Terms of Use

1. Acceptance of terms

The Journal of Quantum Biosystems Engineering ("JQBio", "the Journal", "we", "our") is an open-access, peer-reviewed journal by InnoQlar Academic Press. InnoQlar Academic Press is part of the InnoQlar Group. PROTOCELL IO provides the JQBio website, submission infrastructure, payment processing, and digital-publication services independently from the Journal’s Editorial Board. By accessing this website, reading, downloading, submitting to, or otherwise using JQBio, you agree to be bound by these Terms of Use. If you do not agree to these terms, please do not use this website or its services.

These terms apply to all visitors, readers, authors, reviewers, and editorial contributors, and sit alongside our Privacy Policy and any editorial policies published on this site, which are incorporated by reference.

2. About JQBio

JQBio, under the governance of its publisher InnoQlar Academic Press, publishes original research, reviews, exploratory papers and scholarly commentary in quantum biosystems engineering. The Journal is fully open access: published articles are made freely available to read, download, and share at the point of publication, at no cost to the reader, in line with the aims of unrestricted research dissemination.

Open access does not mean unrestricted reuse. The specific permissions attached to each article are set by its licence, as described in Section 3 below and on the Open Access Publishing Licence Terms of Use, and readers should consult the licence stated on the individual article before reproducing or redistributing it.

3. Summary of Author rights and licensing

Author means an individual who meets all of the following criteria in relation to a manuscript submitted to or published in JQBio

• (a) made a substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work, or to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of the underlying data;
• ((b) participated in drafting the manuscript or critically revising it for important intellectual content;
• (c) approved the final version of the manuscript submitted for publication; and
• (d) agrees to be accountable for all aspects of the work, including ensuring that questions relating to its accuracy or integrity are appropriately investigated and resolved.

An individual who does not meet all four criteria, including those who contributed funding, general supervision, technical assistance, proofreading, or materials without broader involvement in the work, is not an Author for the purposes of these Terms and should instead be credited in the manuscript's Acknowledgements section.

Where a manuscript has more than one Author, the corresponding Author is the individual designated by the Author group as JQBio's primary point of contact, responsible for submission, correspondence during peer-review, and any applicable processing charges. All other qualifying individuals are co-Authors, jointly responsible for the work with the corresponding author. Co-Authors are invited to also create accounts on JQBio.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and LLM usage

• No AI authorship: Large Language Models (LLMs) and generative AI systems cannot be listed as an Author or co-Author, in accordance with COPE and WAME guidelines.
• Mandatory disclosure: Any use of generative AI in literature search, code generation, manuscript drafting, or data synthesis must be declared at submission and documented in the methodology.
• Accountability: The Author(s) remain fully accountable for the accuracy, validity, and integrity of any AI-assisted content.

Unless otherwise stated on the article itself, the default licence for articles published in JQBio is a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) International Licence. Under this licence, anyone may access, read and view the published Version of Record, download and store complete copies for personal, educational, research and institutional purposes, and distribute the unaltered or altered article by electronic or physical means so long appropriate attribution to the original author(s) and the Journal are given and any changes clearly stated. The full Open Licence policy can be found in the JQBio Policies page.

Where an author has requested and been granted a commercial licence, such as Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 (CC BY NC ND 4.0) or another derivative permitted for commercial use, that licence must be specified and attributed to the work before publication. Any subsequent change to the stated licence requires a formal correction.

The Author(s) retain copyright in their published articles and grant JQBio a non-exclusive licence to publish, distribute, and archive the work. The Author(s) are responsible for ensuring they hold the necessary rights to any third-party material (figures, data, images) included in their submission, that any reproduced content is correctly attributed, and that permission has been obtained for it to be shared under the same licence under which the article is published.

Readers and users of articles published under a commercial licence must ensure that the work is credited in accordance with the licence terms whenever it is used.

JQBio remains committed to ensuring that science remains accessible with proper attribution and credit to all original authors and ideas. The Journal and the Publisher do not accept liability for the use of work, data, or authored content by third parties; all authors remain responsible for the content they publish.

Where an article carries a different licence agreed at submission, the terms of that specific licence govern reuse of that article and take precedence over the default position described above.

Reproduction of published work in breach of licence

Copyright in published articles remains with the Author(s). Where an Author becomes aware that their published work has been reproduced in breach of its licence, they should notify the Journal at legal@jqbio.org. The Journal will provide confirmation of the Version of Record, DOI, publication date and licence terms, and may contact the party concerned, issue takedown requests, or raise the matter with the relevant journal or publisher in line with COPE guidance. The Journal does not provide legal representation to Authors; any legal action for copyright infringement is a matter for the copyright holder.

4. Editorial process and peer review

All research submitted to JQBio undergoes editorial screening and, where the submission proceeds, peer review under one of the tracks described below. Submission of a manuscript does not guarantee peer review, acceptance, or publication. Editorial and peer-review decisions are made at the sole discretion of the Journal's editors, based on scholarly merit, scope, and adherence to JQBio's author guidelines and research integrity standards. We maintain a strict code of confidence and intellectual property security for submitted works, with a tamper-proof submissions inbox.

JQBio follows the core practice guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) in its handling of submissions, authorship disputes, competing interests, and allegations of research or publication misconduct. The Author(s), reviewers, and editors are expected to act in accordance with these standards throughout the editorial process. We provide an audit log of all decisions to the Author(s).

Peer-review tracks

JQBio supports distinct peer-review tracks:

• traditional pre-publication peer review;
• Pre-Release (Early Access); and
• the Readmy Peer Review Programme (post-publication continuous evaluation).

Certain editorial formats (for example Briefly JQBio, Editorials, or papers fast-tracked under the Readmy Programme) are subject to rigorous internal editorial triage and post-publication open peer review, rather than traditional pre-publication reviewer assignment.

Release gates and Editor-in-Chief final authority

Publication is governed by three sequential, tamper-proof gates:

• (1) Author Declarations Sign-off (competing interests, AI use, funding, and review statement);
• (2) Editor Release Approval (quality and fees); and
• (3) Editor-in-Chief Final Acceptance.

Neither manuscript submission, peer-review completion, nor payment of an APC constitutes a guarantee of publication. Final release authority resides exclusively with the Editor-in-Chief. For editorial-commissioned intake, where no separate author account exists, editorial declarations and Editor-in-Chief approval govern release.

Readmy Integration and Open Peer Review Programmes

JQBio integrates with the Readmy scholarly reading platform and browser extension (hosted at readmy.org). Both JQBio and Readmy are developed and maintained by PROTOCELL IO to advance open, reproducible scientific communication.

1. Enhanced Reading Experience: Readers may open any published JQBio article on readmy.org or through the Readmy extension for an enhanced, distraction-free reading view. Access is completely free of charge and does not require registration or an active account.
2. Readmy Peer Review Programme (Post-Publication Review): In support of continuous, transparent scholarly evaluation, published JQBio articles are integrated with the Readmy Peer Review Programme. Readers, researchers, and members of the wider scientific community are invited to submit post-publication peer reviews, critical analyses, and scholarly feedback on published works entirely free of cost. All contributors must adhere to standard academic integrity and civil discourse standards.
3. Readmy Reviewer Programme: Appointed peer reviewers conducting formal assessments of JQBio manuscripts may utilize the Readmy Reviewer Programme suite. Reviewers operating under this programme agree to uphold confidentiality and COPE ethical guidelines throughout the evaluation process.
4. Applicable Terms: While both platforms share development by PROTOCELL IO, any use of the readmy.org website, application, or browser extension is governed by Readmy’s independent terms and conditions, accessible at https://readmy.org/terms. JQBio does not charge readers or reviewers for any interactions facilitated through Readmy.

