Directive Publications Blog publishes practical guides for medical and scientific authors, peer reviewers and research offices. This page explains who we are, how articles are prepared, and how to report an error.
Who we are
This blog is published by Directive Publications, a publisher of open-access medical and scientific journals. It covers the parts of scholarly publishing that authors most often ask about: how open access works, what happens in peer review, how to choose a trustworthy journal, how to protect research integrity, and how to write a manuscript that editors send out for review.
The guides are written for researchers at every stage, from first-time authors to senior investigators, and for the university offices that support them.
Editorial standards
- Primary sources first. Statements about reporting guidelines, journal policies, indexing databases, funder mandates, licences and registries are checked against the organisation that sets them, such as ICMJE, COPE, the EQUATOR Network, the US National Library of Medicine and the funders concerned. We link to those sources so you can check them too.
- No invented figures. We do not publish statistics, timelines, prices or examples that we cannot trace to a source. Where a requirement differs between journals, funders or countries, we say so and point you to the policy that applies to you.
- Current information. Policies in publishing change. Each article shows when it was last updated, and we revise articles when a source they rely on changes.
- Publishing practice, not medical advice. Nothing on this blog is clinical or medical advice.
How articles are prepared
Articles are researched and drafted with the help of AI writing tools. Before publication, every specific claim in a draft is checked independently against its primary source, links are tested, and any error found is corrected or removed.
We disclose this because several of our guides explain how authors should disclose AI assistance in their own manuscripts, and we hold ourselves to the same standard.
Independence
Directive Publications publishes journals, and some articles link to our own author resources and submission pages. Guidance on choosing a journal is written to help you judge any journal on its merits, including ours.
Corrections
If you find an error, an outdated policy or a broken link, please tell us through our contact page, naming the article and what needs correcting. We review every report, correct confirmed errors, and update the article's revision date.
Contact
For questions about this blog, our journals or submissions, visit directivepublications.org/contact. To submit a manuscript, go to directivepublications.org/submit.