Publication ethics
Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement
The ethics statement of Journal of Medical Sciences and Health (JMSH) are based on best practice guidelines of Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and Code of Conduct for Journal Publishers (http://publicationethics.org). The editors, reviewers, authors, and publishers are expected to follow the ethical behaviours described in these guidelines.
Publisher Role
The executive editors and the editor shall decide on the articles to be published. The editorial board shall guide in decision making. Decisions to publish shall take into consideration plagiarism. The publisher shall not discriminate the manuscript based on religion, gender, ethnicity, and citizenship of authors. Confidentiality of the authors shall be maintained by the reviewers not disclosing the identity to anyone during the process. Any unpublished material disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in the editors'/publishers' own research without the written consent of the author.
- Editorial Autonomy: JMSH is committed to working with editors to define clearly the respective roles of publisher and of editors in order to ensure the autonomy of editorial decisions, without influence from advertisers or other commercial partners.
- Intellectual Property and Copyright: We protect the intellectual property and copyright of JMSH, its imprints, authors, and publishing partners by promoting and maintaining each article’s published version of record. JMSH ensures the integrity and transparency of each published article with respect to conflicts of interest, publication and research funding, publication and research ethics, cases of publication and research misconduct, confidentiality, authorship, article corrections, clarifications and retractions, and timely publication of content.
- Scientific Misconduct: In cases of alleged or proven scientific misconduct, fraudulent publication, in close collaboration with the editors, will take all appropriate measures to clarify the situation and to amend the article in question. This includes the prompt publication of a correction statement or erratum or, in the most severe cases, the retraction of the affected work.
Editor Role
The editor should recuse from handling manuscripts (i.e., should ask a co-editor, associate editor, or other member of the editorial board instead to review and consider) in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or (possibly) institutions connected to the papers. The editor should require all contributors to disclose relevant competing interests and publish corrections if competing interests are revealed after publication. If needed, other appropriate action should be taken, such as the publication of a retraction or expression of concern.
- Publication Decisions: The editors ensure that all successfully submitted manuscripts being considered for publication will undergo a thorough double-blind peer-review process by at least two reviewers who are experts in the field. The editor of a journal is responsible for deciding which articles submitted to the journal should be published and is accountable for everything published in the journal. In making these decisions, the editor may be guided by the policies of the journal’s editorial board, the policies of the publisher, and the legal requirements regarding copyright infringement and plagiarism. The editor may confer with other editors or reviewers when making publication decisions. The editor should maintain the integrity of the academic record, preclude business needs from compromising intellectual and ethical standards, and always be willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when needed.
- Fair Play: The editor should evaluate manuscripts for their academic merit and relevance to the journal’s scope and objectives, without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the author(s).
- Confidentiality: The editor and editorial staff of the journal must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.
- Disclosure, Conflicts of Interest: The editor will be guided by COPE’s Guidelines for Retracting Articles when considering retracting, issuing expressions of concern about, and issuing corrections pertaining to articles that have been published in JMSH. Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor’s own research without the explicit written consent of the author(s). Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. The editor is committed to ensuring that advertising, reprint, or other commercial revenue has no impact or influence on editorial decisions.
Reviewer Role
- Contribution to Editorial Decisions: Peer reviewer assists the editors in making editorial decisions and, through the editorial communications with the author, may also assist the author in improving the manuscript by raising necessary queries relevant to manuscript improvement.
- Promptness: Any invited or editorial suggested referee who feels unqualified to review the articles/manuscripts or knows that a timely review will be impossible should immediately notify the editor by declining the invitation to review the manuscripts so that alternative reviewers can be contacted.
- Confidentiality: Manuscript documents received by the reviewers are highly confidential and should maintain the confidentiality about the same. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except if authorized by the editor.
- Standards of Objectivity: Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author(s) is unacceptable. Referees should express their views clearly with appropriate supporting arguments.
- Acknowledgement of Sources: Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the author(s). Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. Reviewers should also call to the editor’s or editorial staff's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published data of which they have personal knowledge.
- Disclosure and Conflict of Interest: Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider evaluating manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the submission.
Author Role
- Reporting Standards: Authors of reports of original research should present accurate information of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.
- Data Access and Retention: Authors may be requested to provide the raw data in connection with a manuscript for editorial review. They should be prepared to provide such data within a reasonable time for smooth processing of the manuscript.
- Originality and Plagiarism: The authors should ensure that they have conducted the work and written the manuscript originally based on the results obtained. If the authors have used or copied the work and/or words of others, this must be appropriately cited or quoted.
- Multiple, Redundant, or Concurrent Publication: An author should not publish the same results or manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal. Parallel submission of the same manuscript to more than one journal constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.
- Acknowledgement of Sources: Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should also cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work.
- Authorship of a Manuscript: Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, interpretation of the reported study, statistical analysis, or manuscript preparation. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be named in an Acknowledgement section. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors (according to the above definition) and no inappropriate co-authors are included in the author list of the manuscript, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the manuscript and have agreed to its submission for publication in the journal. All co-authors must be clearly indicated at the time of manuscript submission. Requests to add co-authors after a manuscript has been accepted will require approval of the editor.
- Hazards and Human or Animal Subjects: If the work involves chemicals, procedures, or equipment that has any unusual hazards inherent in their use, the author(s) must clearly identify these in the manuscript. Additionally, manuscripts should adhere to the principles of the World Medical Association (WMA) Declaration of Helsinki regarding research studies involving human or animal subjects.
- Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or their interpretation in the manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.
- Fundamental Errors in Published Works: When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal’s editor or publisher and cooperate with them to either retract the paper or publish an appropriate correction statement or erratum.
Sanctions
In the event that there are documented violations of the Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement, the following sanctions will be applied:
- Immediate rejection of the infringing manuscript.
- Prohibition against all of the authors for any new submissions to JMSH journal either individually or in combination with other authors of the infringing manuscript, as well as in combination with any other authors. This prohibition will be imposed for a minimum of 2 years.
- Prohibition against all of the authors from serving on the Editorial Board of JMSH journal.
- In cases where the violations of the Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement are found to be particularly egregious, the publisher reserves the right to impose additional sanctions beyond those described above.
