Publication Ethics
The
International Journal of Innovative Research in Medical Science (IJIRMS) is
committed to maintaining high standards of research integrity and responsible
scholarly publishing. The journal expects authors, editors, reviewers, and
other contributors to act with honesty, transparency, fairness, and respect
throughout the publication process.
IJIRMS
follows the principles and guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics
(COPE) and considers the recommendations of the International Committee of
Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and other recognized standards relevant to
medical research and publishing.
Research Ethics
Research
involving human participants, human data, or human biological material must
comply with applicable ethical and regulatory requirements. Where required,
appropriate approval from an institutional or independent ethics committee must
be obtained before the study begins.
Research
involving animals must comply with relevant institutional, national, and
international standards for animal care and welfare.
Authors
should report the relevant ethical approval information in the manuscript.
Protection
of Human Subjects and Animals in Research
When
reporting research involving human participants, authors must confirm that the
study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, as revised
in 2024, and applicable institutional, national, and international ethical
requirements. Appropriate ethics committee or Institutional Review Board (IRB)
approval must be obtained where required, and the relevant approval details
should be reported in the manuscript.
Research
involving animals must comply with applicable institutional, national, and
international standards for animal care and welfare. Authors should provide
details of ethical approval where applicable and follow the ARRIVE 2.0
guidelines when reporting animal research.
Authors
must ensure that research involving human participants, animals, biological
materials, or identifiable data has been conducted responsibly and in
accordance with all applicable ethical and regulatory requirements. Where
required, evidence of ethical approval may be requested by the journal.
Informed Consent and Privacy
Appropriate
informed consent must be obtained from research participants whenever required
by the study design, applicable laws or regulations, or the relevant ethics
committee/Institutional Review Board (IRB). Where informed consent is waived or
not required, authors must clearly state the basis for the waiver or exemption.
Authors
must protect the privacy, confidentiality, and dignity of patients and research
participants. Identifiable information must not be published unless it is
scientifically necessary and appropriate consent for publication has been
obtained.
For case
reports, clinical photographs, videos, genetic information, or any other
potentially identifiable material, authors are responsible for obtaining
appropriate consent for publication. Where consent cannot be obtained, the
material must be sufficiently anonymized or publication should not proceed,
unless an applicable ethics-approved waiver permits its use.
Obligation to Register Clinical Trials
IJIRMS
requires the prospective registration of all applicable clinical trials in a
publicly accessible clinical trial registry at or before the time of first
participant consent or enrollment, in accordance with the current ICMJE
Recommendations.
For this
policy, a clinical trial is a research study that prospectively assigns
participants to a health-related intervention, with or without a comparison or
control group, to evaluate health outcomes. This includes interventions
involving medicines, devices, surgical procedures, behavioural treatments,
dietary interventions, and other health-related interventions.
IJIRMS
accepts registration in WHO ICTRP primary registries or ClinicalTrials.gov,
provided the registry meets the applicable ICMJE requirements. Ethics committee
or institutional review board approval does not replace prospective clinical
trial registration.
Authors
must provide the registry name and trial registration number in the manuscript,
preferably at the end of the abstract. Failure to prospectively register an
applicable clinical trial may result in the manuscript being considered
ineligible for publication. Exceptions, where justified, will be considered
only in rare circumstances and must be adequately explained.
Data Sharing and Availability
Policy
IJIRMS is
committed to promoting transparency, reproducibility, and responsible sharing
of research data. Authors must provide a Data Availability Statement with every
manuscript, indicating whether the data supporting the reported findings are
available and, where applicable, how and where they can be accessed.
Where
ethically, legally, and practically possible, authors are encouraged to deposit
supporting data, datasets, protocols, code, and other relevant research
materials in a trusted and appropriate repository and provide a persistent link
or DOI.
Where data
cannot be publicly shared because of privacy, confidentiality, ethical, legal,
contractual, or other legitimate restrictions, authors must clearly state the
reason and describe the conditions under which the data may be accessed, where
applicable.
For
clinical trials, the Data Sharing Statement must comply with the current ICMJE
Recommendations, including the applicable data-sharing plan in the trial
registration.
Authors
remain responsible for ensuring that shared data are accurate, appropriately
documented, ethically obtained, and do not disclose identifiable participant
information.
Authorship Misconduct
Authorship
should be based on substantial intellectual contributions to the work. All
listed authors must approve the final manuscript and accept responsibility for
the integrity of the work.
Individuals
who contributed to the work but do not meet the requirements for authorship
should be appropriately acknowledged.
The journal
does not permit guest, honorary, gift, or ghost authorship.
Conflicts of Interest
Authors,
editors, and reviewers must disclose financial and non-financial relationships
that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the research, review, or
editorial decision.
A
competing-interest statement should be included with every manuscript,
including a clear statement when no relevant competing interests exist.
Funding and Sponsor Role
All sources
of financial support for the research and manuscript preparation must be
disclosed.
Where
applicable, authors should describe the role of the funding organization in
study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript
preparation, and the decision to submit the work for publication.
Authors
should retain appropriate access to the data necessary to verify the reported
findings.
Editorial Independence
Editorial
decisions are based on the scientific quality, originality, relevance,
methodological rigor, ethical conduct, and clarity of submitted work. Decisions
are not influenced by commercial interests, financial relationships,
institutional affiliations, nationality, ethnicity, religion, gender, or other
unrelated characteristics of authors.
Editors are
expected to manage conflicts of interest and maintain independence throughout
the editorial process.
Plagiarism and Duplicate
Publication
IJIRMS does
not accept plagiarism, self-plagiarism, substantial text recycling, duplicate
publication, fabricated content, or inappropriate reuse of previously published
material.
Submitted
manuscripts may be screened for plagiarism or substantial overlap. Depending on
the circumstances and severity, a manuscript may be rejected or further
investigation may be undertaken.
If serious
problems are identified after publication, appropriate post-publication action
may be taken.
Research and Publication Misconduct
The journal
considers fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, manipulation of research
images or data, duplicate publication, citation manipulation, peer-review
manipulation, authorship misconduct, undeclared conflicts of interest, and
other forms of research or publication misconduct to be serious matters.
Where
concerns arise, the journal may request clarification or supporting information
from authors or relevant institutions and may take appropriate editorial action
in accordance with established publication-ethics procedures.
Handling Allegations of Research
and Publication Misconduct
Allegations
of research or publication misconduct will be assessed promptly and handled
fairly and confidentially. The journal may request an explanation or supporting
information from the authors and, where appropriate, consult reviewers,
editors, institutions, or other relevant parties.
Where an
allegation has sufficient basis, the journal may conduct a further
investigation and may seek cooperation from the authors’ institution or other
appropriate authority. Authors will be given a reasonable opportunity to
respond to substantive allegations.
Depending
on the findings, appropriate action may include rejection of a manuscript,
correction of the published record, an Expression of Concern, retraction, or
other editorial action. Serious or confirmed cases may also be referred to the
relevant institution or authority.
Investigations
will be conducted in accordance with applicable publication-ethics principles,
including relevant COPE guidance. Confidentiality will be maintained throughout
the process, subject to legitimate ethical, legal, or regulatory requirements.
Citation Ethics
Authors
should cite literature that is directly relevant to their work and should
ensure that references accurately support the statements for which they are
cited.
Authors,
editors, and reviewers must not request or encourage unnecessary citations for
the purpose of increasing citation counts, journal metrics, or author metrics.
Peer Review Ethics
Peer review
is conducted confidentially and objectively. Reviewers should assess
manuscripts only within their area of expertise and should disclose any
conflict of interest that could affect their assessment.
Reviewers
must not use unpublished information obtained during peer review for personal
or professional advantage and must not share confidential manuscript content
with unauthorized persons.
