our in-house editorial teams work in collaboration with external researchers to publish and share relevant science. We are engaged with the diverse research communities we serve, and we are aware of the problems and issues that serve to advance each scientific field. We actively collaborate with authors to maximise the impact of research, and strive to ensure that the articles we publish are relevant, compelling and inspiring while meeting our high standards.

At the heart of this process is rigorous and thoughtful editorial assessment, supported by peer review, which we believe is the best way to evaluate the content of scientific research:

1. We are committed to acting with integrity and upholding the rigorous ethical standards shared in the scientific community. We abide by Elsevier's publishing ethics policies and expect authors and reviewers to do the same.

2. We respect the confidentiality of submissions to our journals and will not share information about a manuscript or peer review process with anyone outside CLARA without permission, unless deemed necessary in exceptional circumstances. Our editorial teams establish specific peer review policies that reflect our standards and those of the different communities we serve. We will continue to evaluate our own peer review policies as community standards evolve.

3. We believe that transparency is essential for trust in the scientific process and that disclosure of competing interests is an essential aspect of that transparency. We require that authors declare any possible or perceived conflicts related to their submitted work and that editors are not involved in decisions about articles with which they have a direct conflict of interest. As professional editors, we do not accept honoraria or awards for conferences, appearances or other activities directly related to our editorial roles at CLARA.

4. We are committed to ensuring that our peer review processes are rigorous, fair and timely, and that the independent decisions we make are based on the scientific content of submissions and are supported by evidence. We will strive to ensure a constructive and professional dialogue between authors, reviewers and our editorial teams.

5. We recognise that any review process based on human judgement is subject to bias. We are committed to trying to minimise bias in our decision-making, including ensuring diversity in our editorial teams, advisory boards and expert reviewer selections.

6. We work to protect the integrity of published content by assessing any reported or suspected misconduct and make independent decisions when investigating concerns about scientific misconduct. We are committed to due process in evaluating any potential scientific misconduct and understand the need to make the findings of investigations that may impact future research available to the public as soon as possible.

7. We value and apply our editorial independence and make decisions on manuscripts that are independent of commercial interests. We respect Elsevier's principle of editorial independence.