Publication Ethics

Research Chronicle in Health Science is committed for ethical practice in publication, which could only be possible with the support of Editors, reviewers and authors.

Following is publication ethics and malpractice statement of Research Chronicle in Health Science adapted from and based on guidelines provided by World Association of medical editors (WAME) ( http://www.wame.org ) Committee on publication ethics (COPE) ( http://publicationethics.org/resources/code-conduct ) International committee for medical journal Editor (ICMJE) ( http://www.icmje.org/) General duties and responsibilities of editors should be responsible for everything published in their journals. They should: Research Chronicle in Health Science is committed for ethical practice in publication, which could only be possible with the support of Editors, reviewers and authors.

Strive to meet the needs of readers and authors;
Constantly improve the journal;
Ensure the quality of the material they publish;
champion freedom of expression;
Maintain the integrity of the academic record;
Preclude business needs from compromising intellectual standards;
Always be willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed.

Relations with Readers

Readers should be informed about who has funded research and on the role of the funders in the research.

Relations with Authors

Editors should take all reasonable steps to ensure the quality of the material they publish, recognizing that journals and sections within journals will have different aims and standards

Editors' decisions to accept or reject a paper for publication should be based only on the paper's importance, originality, and clarity, and the study's relevance to the remit of the journal.
A description of peer review processes should be published, and Editors should be ready to justify any important deviation from the described processes.
Journals should have a declared mechanism for authors to appeal against Editorial decisions.
Editors should publish guidance to authors on everything that is expected of them. This guidance should be regularly updated and should refer or link to this code.
Editors should not reverse decisions to accept submissions unless serious problems are identified with the submission.
New Editors should not overturn decisions to publish submissions made by the previous Editor unless serious problems are identified.

Relations with Reviewers

Editors should publish guidance to reviewers on everything that is expected of them. This guidance should be regularly updated and should refer or link to this code. Editors should have systems to ensure that peer reviewers' identities are protected - unless they have an open review system that is declared to authors and reviewers.

The Peer-Review Process

Editors should have systems to ensure that material submitted to their journal remains confidential while under review.

Complaints

Editors should respond promptly to complaints and should ensure there is a way for dissatisfied complainants to take complaints further. This mechanism should be made clear in the journal.

Encourage Debate

Cogent criticisms of published work should be published unless Editors have convincing reasons why they cannot be. Authors of criticized material should be given the opportunity to respond. Studies that challenge previous work published in the journal should be given an especially sympathetic hearing. Studies reporting negative results should not be excluded.

Encouraging Academic Integrity

Editors should ensure that research material they publish conforms to internationally accept ethical guidelines. Editors should seek assurances that all research has been approved by an appropriate body (e.g. research ethics committee, institutional review board). However, Editors should recognize that such approval does not guarantee that the research is ethical.

Protecting Individual Data

Editors should protect the confidentiality of individual information (e.g. that obtained through the Doctor-patient relationship). It is therefore almost always necessary to obtain written informed consent from patients described in case reports and for photographs of patients. It may be possible to publish without explicit consent if the report is important to public health (or is in some other way important); consent would be unusually burdensome to obtain; and a reasonable individual would be unlikely to object to publication (all three conditions must be met).

Pursuing Misconduct

Editors have a duty to act if they suspect misconduct. This duty extends to both published and unpublished papers. Editors should not simply reject papers that raise concerns about possible misconduct. They are ethically obliged to pursue alleged cases. Editors should first seek a response from those accused. If they are not satisfied with the response, they should ask the relevant employers or some appropriate body (perhaps a regulatory body) to investigate. Editors should make all reasonable efforts to ensure that a proper investigation is conducted; if this does not happen. Editors should make all reasonable attempts to persist in obtaining a resolution to the problem. This is an onerous but important duty.

Ensuring the Integrity of the Academic Record

Whenever it is recognized that a significant inaccuracy, misleading statement or distorted report has been published, it must be corrected promptly and with due prominence. If, after an appropriate investigation, an item proves to be fraudulent, it should be retracted. The retraction should be clearly identifiable to readers and indexing systems.

Relations with Journal Owners and Publishers

The relationship of Editors to publishers and owners is often complex but should in each case be based firmly on the principle of Editorial independence. Notwithstanding the economic and political realities of their journals, Editors should make decisions on which articles to publish based on quality and suitability for readers rather than for immediate financial or political gain.

Commercial Considerations

Relations with Readers

Editors should have declared policies on advertising in relation to the content of the journal and on processes for publishing supplements. Misleading advertisements must be refused, and Editors must be willing to publish criticisms, according to the same criteria used for material in the rest of the journal. Reprints should be published as they appear in the journal unless a correction is to be added. For more info, please visit: http://www.wame.org/resources/publication-ethics-policies-for-medical-journals

Conflict of Interest

Editors should have systems for managing their own conflicts of interest as well as those of their staff, authors, reviewers and Editorial board members.

For more details please visit: http://www.icmje.org/roles_b.html

Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing

Peer review process: All of a journal’s content, apart from any editorial material that is clearly marked as such, shall be subjected to peer review. Peer review is defined as obtaining advice on individual manuscripts from reviewer’s expert in the field who are not part of the journal’s editorial staff. This process, as well as any policies related to the journal’s peer review procedures, shall be clearly described on the journal’s Web site.

Governing Body: Journals have editorial boards or other governing bodies whose members are recognized experts in the subject areas included within the journal’s scope. The full names and affiliations of the journal’s editors are provided on the journal’s Web site.

Editorial team/contact information: Journals provide the full names and affiliations of the journal’s editors on the journal’s Web site as well as contact information for the editorial office.

Author fees: Fees or charges that are required for manuscript processing and/or publishing materials are clearly stated in the journal home page, which is easy for potential authors before they begin preparing their manuscript for submission.

Copyright: Copyright and licensing information is clearly described on the journal’s Web site, and licensing terms shall be indicated on all published articles, both HTML and PDFs.

Identification of and dealing with allegations of research misconduct: Publishers and editors will take reasonable steps to identify and prevent the publication of papers where research misconduct has occurred, including plagiarism, citation manipulation, and data falsification/fabrication, among others. In no case any journal or its editors encourage such misconduct, or knowingly allow such misconduct to take place. We and our editors follow COPE’s guidelines (or equivalent) in dealing with allegations.

Ownership and management: Information about the ownership and/or management of a journal shall be clearly indicated on the journal’s Web site. Publishers shall not use organizational names that would mislead potential authors and editors about the nature of the journal’s owner.

Web site: A journal’s Web site, including the text that it contains, shall demonstrate that care has been taken to ensure high ethical and professional standards.

Conflicts of interest: We have clear policies on handling potential conflicts of interest of editors, authors, and reviewers and the policies are well defined.

Access: The Journal individual articles are available to readers for free of cost and there is no charge for open access publications.

Revenue sources: We follow Open Access Business model where we will not charge from our readers but we charge authors to maintain the peer review process, online hosting and management of manuscripts.

Publishing schedule: We are an open access publisher who publishes the manuscripts issues quarterly to maintain high quality and standards.