5. Article processing and submission

Where an article processing charge (APC), waiver, or institutional agreement applies to publication in JQBio, the applicable terms are set out separately in the Journal's author guidelines at the time of submission and form part of the agreement between the corresponding author and JQBio for that submission. Submission of a manuscript, or payment of any associated charge, does not itself constitute a guarantee of publication.

6. Author and editorial accounts

Manuscript submission and editorial workflows are managed through an authenticated account. Account holders are responsible for all activity conducted under their account, including manuscript submissions, review reports, and editorial decisions recorded against it.

• Authors: authenticate strictly via Google OAuth 2.0. JQBio does not collect or store author passwords. Authors are responsible for the security of their Google account and any correspondence sent from their verified email.
• Editorial staff: Editorial Studio access is invitation-only, role-gated, and monitored via secure infrastructure.
• Manuscript scoping: author accounts are scoped strictly by authenticated UUID. Authors can only view and manage manuscripts they have authored or co-authored.

Reviewer identities, review content, and editorial correspondence are handled in accordance with the confidentiality expectations of the peer-review process and are not accessible to other account holders. Suspected unauthorised access to an account should be reported immediately to jqbio@protocell.io.

7. Acceptable use of this website

Legitimate academic text and data mining (TDM): readers and institutions are permitted to perform automated text and data mining on published open-access articles (CC BY 4.0) via canonical URLs and DOIs, provided it does not place unreasonable load on the servers.

You agree not to:

• Interfere with, disrupt, or place undue load on the operation of this website or its underlying infrastructure;
• Submit misleading, fabricated, or manipulated citation, authorship, affiliation, or peer-review data;
• Attempt to bypass editorial, technical, or access controls, or gain unauthorised access to another account or to unpublished manuscripts;
• Use automated tools to harvest, scrape, or query unpublished drafts, proof URLs, draft figures, author profiles, or reviewer correspondence. Such conduct is strictly prohibited and constitutes a material security breach; or
• Use the website for any unlawful purpose or in a way that infringes the rights of the Author(s), reviewers, editors or third parties.

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate access, retract submitted or published content in accordance with our editorial and retraction policies, and take further action as described in Section 12, where these terms are breached.

8. Intellectual property and trademarks

The JQBio name, logo, and journal branding are the intellectual property of InnoQlar Group and may not be used to imply endorsement, affiliation, or association without prior written permission. Website design, editorial commentary, and any content not published under an individual article's open-access licence (including journal front matter, editorials, and site infrastructure) remain the property of InnoQlar Academic Press and InnoQlar Group, and are protected by applicable copyright and other intellectual property laws.

This is separate from the licence granted over individual published articles under Section 3, which governs reuse of the research content itself.

9. Corrections, retractions, and content accuracy

JQBio maintains a published record of edits, post-publication corrections, expressions of concern, and retractions where issues are identified in published work, consistent with COPE guidelines. These mechanisms are built using a tamper-proof mechanism, that allows the Editorial Team and Author(s) review decisions and comments. Where an article is corrected or retracted, the original article is preserved online alongside a clear notice of the correction or retraction and, where applicable, a link to it; the version of record is not silently altered or removed. Publication and post-publication corrections are executed solely following formal quality-control verification and required editorial and author declarations.

While JQBio applies editorial and peer-review scrutiny to submissions prior to publication, the Journal does not warrant that published articles are free from error. Published research reflects the views, methods, and conclusions of the Author(s), not those of JQBio, PROTOCELL IO, or the InnoQlar Group.

10. Third-party content and links

This website may reference, cite, or link to third-party research, data repositories, funders, or indexing services. Inclusion of such references does not constitute endorsement of the linked material, and JQBio is not responsible for the content, accuracy, or availability of third-party sites.

