Editorial Policies

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Editorial Policies Adopted by Scholarly Journals Published by Zabol University of Medical sciences publications

It is an Editor’s responsibility to ensure that a journal has sufficient articles in their editorial system for all their Issues per year. Editor’s with new journals who may publish twice a year are required to do this as well as a journal that publishes 12 times a year.  To do this they need to manage the journal so that articlesare being submitted, being sent to reviewers for review and returned promptly within an agreed timeframe,decisions on revisions, acceptance and rejections made as quickly as possible and new revised papers  re‐submitted. 

An Editor’s role is vital to the success of the journal and most importantly the dissemination of research and scholarly articles. Setting up systems for these decisions to be made is an essential part of a new editor role but the outcome will of course depend entirely on the way in which the publishers supports the journal financially and with other resources. An editor should always be mindful of the number of papers inreview and should encourage reviewers to speed up the process if they know the deadline is near. It would therefore be helpful to ensure that everyone is aware of the deadline. 

It’s suggested using electronic alerts for reviewers whenever possible. Again this depends on how the journal is managed by the publisher as much as the editor, as it is the publisher who normally has the funding for much of what can be achieved outside of the editorial processes. One way to ensure some new articles for publication is having ‘special issues’ of the journal, focusing on a specific topic, as they are slowly becoming a popular source of article contribution. Another way is to have ‘conference special issues’ and for Editors to speak to delegates at various conferences to encourage new authors to contribute articles.  

Publishers can also issue a ‘call for papers’ alert to invite more contribution of articles. All these types of developments for encouraging authors to write and publish in the journal can be made visible on the journal web site which is why and up to date user friendly and informative web site is so important. There should also be an effective promotion of the journal whenever possible to reach as many potential authors who might want to submit their articles to your journal.The journal website should contain profiles of the Editor and its Editorial board members. Indication of the role of the Editor‐in Chief, (Associate) Editor(s) and Editorial Board Members is also essential. A short biography would also be helpful or links to the Editor’s workplace profile. This information is important when the Scopus Subject Chairs are reviewing and evaluating a journal, so that they can check if the accuracy of the information  and also that the named individuals are fraudulent. It is also important to ensure that Editorial Board members have their place of work identified, contact details and any information or links that identify them as the real person who has agreed to be named on the journal web site and journal issue. It is also important for the Editor to ensure that all Board members names are kept up to date to ensure that there is no misrepresentation of information. 

Editorial board selection policy

The quality of a journal is in a way reflective of the quality of its Editor(s) and Editorial Board and its members. As such, it is recommended that a meticulous screening criterion be adopted for their appointment.  

The following issues are considered when selecting members for Editorial Board: The members need to represent the full geographical range where the journal is published (example: a journal from Malaysia for the Malaysian scholarly community is likely to have its main Board members from Malaysia. If this journal published in Malaysia has International in its title, it would be necessary to see members on the main Board from other countries. These could also be invited to join an International Advisory Board ensuring widespreaddissemination of the journal’s activities and content)  Board Members' expertise should represent the subject area (s) covered by the journal's aim and scope. It is important that Board members are active in their specialist field and are therefore up to date with what is happening in research and developments in that field. The Editor should already be familiar with many of these and can invite new members from these colleagues and peers. Many of these will be authors who have already published in the journal and/ or written books on related topics. Editors need to be very clear as to why they have chosen to invite someone to the Editorial Board or any other related Board. 

As an International journal, Editors need to ensure that the content is from a wide range of international authors, have an Editorial Board that has international expertise and where appropriate that are well represented geographically. Making it clear as well  in the invitation to these international board members the expectations that you have of them in terms of reviewing and promoting the journal at international events in their country and to their colleagues who may then consider submitting articles to  the journal . 

Authorship

The ICMJE recommends that authorship be based on the following 4 criteria:

1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work, or the acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data.

2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content.

3. Final approval of the version published.

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.

In addition to being accountable for the parts of the work he or she has done, an author should be able to identify which co-authors are responsible for specific other parts of the work. In addition, authors should have confidence in the integrity of the contributions of their coauthors. All those designated as authors should meet all four criteria for authorship, and all who meet the four criteria should be identified as authors. Those who do not meet all four criteria should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Participation solely in the acquisition of funding, the gathering of data, technical help, writing assistance, and general supervision of the research group does not warrant authorship. Financial and material support should also be acknowledged. Please guarantee that anyone stated in the Acknowledgements section has granted its clearance for permission to be listed.

Acknowledgements

Recognize individuals who provided assistance to the project. Report all sources of grant and other support for the project or study, including funds received from contributors, institutions and commercial sources. Consultancies and funds paid directly to investigators must also be listed.

Authorship changes

Any change in authorship (i.e., order, addition, and deletion of authors) after initial submission must be approved by all authors. Authors should determine the order of authorship among themselves. In addition, any alterations must be clarified to the Editor/Editor-in-chief.

Competing interests

A competing interest exists when professional judgment concerning a primary interest (such as patients’ welfare or the validity of research) may be influenced by a secondary interest (such as financial gain - employment, consultancies, stock ownership or options, honoraria, patents, and paid expert- testimony or personal relationship). There is nothing unethical about a competing interest but it should be acknowledged and clearly stated. All authors must declare all competing interests in their covering letter and in “Competing Interests” section at the end of the manuscript file (before the references). Authors with no competing interests to declare should obviously state that.

Ethical approval of research/Publication Ethics

Journals of Zabol University of Medical sciences publicationsare following of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).We strongly consider allegations of publication misconduct, both before and after publication, and we reserve the right to contact authors' institutions, funders, or regulatory bodies if needed. If we find conclusive evidence of misconduct, we will take steps to correct the scientific record, which may include supplying a correction or retraction.

