To further the mission of making Bio-protocol free to the research community (no publication fee; no access fee), advertising and sponsorship revenue from www.bio-protocol.org as well as its sister's website, www.bio-thing.com will be used to support Bio-protocol.
All advertising and sponsorship agreements are required to follow strict guidelines as specified below. The advertising policy is set and reviewed annually by the Advertising Integrity Board, comprised of the Editor-in-Chief and representatives from the Advisory Board and Editorial Board. The current policy guidelines appear below.
- All advertisements and commercially sponsored publications are independent from editorial decisions. Advertisers and sponsors are not allowed to control or influence over any users’ search results on Bio-protocol website using keyword or search topic. Bio-protocol does not endorse any product marked as an advertisement or promoted by a sponsor in Bio-protocol publications.
- The content of Bio-protocol is determined solely by the Bio-protocol Editorial Board. Bio-protocol will not publish any commercial or “advertorial” content. All protocols are written and published by life science researchers. If any products used in a protocol were paid for or donated by a company, authors are required to disclose the conflict of interest in the “Competing interests” section of each protocol article, which is published. Bio-protocol Editors will review the “Competing interests” section and reject the publication of a protocol that seems to be primarily an advertising vehicle for the product used in it.
- Bio-protocol accepts advertising solely on products or services that are related to life sciences research.
- The advertisement, advertising icons, and company logos must be displayed in such a way that they clearly are not part of the protocol content. Advertisements or sponsored areas of the site are labeled as such, and the advertiser and the sponsoring organizations are identified.
- The Advertising Integrity Board reserves the right to reject or remove at any time any advertisement for any reason.
- Send any concerns or complaints about advertising to: ad_board@bio-protocol.org, and the Advertising Integrity Board will initiate a review in response to the concerns or complaints.
Policy updated as of 12/01/2018