Publication Ethics

Avicenna Journal of Medical Biotechnology (AJMB) follows the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) policies, and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals. Avicenna Journal of Medical Biotechnology (AJMB) strongly considers the "ethical standards for publication" to ensure the "high-quality scientific publications". AJMB follows Helsinki Declaration. If AJMB suspects an ethical problem with a submitted manuscript it will follow the COPE flow chart (PDF, 68 kb)

• Click to download the PDF file of the “Code of Conduct and the Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors” provided by COPE.
• Click to download the PDF file of the “Code of Conduct for Journal Publishers (Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing)".

 Publication ethics

AJMB is considering the committee's guidelines in all aspects of publication ethics (PDF, 476 kb).

 Authorship

According to the ICMJE, the authorship should be based on the following criteria:

• Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work, or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data.
• Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content.
• Final approval of the version published.
• 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.

In such a case, AJMB will follow the COPE guidelines and acts based on COPE flowchart provided below:

• Request for addition of extra author before or after publication (PDF, 99 kb)
• Request for removal of the author before publication (PDF, 52 kb)
• Request for removal of author Suspected guest, ghost, or gift authorship (PDF, 76 kb)
• Advice on how to spot authorship problems (PDF, 64 kb)

Withdrawal

Withdrawal is an action that takes the manuscript out of the review process and places it back into the author’s dashboard. In general, AJMB does suggest article withdrawal as it wastes valuable manuscript processing time.

Steps:

• Pre-Review: is a period that an author(s) submit(s) her/his article until to be sent for review.
• Peer-Review: is a period that the manuscript is submitted completely into the website and included in the review process.
• Final Decision: is a period from the acceptance of an article until to be sent for publication if the article meets the journal standards.
• Pre-Publication: when a paper is accepted for publication or published as an “ahead of print (In Press)” paper but has no volume/issue/page number.
• Post-Publication: when a paper is published and placed in a volume/issue with a page number.

Policies

• Pre-Review: The author(s) can withdraw their papers at this step without posting compelling reasons.
• Peer-Review, Final Decision, and Pre-Publication: The authors should have compelling reasons in order to withdraw their papers.
• Post-Publication: If the authors notice an ethical issue that was not identified by the editor or reviewers until the publication of the article, they should contact the journal, and their concern will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

AJMB follows COPE in this matter.

Redundant (Duplicate) publication

Duplicate or redundant submission is the submission of the same manuscript (or the same data) to different journals at the same time. In such a case, AJMB will follow the COPE guidelines and acts based on COPE flowchart.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is presenting someone else's work or ideas as your own, with or without their consent, by incorporating it into your work without full acknowledgement.

AJMB is committed to publishing original studies and timely reviews that have neither been published nor are under review elsewhere. AJMB is powered by iThenticate software, a plagiarism detector service that considers the originality of content submitted before publication. All the submitted manuscripts are subjected to iThenticate software check twice namely at the time of submission and before publication. When plagiarism is identified, AJMB acts based on flowcharts and workflows determined by COPE flowchart.

Data Fabrication and Falsification

Data fabrication: This concerns the making up of research findings. Data falsification: Manipulating research data with the intention of giving a false impression.

AJMB will follow the COPE guidelines and acts based on COPE flowchart if submitted manuscripts, are found to include either fabricated or falsified data including the manipulation of images.

Retraction

Articles may be retracted when their findings are no longer considered trustworthy due to scientific misconduct or error, they plagiarize previously published work, or they are found to violate ethical guidelines.

In keeping with COPE's Retraction Guidelines, AJMB will consider retracting a publication if:

• It has plagiarism.
• It reports unethical research
• There is a copyright infringement or other legal issues
• It has clear evidence indicating the results are unreliable, either because of major errors (e.g. miscalculation or experimental error, data fabrication, image manipulation)
• The findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper citation to previous sources, permission to reproduce, or justification (i.e. cases of redundant publication)
• It has been published solely on the basis of a compromised or manipulated peer review process
• The author(s) failed to declare a major conflict of interest

Authors or editors of the journal may retract a paper. However, the final decision is made by the editors for retracting the material. If none of the authors will approve to publish a retraction, the editor/s may request such a retraction from the investigating institution, or the editor may ask for a retraction on behalf of the journal. In each condition, the editor should inform the author(s) or institution affiliated to the author(s) for publishing a retraction.

Note: After publishing a retraction, HTML version of the document will not be removed from the site. Additionally, The PDF file of the article is retained unchanged; only a watermark showing “retracted” label is placed on each page of the PDF. Finally, a link is made to the original article.

Citation manipulation

In research articles manipulating citation refers to any kind of misconduct in academic research that may violate publication ethics. Manipulation of citation simply occurs with the aim of increasing the number of citations of a researcher/journal.

Academic dishonesty

Completing an academic work without lying, cheating, stealing, or not using any source of inappropriate information/receiving help from an individual not appropriately authorized is defined as academic honesty. All researchers are required to follow the academic honesty policy.

Conflict of Interest (CoI)

Conflict of Interest (CoI) is a situation in which an individual/group of people in a position to gain personal advantage (financial, economical, etc.) from activities or decisions made in their official capability. AJMB will follow the COPE guidelines and acts based on COPE flowchart given below:

• If a reviewer suspects undisclosed conflict of interest in a submitted manuscript (PDF, 56 kb)
• If a reader suspects undisclosed conflict of interest in a published article (PDF, 56 kb)

Complaints and appeals

The AJMB responds promptly to complaints and ensures there is a way for dissatisfied complainants to take complaints further by sending an email to the Editor-in-Chief of the journal. We follow the COPE's guidelines and flowcharts for handling complaints against the journal, its staff, editorial board, or the publisher.

Clinical Trial Registry

In general, clinical trials consist research that studies new tests and treatments and evaluates their effects on human health outcomes. Based on the ICMJE recommendations, a clinical trial is defined as “any research project that prospectively assigns people or a group of people to an intervention, with or without concurrent comparison or control groups, to study the cause-and-effect, the relationship between a health-related intervention and a health outcome.” In agreement with the ICMJE’s recommendations, AJMB permits publishing clinical trials that have already been registered with a clinical trial registry in terms of unique identification code that grants free online access to the public. As per our policy, registration of all trials in all public registries approved by the ICMJE as the primary register of the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform or Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials (IRCT) is a mandatory procedure.

Moreover, in line with ICMJE recommendations, clinical trials must be prospectively registered (before the trial starts and subjects are enrolled). Therefore, if the study is registered following its completion, the paper is not eligible to be published in AJMB.

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