Journal of Research in Applied and Basic Medical Sciences
For Authors
Ethical Consideration

Ethical Consideration

 | Post date: 2019/06/1 | 

Ethical Considerations and Permissions

The Journal of Research in Applied and Basic Medical Sciences (RABMS) follows the WMA Declaration of Helsinki – Ethical Principles for Medical Research and applies guidelines of Committee On Publication Ethics (COPE) and International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) to ensure "high-quality scientific publications and be a trustful place for the scientific findings as proof-of-concept and proof-of-transformative technology.
See Helsinki Declarations for detailed descriptions.

1- Guidelines for Authors

“RABMS” follows ICMJE guidelines on “Defining the Role of Authors and Contributors” for its guidelines for authors. Therefore, the authors should have all these four criteria:
  • Continuous and active participation in the conception or design of the work or the acquisition, analysis or exegesis of the data of the study, AND
  • Participation in drafting or revising the study, AND
  • Approving the final version of the study that is going to be published, AND
  • Responsibility of answering the questions about related process of the work.
It is considered all the authors to pursuit the following advises:
  • The only way of communication between journal’s office and the corresponding author (on behalf of all authors) is electronically and from journal’s website
  • The manuscript must be novel and not published or accepted by other journals
  • If there was financial support or other possible sources of conflict of interest from anywhere, the authors should disclose it. For more information please read the conflict of interest section
  • All submitted papers are subject to strict double-blind peer review process by at least two reviewers that are experts in the area of submitted work
  • The possible decisions include acceptance, acceptance with revisions, or rejection
  • If authors are encouraged to revise and resubmit the manuscript, there is no guarantee that the revised submission will be accepted
  • Rejected articles will not be re-reviewed
  • The paper acceptance is constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism
We also recommend authors to submit a short description of all contributions to their manuscript. Each author’s contribution should be described in brief. Authors of research papers should state whether they had complete access to the study data that support the publication or not. Contributors who do not qualify as authors should also be listed and their particular contribution described. This information should appear as an acknowledgment.
For detailed descriptions, see Defining the Role of Authors and Contributors from ICMJE.

2- Conflict of Interest

Conflict of interest occurs when financial or non-financial relationship or interest exists between any participants in the peer review or publication process – authors, reviewers, editors, or editorial board members of the journals – and might bias or be seen to bias fulfilling their role. In addition, authors should follow journal and institutional requirements for disclosing competing interests. Furthermore, authors should disclose the role of research funder(s) or sponsor (if any) in the research design, execution, analysis, interpretation and reporting.
“RABMS” follows Disclosure of Interest (Updated February 2021) of the ICMJE for its conflict of Interest. For more information, see ICMJE’s Conflict of Interest page.

3- Policies and Sanctions for Plagiarism, Duplication of Manuscript, Data Fabrication/Falsification

“RABMS” is devoted to publishing authentic recent researches which are not already published, submitted, or are under review in other journals. All articles sent to the journal are investigated by iThenticate Plagiarism Detection Software to check for any Plagiarism. If the submitted manuscript committed any type of plagiarism included redundant and salami publication, translation from other languages, "Plagiarism Sanctions" will be applied on it, including rejection of the paper and not acceptance of any other paper from the offending author/authors.
Manuscripts with any type of data fabrication or falsification in editing, adding, removing, or altering results and/or  data sets, will be confronted with the "Data Fabrication/Falsification Sanctions". For detailed descriptions, see the RABMS’s Plagiarism Policy.

4- Plagiarism Policy

“RABMS” follows ICMJE – “Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (Updated May 2022)” for plagiarism policy.
  • If the authors have used the results and/or words from another research, it has to be appropriately cited or quoted
  • Duplicated publication is the publication of a manuscript that overlaps with a previously published article, without clear and visible reference to the that publication
  • Author/authors should not publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal (Multiple and Redundant Publication)
  • All the submitted manuscripts will be checked for possible plagiarism by iThenticate Plagiarism Detection Software
  • If a significant amount of similarity to previously published literature is found, the article will be rejected immediately
  • If only a small portion of the text of the manuscript overlaps with previously published texts but proper citation is not provided, the manuscript will be sent for revision
  • If the published work subsequently found to be plagiarized will be subjected to ICMJE’s policy of publication of correction, republication or retraction depending on the extent of misconduct

5- Redundant Publications

Redundant or duplicate publications refers to publication of multiple manuscripts without reference in the text, and share the same text, data or results. If duplication is detected in any work sent to “RABMS”, "Redundant Publication Sanctions” would be applied on it, according to the COPE guidelines.

6- Citation Manipulation

The article with any type of citation manipulation to increase the number of citations to a given author/authors or article/articles will experience the "Citation Manipulation Sanctions", according to the COPE guidelines.

7- Honorary or Gift Authorship

Honorary authorship and gift authorship are two types of authorship frauds in publication. Both honorary and gift authorship refers to assigning authorship to those who have not contributed significantly to study but are named authors for other reasons, such as enhanced funding and publication opportunities. Honorary and gift authors will experience "Gift Authorship Sanctions" according to the COPE guidelines.

