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