Ethics

IJMSC adheres to the ethical policies and procedures as recommended by the agencies below.

• Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE)
• Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)
• World Association of Medical Editors (WAME)
• World Medical Association (WMA) Declaration of Helsinki (October 2013).

Research/Study Ethics

IJMSC does not publish any animal studies, basic research, or preclinical research.

Studies involving human participants should follow the WMA's Declaration of Helsinki and must detail institutional review board or ethics committee approval in the methods section of the paper, including informed consent or waiver of informed consent information. If a study is exempt from review, written documentation of exemption is required.

Human study participants and patients cited in research have the right to privacy and confidentiality. Nonessential identifying details must be omitted from study reporting and only study-relevant information, including photographs, should be cited. If a manuscript is a case report and/or contains detailed case descriptions or photographs, written, signed permission to publish in print and online must be obtained from participant/patient or their legally authorized representative. A sample consent form is available here

Author Ethics

IJMSC is committed to upholding the accuracy and integrity of research. The editors take any allegations of misconduct or plagiarism seriously. Any incidents of data fabrication; data falsification, including deceptive manipulation of images; or plagiarism, including self-plagiarism, will be investigated as per ICMJE, COPE, and/or WAME guidelines.

Plagiarism

To prevent these ethical breaches, all manuscripts submitted are checked using the iThenticate software, through our participation in the SimilarityCheck service provided by CrossRef. Suspicion of plagiarism may also be raised by reviewers or by readers.

When scientific misconduct is alleged, or concerns are otherwise raised about the conduct or integrity of work described in a submitted or published paper, the editor in chief will investigate and may publish an “expression of concern” pending the outcome of those procedures. If scientific misconduct is confirmed, a published article may be retracted. Retraction entails a published statement that the article is flawed or fraudulent and should be disregarded. The retraction will be listed in the print and electronic table of contents to ensure proper indexing and will be linked to the original article in the online edition.

Resources:
https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.2.2
https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.2.1

Financial Disclosures

Authors must disclose all financial and nonfinancial relationships that could be conflicts of interest in the manuscript and as part of the submission process. All financial and material support for the manuscript should be clearly and completely identified at the end of the manuscript.

Copyright and Previous Publication

Manuscripts are considered with the understanding that they have not been published previously in print or electronic format, including preprint databases and institutional repositories, and are not under consideration by another publication or electronic medium. Copies of possibly duplicative materials (ie, those containing substantially similar content or using the same or similar data) that have been previously published or are under consideration elsewhere must be provided at the time of manuscript submission. If any portion of the manuscript, including tables and figures, has been previously published, written permission to reproduce this material in IJMSC must be obtained from the copyright owner(s) and relevant permission releases provided. The cover letter must state that the manuscript has not been submitted or published in another journal. Posters and presentations at scientific meetings do not constitute prior publication but must be mentioned at the end of the manuscript.

For further details, refer to our Conflict of Interest Disclosure Policy.