Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

The Indo Eurasian Journal of Medical Sciences (IEJMS), published by Scienceroot Publishers, is dedicated to upholding the highest standards of ethical integrity in all aspects of the publication process. We strictly adhere to the Core Practices established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Prevention of publication malpractice is the shared responsibility of the authors, reviewers, editors and the publisher. The following outlines the ethical duties expected of all parties involved in the publishing process.

1. Duties and responsibilities of authors

Originality and plagiarism

• Original work. Authors must ensure that their submitted manuscript is entirely original.
• Plagiarism. Plagiarism in any form — including uncredited copying of text, ideas, images or data, as well as self-plagiarism (text recycling) — is strictly prohibited.
• Screening. All submissions are screened using advanced similarity-detection software prior to peer review. Any manuscript exhibiting significant similarity to previously published work will be immediately rejected.

Authorship criteria (ICMJE compliance)

• Definition. Authorship is strictly limited to individuals who meet all four ICMJE criteria: substantial contributions to conception or design or to data acquisition or analysis; drafting or critically revising the work; final approval of the version to be published; and agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work.
• Acknowledgements. Contributors who do not meet all four criteria must be listed in the acknowledgements, with their written consent.
• Ghost and guest authorship. The journal strictly prohibits ghost, guest and honorary authorship.

Ethical approval and informed consent

• Human subjects. All research involving human participants must comply with the Declaration of Helsinki. Authors must state the name of the approving Institutional Review Board or ethics committee and provide the reference number.
• Informed consent. Authors must explicitly confirm that informed consent was obtained from all participants. For case reports or images containing identifiable patient details, written consent for publication must be obtained and retained by the authors.
• Animal studies. Research involving animals must comply with institutional and national guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals. Authors must complete the ARRIVE guidelines checklist.

Data access, retention and reproducibility

• Transparency. Authors must provide a data availability statement indicating whether and where underlying data can be accessed.
• Raw data. Authors may be asked to provide raw data in connection with a manuscript for editorial review, and should retain such data for a reasonable time after publication.
• Fabrication and falsification. Fabricating data, manipulating clinical images, or selectively reporting results to mislead the reader constitutes severe scientific misconduct and will result in immediate rejection and notification of the authors' institution.

Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication

• Exclusive submission. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behaviour.
• Prior publication. IEJMS will not consider manuscripts published elsewhere, with the exception of academic theses or preprints deposited in recognised servers such as medRxiv.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest

• Transparency. All authors must disclose any financial or personal relationships with other individuals or organisations that could inappropriately influence their work.
• Funding. All sources of financial support for the project must be explicitly disclosed in the manuscript.

Fundamental errors in published works

When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in their own published work, it is their obligation to promptly notify the journal editor and cooperate to retract or correct the paper in the form of an erratum.

2. Duties and responsibilities of reviewers

• Contribution to editorial decisions. Peer review is essential to the editorial decision-making process. Reviewers are expected to assist in improving the quality of the manuscript through objective, scientifically rigorous feedback.
• Promptness and competence. Any invited reviewer who feels unqualified to evaluate the research, or who knows that a prompt review within 21 days will be impossible, must immediately notify the editor and decline the invitation.
• Confidentiality. Manuscripts received for review must be treated as highly confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others without authorisation from the Editor-in-Chief.
• Artificial intelligence. Reviewers are strictly forbidden from uploading any portion of the manuscript into generative AI tools to assist with drafting their review, as this violates data confidentiality.
• Standards of objectivity. Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.
• Disclosure of conflicts of interest. Reviewers must decline the invitation if they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative or other relationships with any of the authors, companies or institutions connected to the paper.

3. Duties and responsibilities of editors

• Merit-based evaluation. The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for deciding which articles submitted to the journal should be published. Decisions are made exclusively on the basis of the manuscript's scientific merit, clinical validity and relevance to the journal's scope, without regard to the authors' race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic origin, citizenship, religious belief or institutional affiliation.
• Editorial independence. Because IEJMS operates on a Diamond Open Access model with zero article processing charges, editorial decisions are entirely insulated from financial or commercial influences.
• Confidentiality. Editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers and the publisher.
• Involvement in investigations. Editors will take responsive measures when ethical complaints are presented concerning a submitted manuscript or published paper. Such measures include contacting the author and giving due consideration to the complaint. If the complaint is upheld, the journal will publish a correction, retraction or expression of concern in accordance with COPE flowcharts.

4. Duties of the publisher (Scienceroot Publishers)

• Safeguarding integrity. Scienceroot Publishers is committed to ensuring that advertising, reprint revenue and other commercial interests have no impact or influence on editorial decisions.
• Diamond Open Access. The publisher funds the journal's operations entirely, ensuring that authors are never charged article processing charges, submission fees or page charges, removing financial barriers to publication.
• Handling misconduct. In cases of alleged or proven scientific misconduct, fraudulent publication or plagiarism, the publisher, in close collaboration with the editors, will take all appropriate measures to clarify the situation and amend the article in question. This includes the prompt publication of an erratum, clarification or, in the most severe cases, retraction of the affected work.