Authors are expected to be aware of publication ethics, specifically with regard to authorship, dual submission, plagiarism, figure manipulation, competing interests, and compliance with standards of research ethics. In cases of suspected misconduct, we will follow COPE standards and practices and may seek advice from the COPE forum if needed.

Statement of ethics approval

We require every research article submitted to include a statement that the study obtained ethics approval (or a statement that it was not required and why), including the name of the ethics committee(s) or institutional review board(s), the number/ID of the approval(s), and a statement that participants gave informed consent before taking part. Even when a study has been approved by a research ethics committee or institutional review board, editors may ask authors for more detailed information about the ethics of the work.

Patient consent and confidentiality

Any article that contains personal medical information about an identifiable living individual requires the patient’s explicit consent before we can publish it. If consent cannot be obtained because the patient cannot be traced then publication will be possible only if the information can be sufficiently anonymized. Anonymisation means that neither the patient nor anyone else could identify the patient with certainty.

Our policy on obtaining consent for publication of pictures of patients is a subset of our general policy on patient confidentiality. If there is any chance that a patient may be identified from a photograph or other image or from its legend or accompanying text we need the patient’s written consent.

Images – such as X- rays, laparoscopic images, ultrasound images, pathology slides, or images of undistinctive parts of the body – may be used without consent so long as they are anonymized by the removal of any identifying marks and are not accompanied by text that could reveal the patient’s identity through clinical or personal detail.

Research reporting guidelines

Authors are encouraged to use the relevant research reporting guidelines for the study type provided by the EQUATOR Network. This will ensure that you provide enough information for editors, peer reviewers and readers to understand how the research was performed and to judge whether the findings are likely to be reliable.

The key reporting guidelines are:

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs):CONSORT guidelines

Systematic reviews and meta-analysis: PRISMA guidelines and MOOSE guidelines

Observational studies in epidemiology: STROBE guidelines and MOOSE guidelines

Diagnostic accuracy studies: STARD  guidelines

Quality improvement studies: SQUIRE guidelines

Clinical trial registration

Based on ICMJE recommendations, a clinical trial defines 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 relationship between a health-related intervention and a health outcome”.

In agreement with the ICMJE , journals published by Zabol University of Medical Scienceswill not consider reports of clinical trials unless they were registered prospectively before recruitment of any participants.

Trial registration

As a condition of consideration for publication, journals published by Zabol University of Medical Sciencesrequire registration of all trials in a public trials registry that is acceptable to the ICMJE (any registry that is a primary register of the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform www.who.int/ictrp /network/primary/en/index.html or in ClinicalTrials.gov, which is a data provider to the WHO ICTRP).

Plagiarism detection

Journals published by Zabol University of Medical Sciencesuse iThenticate software, which is a plagiarism detector service that verifies the originality of content submitted before publication. If plagiarism is identified, we will follow COPE guidelines.

Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to:

Directly copying text from other sources

Copying ideas, images, or data from other sources

Reusing text from your own previous publications

Using an idea from another source with slightly modified language

If plagiarism is detected during the peer review process, the manuscript may be rejected. If plagiarism is detected after publication, we reserve the right to issue a correction or retract the paper, as appropriate. We reserve the right to inform authors' institutions about plagiarism detected either before or after publication.

Peer review policy

Journals from Zabol University of Medical Sciencesreview all manuscript submissions, internally or externally.

Original research articles authored by a member of a journal’s editorial team are independently peer reviewed; an editor will have no input or influence on the peer review process or publication decision for their own article. Editorials and obituaries written by the journal’s editor do not undergo external peer review.

Peer-review procedures

All manuscripts submitted to journals of Zabol University of Medical Sciences publications are subject to rigorous review. This review consists of the following steps:

1. Initial submissions are reviewed by internal staff to ensure adherence to policies of Zabol University of Medical Sciences publications, including ethical requirements for human and animal experimentation.

2. Submissions are then assigned to an Editor for evaluation.

3. The Academic Editor decides whether reviews from additional experts are needed to evaluate the manuscript. The majority of submissions are evaluated by two external reviewers, but it is up to the Editor to determine the number of reviews required.

4. After evaluation, the Editor chooses between the following decisions:

1. Accept

2. Minor Revision

3. Major Revision

4. Reject

5. If the decision is Minor Revision or Major Revision, authors have 30 days to resubmit the revised manuscript. Authors may contact email address if they require an extension.

6. Upon resubmission, the Editor may choose to send the manuscript back to external reviewers, or may render a decision based on personal expertise.

Permissions

It is the author’s responsibility to secure all permissions prior to publication.

Material from other sources

Any written or illustrative material that has been or will be published elsewhere must be duly acknowledged and accompanied by the written consent of the copyright holder (this may be the publisher rather than the author). This includes your own previously published material, if you are not the copyright holder.

Reproducing material published by Zabol University of Medical Sciences publications

Materials published by Zabol University of Medical Sciences publications may be reproduced in full or part in any medium or language only on the condition that the original material is cited properly.

Publication

The publication frequency and all related information regarding the journals are listed on their website.

Copyright and licensing

Open access agreement

Upon submitting an article, authors are asked to indicate their agreement to abide by an open access Creative Commons license (CC-BY). Under the terms of this license, authors retain ownership of the copyright of their articles. However, the license permits any user to download, print out, extract, reuse, archive, and distribute the article, so long as appropriate credit is given to the authors and the source of the work. The license ensures that the article will be available as widely as possible and that the article can be included in any scientific archive.

 

Last Update At : 10 June 2017