11. Data protection

Personal data submitted through author, reviewer, or editorial accounts, or through manuscript submission and correspondence, is processed in accordance with UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, as described in our Privacy Policy. We do not sell personal data to third parties. Data supporting published research (where deposited by the Author(s)) is governed by the Journal's Data Availability Policy and released only with the consent of the Author(s).

12. Data availability and supplementary material

Raw data, supplementary files, and other material supplied with a submission are not automatically covered by the licence described in Section 3. Such material is held in confidence and is released only where the Author(s) expressly declare it suitable for publication and the Editor approves that release. Once published, it is made available on the same terms as the Version of Record and linked from the article.

The full terms are set out in the Data Availability Policy, and reuse rights over published content are set out in the Open Access Publishing Licence. These Terms of Use govern use of this website and the conduct of readers, Author(s), and editorial staff; they are not a licence and do not vary the terms of one.

Data retention and editorial audit trail

Upon formal acceptance and publication, working intake files are removed from active website storage to minimise data exposure. The live publishing system then retains only what is required to serve and verify the published article.

Retained online (permanently):

• Version of Record (PDF): the definitive, typeset document.
• Digital content blocks: the canonical text, equations, and references, structured in the publishing database.
• Exhibits: publication-resolution figures, charts, and tables linked to the article.
• Scholarly metadata: author names, affiliations, ORCID iDs, publication timestamps, licences (CC BY), DOIs, and competing interest declarations.

Deleted from active online storage:

• Raw intake documents: the Word (.docx) source files submitted at intake.
• Blinded review PDFs: the anonymised manuscripts prepared for peer review.
• Editorial working files: scratch files, temporary author notes, and working uploads that are not referenced in the published article.

Editorial audit repository: for quality assurance and editorial integrity, an encrypted snapshot of the submission package, excluding personal contact details (such as phone numbers, residential addresses, and private correspondence), is preserved for a minimum of two (2) years in a secure, offline, encrypted archival repository. This repository is held by the publisher, isolated from the live website, and cannot be accessed or queried publicly; it is not a feature of your browser's local storage.

The archive is used solely to verify the published record against the original submission where an ethical or integrity question arises, such as concerns about figure duplication, image manipulation, authorship disputes, or data discrepancies, in line with COPE guidance.

Authors may request the early removal or review of this archive, provided no active ethical inquiry, peer-review investigation, legal hold, or disputed correction proceeding is pending.

13. Enforcement

Where there is evidence, or reasonable suspicion, of research misconduct, misuse of the submission system, or malicious use of this website, JQBio reserves the right to suspend or terminate account access, place a submission or published article under editorial investigation, issue a correction or retraction, and cooperate with relevant institutions or authorities as appropriate. Such actions are taken at the Journal's editorial discretion, guided by COPE process, and are separate from any legal remedies available to JQBio or PROTOCELL IO.

14. Disclaimer and limitation of liability

This website and its content are provided "as is" and "as available," without warranty of any kind, express or implied. Published articles represent the findings and views of the Author(s); JQBio, InnoQlar Academic Press, and the InnoQlar Group do not warrant the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of any published research, and accept no liability for decisions made in reliance on it.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, JQBio, PROTOCELL IO, the InnoQlar Group, and their respective owners, operators, and affiliates exclude all liability for any direct, indirect, incidental, or consequential loss or damage arising from use of, or reliance on, this website or its published content.

15. Governing law and jurisdiction

These Terms of Use are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales. Any dispute arising from or relating to these terms, or to use of this website, is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.

16. Severability

If any provision of these Terms of Use is found invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue in full force and effect.

17. Amendments

PROTOCELL IO may update these Terms of Use from time to time. Changes will be reflected with an updated version number and date at the top of this page and apply prospectively. Continued use of this website following any change constitutes acceptance of the revised terms. Licence terms already attached to a published article are not affected by later changes to this page.

18. Contact

Questions concerning scientific assessment, peer review, metrics, or editorial decisions may be directed to the Editorial Board at editorial@jqbio.org.