RTI uses cookies to offer you the best experience online. By clicking “accept” on this website, you opt in and you agree to the use of cookies. If you would like to know more about how RTI uses cookies and how to manage them please view our Privacy Policy here. You can “opt out” or change your mind by visiting: http://optout.aboutads.info/. Click “accept” to agree.

Editorial Policies

Advertising Policies

RTI Press does not accept advertisements for its online or print publications.

Archiving

RTI Press archives its works in several locations. Briefs and reports are deposited to Portico. All RTI Press open-access books are deposited into the Carolina Digital Repository. Some works may also be archived in subject-matter repositories such as the National Library of Medicine (health sciences) and ERIC (education).

Authorship

RTI Press follows the ICMJE recommendations for authorship. For details, see the RTI Press authorship policy.

Copyright

RTI Press (i.e., RTI International) copyrights all its publications. RTI authors are responsible for obtaining client approvals for publications and for RTI Press to assert copyright over those publications.

Reprinting materials copyrighted by other publishers may be done with the appropriate permissions; authors are responsible for obtaining the relevant permissions.

RTI Press obtains Library of Congress and ISBN numbers for major publications (e.g., books). For other publication categories (Research Reports, Methods Reports, Research Briefs, Policy Briefs, and Conference Proceedings), RTI Press obtains Library of Congress and ISSN numbers. In addition, the RTI Press assigns a digital object identifier (DOI) number for each publication.

Copublishing Agreements

RTI Press engages in copublishing agreements to extend the reach of RTI Press publications. For more information, contact RTI Press at rtipress@rti.org.

Errata

If substantive changes need to be made to a published document (i.e., not mere spelling corrections but factual data), we remove the document that has the errors from the RTI Press website. We make the necessary corrections and place a correction note just after the publication number on the copyright page. We describe what was changed, indicating the new material, not mentioning the old/incorrect material that was fixed. For example:

RTI Press publication MR-0014-1003.

This report corrects the following two errors found in MR-0014-1002: (1) for Table 2, "sickle cell anemia" was added to the Condition cell in rows 1 and 3; (2) the correct reference information is provided for reference number 27, Campbell and Ross, 2005.

RTI Press uses CrossMark to track any substantial changes to each manuscript. For more information, please see our CrossMark policy statement.

Ethics

RTI Press follows RTI International's policies for Ethics and Human Research Protection, including policies on:

  • Scientific integrity and research misconduct
  • Human subjects research
  • Use of animals in research

These are covered in RTI's Code of Conduct. At the time of submission to RTI Press, authors confirm their compliance with these policies in the preparation of each manuscript.

RTI Press provides more specific guidance on competing interests. Authors should avoid situations in which competing interests may affect, or have the appearance of affecting, their professional judgment in exercising their duties or responsibilities, in conducting or reporting research. Competing interests are defined as financial and non-financial interests that could directly undermine, or be perceived to undermine the objectivity, integrity and value of a publication, through a potential influence on the judgments and actions of authors with regard to objective data presentation, analysis and interpretation. Authors should keep in mind that RTI is an independent research institute and cannot endorse or advocate other corporate interests. Authors must disclose any competing interests when submitting a manuscript to RTI Press.

RTI also has a general policy on financial conflicts of interest in the Code of Conduct that applies to submissions to RTI Press: "RTI's financial conflict of interest policy helps ensure that RTI personnel avoid situations in which personal interests may affect, or have the appearance of affecting, their professional judgment in exercising their duties or responsibilities, or in conducting or reporting research." This policy provides guidance to help authors manage situations related to any personal affairs, employment outside RTI, and financial activities that may appear to conflict with their responsibilities to RTI and its clients. Authors should promptly disclose the circumstances of any situation that may be relevant to this policy when submitting a manuscript to RTI Press for which there may be a financial conflict of interest, or the appearance of one.

Large Language Models

Large language models (LLMs) are artificial intelligence tools that authors can use in various ways to conduct research and to develop manuscripts. LLMs cannot be listed as authors on any submission to RTI Press, as they cannot assume responsibility and be held accountable for the content of the manuscript. If authors use LLMs to conduct research and/or to develop their manuscripts, they must disclose such use in the main text of the manuscript, including specifying which LLMs were used, in a manner similar to how they describe the use of other research tools and in line with any relevant client requirements. If a substantial portion of the text in a manuscript is LLM-generated, disclosure should come early in the manuscript to ensure readers' awareness. Peer reviewers may not use LLMs when peer reviewing manuscripts for RTI Press. We rely on reviewers' expertise to evaluate manuscripts.

Open Access

All RTI Press publications, with the exception of copublished volumes, are available as free, downloadable PDF files from the RTI Press. Books can also be purchased as bound volumes. The full open access policy statement can be found here.

Preprints

Preprints are scientific manuscripts uploaded by authors to a public server without formal peer review (Berg, J.M. et al. Preprints for the life sciences. Science 352, 899–901; 2016). Authors can share their preprint anywhere at any time.

RTI Press will consider submissions that have been previously made available as preprints, as long as authors retain copyright of those preprints. If their submission to RTI Press is accepted, authors are responsible for updating any preprints with a link to the final publication. If provided necessary information by the authors, RTI Press may opt to link to the preprint.

References

Except for Research Briefs and Policy Briefs, which always use ICMJE reference style, RTI Press gives authors the choice of whether to use either ICMJE or APA reference style. The overriding concern is that references be complete and presented consistently. For more details, see the references section of the RTI Press Style Guide.

RTI Press follows the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals.