Reseach Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement
Ethical Approval of Research:
- Ethical approval by the ERC or IRB is mandatory, provided on official letterhead with a reference number, stamped, and signed by the committee's Chairperson.
- Approval should be obtained prospectively for studies involving direct contact with human subjects.
- Studies without direct human subject involvement must submit an exemption letter from the institutional ERC/IRB before project initiation.
- Institutions lacking ERC should seek approval from other ethically compliant institutions with cooperating Ethical Review Committees.
- Case reports require department head approval on institutional letterhead, with a statement confirming informed consent from participants for study inclusion or case report publication.
- If a medicine is used, a generic name should be indicated. The commercial name may, however, be mentioned only within brackets if necessary. In the case of medicine or device or any material indicated in the text, a declaration by the Author (s) should be submitted that no monetary benefit has been taken from the manufacturer/importer of that product by any author.
Protection of Human and Animal Rights Policy:
- JGMDS emphasizes ethical and responsible research conduct, requiring contributors to adhere to international and national guidelines for the safety and protection of research participants.
- Authors must disclose any human and animal rights-related issues inherent in their submissions.
- Authors conducting experiments on human subjects must specify whether their procedures adhere to national and international ethical standards governing human experimentation, including the 1975 Helsinki Declaration (revised in 2008).
- In situations where doubt exists regarding compliance with the Helsinki Declaration, authors must provide a rationale for their approach and demonstrate explicit approval by the institutional review body for any questionable aspects of the study.
- When reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate whether institutional and national standards for the care and use of laboratory animals were followed. Further guidance on animal research ethics is available from the International Association of Veterinary Editors' Consensus Author Guidelines on Animal Ethics, Welfare and Guide for the care and use of laboratory animals and the WMA statement on animal use in biomedical research. JGMDS support the 3Rs principles (Replacement, Reduction and Refinement) for human and animal usage in research.
- Patients have a right to privacy that should not be violated without informed consent. Identifying information, including names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, or pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication.
- In cases where there are suspicions regarding the ethical framework of a study, the JGMDS editorial board reserves the right to reject a manuscript, even if ethics committee approval has been secured. The editorial board may also communicate with the Author (s)' ethics committee to address the concerns raised.
Informed Consent Policy
- The participant consent form should be taken from an adult participant and parents/guardians of participants of minors and deceased.
- Consent must be taken for all case reports/ clinical pictures/ adverse drug reactions. It should be written in the methodology section of the manuscript.
- The consent form must be made available at the editor's request and should be confidential.
- If there is doubt regarding the patient's anonymity, then informed consent must be obtained.
- Masked study participants' consent should be provided in written form to the editors.
- