Publication Ethics

The publication of an article in a peer reviewed journal is an essential model for the Avicenna Journal of Medical Biochemistry.

It is necessary to agree upon the standards of expected ethical behavior for all parties involved in the act of publishing: the author, the journal editor, the peer reviewer and the publisher. Our ethic statements are based on the Best Practice Guidelines of COPE for Journal Editors.

Section A: Publication and Authorship

1. All submitted papers are subject to strict peer-review process by at least two international reviewers that are experts in the area of the particular paper. Reviewers are being selected by Associate Editors and Editor-in-Chief. Author also can propose reviewers for some journals and article types.

2. The factors that are taken into account in review are relevance, originality, readability, statistical validity and language.

3. The possible decisions include acceptance, minor revisions, major revision or rejection.

4. If authors are encouraged to revise and resubmit a submission, there is no guarantee that the revised submission will be accepted.

5. Rejected articles will not be re-reviewed.

6. The paper acceptance is constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism.

Journals published by Hamadan University of Medical Sciences use iThenticate software, which is a plagiarism detector service that verifies the originality of the submission content before publication. If plagiarism is identified, we will follow COPE guidelines.

Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to:

• Directly copying text from other sources
• Copying ideas, images, or data from other sources
• Reusing text from your own previous publications
• Using an idea from another source with slightly modified language

If plagiarism is detected during the peer review process, the submission may be rejected. If plagiarism is detected after publication, we reserve the right to issue a correction or retract the paper, as appropriate. We reserve the right to inform authors' institutions about plagiarism detected either before or after publication.

7. No research can be included in more than one publication, whether within the same journal or in another journal.

Section B: Authors' Responsibilities

1. Authors must certify that their manuscript is their original work.

2. Authors must certify that the manuscript has not previously been published elsewhere, or even submitted and been in reviewed in another journal.

3. Authors must participate in the peer review process and follow the comments.

4. Authors are obliged to provide retractions or corrections of mistakes.

5. All Authors mentioned in the paper must have significantly contributed to the research. Level of their contribution also must be defined in the “Authors’ Contributions” section of the article.

6. Authors must state that all data in the paper are real and authentic.

7. Authors must notify the Editors of any conflicts of interest.

8. Authors must identify all sources used in the creation of their manuscript.

9. Authors must report any errors they discover in their published paper to the Editors.

10. Authors must not use irrelevant sources that may help other researches/journals.

11. Authors cannot withdraw their articles within the review process or after submission, or they must pay the penalty defined by the publisher.

Section C: Peer Review/Responsibility for the Reviewers

1. Reviewers should keep all information regarding papers confidential and treat them as privileged information.

2. Reviews should be conducted objectively, with no personal criticism of the author. No self-knowledge of the author(s) must affect their comments and decision.

3. Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments in 500 to 1000 words.

4. Reviewers may identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors.

5. Reviewers should also call to the Editor-in-Chief's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.

6. Reviewers should not review 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 papers.

Section D: Editorial Responsibilities

1. Editors (Associate Editors or Editor-in-Chief) have complete responsibility and authority to reject/accept an article.

2. Editors are responsible for the contents and overall quality of the publication.

3. Editors should always consider the needs of the authors and the readers when attempting to improve the publication.

4. Editors should guarantee the quality of the papers and the integrity of the academic record.

5. Editors should publish errata pages or make corrections when needed.

6. Editors should have a clear picture of a research's funding sources.

7. Editors should base their decisions solely one the papers' importance, originality, clarity and relevance to publication's scope.

8. Editors should not reverse their decisions nor overturn the ones of previous editors without serious reason.

9. Editors should preserve the anonymity of reviewers (in half blind peer review journals).

10. Editors should ensure that all research material they publish conforms to international accepted ethical guidelines.

11. Editors should only accept a paper when reasonably certain.

12. Editors should act if they suspect misconduct, whether a paper is published or unpublished, and make all reasonable attempts to persist in obtaining a resolution to the problem.

13. Editors should not reject papers based on suspicions; they should have proof of misconduct.

14. Editors should not allow any conflicts of interest between staff, authors, reviewers and board members.

15. Editors must not change their decision after submitting a decision (especially after reject or accept) unless they have a serious reason.

Section E: Publishing Ethics Issues

1. All editorial members, reviewers and authors must confirm and follow rules defined by COPE.

2. Corresponding author is the main owner of the article so she/he can withdraw the article when it is incomplete (before entering the review process or when a revision is asked for).

3. Authors cannot make major changes in the article after acceptance without a serious reason.

4. All editorial members and authors must will to publish any kind of corrections honestly and completely.

5. Any notes of plagiarism, fraudulent data or any other kinds of fraud must be reported completely to COPE.

Research Ethics Statement

Helsinki Statement