POLICIES

AUTHORSHIP

We adhere to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) 4 criteria of authors:

  1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
  2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
  3. Final approval of the version to be published; AND
  4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Source: ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly work in Medical Journals. December, 2014 update

http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html

Persons who contribute to the manuscript, but don’t meet all four criteria, may be listed in the acknowledgements. This may include internal reviewers, data analysts who don’t contribute to the writing, study staff, etc.

 

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

We ask all authors to report a conflict of interest.

A conflict of interest is a situation/secondary interest that can or has potential to impact professional judgment, transparency and objectivity with regards to a primary interest such as conduct of research, results dissemination or peer review process. This can include a situation in which a person is involved in multiple interests (financial, emotional, or otherwise), any of which could possibly corrupt the motivation of the individual.

Source: ICMJE

Some potential conflicts of interest:

  • Revenue paid to you, your family, your institution
  • Funding from drug companies or sources that could be perceived as having a financial stake in the outcome of your manuscript
  • Intellectual Property: copyrights and patents
  • Any relationship or activity that might be perceived as influencing your manuscript
  • Personal beliefs that are in direct conflict with the topic being researched

If you’re uncertain, it would be better to report than not to report.

How to avoid conflict of interest:

  • Absolute disclosure and transparency
  • When there is no conflict of interest, you need to state so
  • When in doubt, consult seniors/others for guidance
 

PLAGIARISM 

Plagiarism is taking someone else’s words or ideas without credit and passing them off as your own.We will reject any manuscripts with plagiarism. We check each submitted manuscript with an online plagiarism