8- Retraction

According to COPE “RETRACTION GUIDELINES - Committee on Publication Ethics”, “RABMS” will retract articles that:
  • Are not reliable and had scientific or ethical misconducts
  • Are published, reviewed, or are under review by other journals
  • Committed plagiarism
  • Are not ethical or not have taken an ethical code for the study

9- Sanctions

“RABMS” keeps all the rights to apply the following sanctions to any article that has not meet the journal’s Ethical Policy:
  • Immediate rejection of the article and sanctioning of the delinquent author/authors for at least of 24 months
  • Prohibiting all delinquent author/authors that are participated as reviewer and/or a member of editorial board of “RABMS” for at least 36 months
  • In the case of repeated violations, the journal keeps all the rights to apply additional sanctions, based on the COPE. For detailed descriptions, see the COPE guidelines for retracting articles

10- Academic Dishonesty or Academic Misconduct

Academic dishonesty or academic misconduct is any type of cheating that occurs in relation to a formal academic experience and usually is relates to the violation of integrity rules to achieve better academic results. Some academic misconducts included: falsification and data fabrication, plagiarism, and duplication. Any type of academic misconduct leads to apply sanctions from the journal. For detailed descriptions, see the COPE Allegations of misconduct.  

11- Allegations of Misconduct and Malpractice

“RABMS” follows “Scientific Misconduct, Expressions of Concern, and Retraction” guidelines from ICMJE for allegations of misconduct and malpractice.
Publishing a manuscript in “RABMS” reflects the trust between the author and the journal. We are expected that the authors be aware of the Research Misconduction rules and be very cautious about it, because in the case of any intentionally or unintentionally violation from these rules, the journal reserves the right to refer such cases to Ethical Committee of the Urmia University of Medical Sciences for investigation and making the final decision about the fate of the manuscript. The Committee will take appropriate measures to ensure justice. The authors will be given the right to submit explanation against the allegations raised and fix them. The final decision is the responsibility of the university's ethics committee.

12- Complaints and Appeals

“RABMS” follows “Responsibilities in the Submission and Peer-Review Process” guidelines from ICMJE for complaints and Appeals. A committee of Complaints and Appeals is responsible for final decision about complaints or appeals sent by authors of a manuscript. The members are bound by the principle of independence, impartiality, confidentiality, expertise, and fair judgment.

16- Editors' Responsibilities

“RABMS” follows “Roles and Responsibilities of Authors” from ICMJE for editors' responsibilities.
  • Editors have complete responsibility and authority to reject/accept an article
  • Editors are responsible for the contents and overall quality of the publication
  • Editors should always consider the needs of the authors and the readers when attempting to improve the publication
  • Editors should guarantee the quality of the papers and the integrity of the academic record
  • Editors should publish errata pages or make corrections when needed
  • Editors should have a clear picture of a research's funding sources
  • Editors should base their decisions solely on the papers' importance, originality, clarity and relevance to publication's scope
  • Editors should not reverse their decisions nor overturn the ones of previous editors without serious reason
  • Editors should preserve the anonymity of reviewers
  • Editors should ensure that all research material they publish conforms to internationally accept ethical guidelines
  • Editors should only accept a paper when reasonably certain
  • 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
  • Editors should not reject papers based on suspicions; they should have proof of misconduct
  • Editors should not allow any conflicts of interest between staff, authors, reviewers and board members

17- Editorial Independence and Fair Play

“RABMS” follows “Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (Updated May 2022)” from ICMJE for editors' independence.
Editors evaluate submitted manuscripts exclusively on the basis of their academic merit (importance, originality, study’s validity and clarity) and its relevance to the journal’s scope, without regard to the authors’ origin, or institutional affiliation. The Editor-in-Chief has full authority over the entire editorial content of the journal and the timing of publication of that content.

18- Confidentiality

“RABMS” follows “Protection of Research Participants” guidelines from ICMJE for confidentiality.
Editors and editorial staff will not disclose any information about the submitted manuscript to anyone except the corresponding author.

19- Reviewers' Responsibilities

According to COPE guidelines for reviewers' responsibilities, peer reviewers  are external experts who are chosen by the journal  editors to offer their written opinions regarding the manuscript for improving the quality of the study.
  • Reviewers should keep all information regarding papers confidential and treat them as privileged information
  • Reviews should be conducted objectively, with no personal criticism of the author
  • Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments
  • Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors
  • Reviewers should also call to the Editor-in-Chief's attention for any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published papers of which they have personal knowledge
  • 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

ICMJE’s Reviewer’s responsibilities gives detailed information in this matter.

20- Protecting Research Subjects, Patients, and Experimental Animals

“RABMS” follows “Protection of Research Participants - Recommendations” guidelines from ICMJE for protecting research subjects, patients and experimental animals, including:
  • Laboratory and clinical research should be driven by protocol; pilot studies should have a written rationale
  • Research protocols should seek to answer specific questions, rather than just collect data
  • Protocols must be carefully agreed by all contributors and collaborators, including, if appropriate, the participants
  • The final protocol should be a part of the research record
  • Early agreement on the precise roles of the contributors and collaborators, and on matters of authorship and publication, is advised
  • Statistical issues should be considered early in study design, including power calculations, to ensure there are neither too few nor too many participants
  • Formal and documented ethical approval from an appropriately constituted research ethics committee is required for all studies involving people, medical records, and anonymized human tissues
  • Use of human tissues in research should conform to the highest ethical standards, such as those recommended by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics
  • Fully informed consent should always be sought. It may not always be possible, however, and in such circumstances, an appropriately constituted research ethics committee should decide if this is ethically acceptable
  • Animal experiments require full compliance with local, national, ethical, and regulatory principles, and local licensing arrangements. International standards vary
  • Formal supervision, usually the responsibility of the principal investigator, should be provided for all research projects: this must include quality control, the frequent review, and long term retention (may be up to 15 years) of all records and primary outputs
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