Editors and
reviewers should not use generative AI systems to process confidential
manuscript material where confidentiality cannot be adequately protected.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy
AI-assisted
technologies, including generative AI and large language models, may be used
responsibly but must not be listed as authors. Authors remain fully responsible
for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and appropriate attribution of all
submitted content.
Authors
must disclose the use of AI-assisted tools at submission and describe the tool
and its purpose in the appropriate manuscript section where applicable.
AI-generated or AI-assisted text, images, figures, or other content must be
carefully reviewed, verified, and appropriately attributed. Undisclosed or
inappropriate use of AI may require corrective or editorial action.
Editors and
reviewers must protect manuscript confidentiality and must not upload submitted
manuscripts or confidential peer-review material to AI systems where
confidentiality cannot be assured. Reviewers using AI to assist with a review
must comply with the journal’s policy and disclose such use to the journal.
Where
AI-assisted tools are used by the journal or publisher in editorial or
production processes, such use will be subject to appropriate human oversight,
verification, and transparency. AI tools will not make independent editorial
decisions.
Manuscripts Submitted by Editors or
Editorial Board Members
Editors and
Editorial Board members may submit manuscripts to IJIRMS. Such submissions are
handled independently to avoid conflicts of interest.
The
submitting editor or board member will not participate in the editorial
decision, reviewer selection, or management of their own manuscript. The
manuscript is evaluated through the journal's normal editorial and peer-review
procedures.
Confidentiality
Information
relating to submitted manuscripts, editorial correspondence, peer-review
reports, and unpublished research is treated as confidential.
Editors,
reviewers, and other individuals involved in the publication process must not
disclose or use confidential information except as required for legitimate
editorial, ethical, or legal purposes.
Ethical Oversight
Where a
manuscript raises significant ethical or integrity concerns, IJIRMS may request
additional documentation or clarification from the authors, their institution,
ethics committee, funding body, or other appropriate authority.
The journal
reserves the right to decline or withdraw consideration of work that does not
meet applicable ethical and publication standards.
The Process for Handling Cases Requiring Corrections, Retractions, and Editorial Expressions of Concern
IJIRMS
follows the current recommendations of the International Committee of Medical
Journal Editors (ICMJE) and relevant guidance from the Committee on Publication
Ethics (COPE).
We aim to
ensure the integrity of the academic record of all published or potential
publications. Whenever it is recognized that a significant inaccuracy,
misleading statement, or distorted report has been published, it must be
corrected promptly and with due prominence. If, after an appropriate
investigation, an item proves to be fraudulent, it should be retracted. The
retraction should be clearly identifiable to readers and indexing systems.
Corrections
Errors in
published papers may be identified in the form of a corrigendum or erratum when
the Editor-in-Chief considers it appropriate to inform the journal readership
about a previous error and makes a correction to the error in the published
article. The corrigendum or erratum will appear as a new article in the
journal, and will cite the original published article.
Retractions
Retractions
are considered and published when there are severe errors in an article that
invalidate the conclusions. Retractions are also made in cases where there is
evidence of publication malpractice, such as plagiarism, duplicate publication,
or unethical research.
According
to industry best practice and in accordance with COPE guidelines, IJIRMS
implements the following procedure if a retraction is confirmed:
- A retraction note titled “Retraction: [article title]” signed by the authors and/or the editor is published in a subsequent issue of the journal and listed in the contents list.
- In the electronic version, a link is made to the original article.
- The online article is preceded by a screen containing the retraction note. It is to this screen that the link resolves; the reader can then proceed to the article itself.
- The original article is retained unchanged save for a watermark on the HTML and PDF indicating on each page that it has been “retracted.”
Editorial expressions of concern
Where
substantial doubt arises as to the honesty or integrity of a submitted or
published article, journal editors may consider issuing an expression of
concern. However, expressions of concern should only be issued if an
investigation into the problems relating to the article has proven
inconclusive, and if there remain strong indicators that the concerns are
valid. Under some rare cases, an
editorial expression of concern may also be issued when an investigation is
underway but a judgement will not be available for a considerable time.