Ethical Guidelines for Research Publication

     The journal follows the principles set by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), established in 1997. The roles and responsibilities for upholding ethical standards in research publication for authors, peer-reviewers, and editors are as follows:

 

Ethical Guidelines for Authors

• Human research studies must undergo ethical review and approval by the institution's research ethics committee, with the approved project code mentioned in the article.

• Data used for analysis must be genuine and obtained from the conducted study, without falsification or fabrication. Authors should disclose data and analysis procedures when questions arise from qualified reviewers or editors.

• Each author listed must take responsibility for the content of the published article, with contributions clearly disclosed.

• Authors must declare conflicts of interest, whether personal, financial, political, commercial, or related to receiving private-sector funding for products tested in research (pharmaceutical funding support).

• Articles must not have been previously published elsewhere or submitted concurrently as multiple manuscripts without proper cross-referencing (redundant publication). If an abstract of the research has been presented at an academic meeting, the details must be disclosed to the journal's editor upon submission. If an article is republished in another language, the original article must be disclosed to the journal's editor during submission. Additionally, authors must provide references for all cited documents.

• Copying text, tables, or images from other authors without permission or proper citation is prohibited (plagiarism).

 

Ethical Responsibilities and Roles of Journal Editors

• Journal editors are responsible for assessing the quality of submitted manuscripts and selecting articles for publication in the journal they oversee.

• Editors must not disclose information about authors and reviewers unrelated to the manuscript evaluation process.

• Editors should not publish articles that have been previously published elsewhere.

• Editors should avoid conflicts of interest with authors, reviewers, and management teams.

• Editors must thoroughly check for plagiarism using reliable software.

• If plagiarism is detected during the manuscript evaluation process, editors must halt the evaluation process and immediately contact the primary author for an explanation before deciding to accept or reject the manuscript.

 

Ethical Responsibilities and Roles of Manuscript Reviewers

• Reviewers must maintain confidentiality and not disclose any part or the entirety of the manuscript they are evaluating to unrelated parties during the review period (confidentiality).

• Reviewers who, after receiving a manuscript from the journal's editor, realize that they may have a conflict of interest, such as being involved in the same project or having other reasons preventing them from providing unbiased recommendations, must inform the journal's editor and decline the review.

• Reviewers should assess manuscripts within their area of expertise and avoid using personal opinions without supporting data to judge research articles.

• If any part of the manuscript is found to be similar or identical to the work of others, reviewers must report this to the journal's editor.

 

Dealing with Misconduct

• Misconduct must be confirmed through evidence, such as attempts to deceive others into believing that the study data is true when it is not, or copying the work of others without proper attribution.

• Deception can be intentional or unintentional, including data manipulation, misrepresentation, or negligence. Therefore, the best practice is honesty, full disclosure, and awareness of all guidelines.

• All parties, including authors, peer reviewers, editors, and publishers, must be checked for misconduct.

• Guidance should be provided, documenting the misconduct discovered, and a warning against further misconduct should be issued.

• Manuscripts that violate ethical standards must be rejected, and the individual responsible may be barred from submitting to the journal for one year.

• In severe cases of ethical misconduct, journal editors may need to report to the author's institution or the medical council to initiate investigations and legal proceedings.

• If a manuscript has already been published, it will be formally withdrawn or retracted from the journal, and other journals and authors will be notified.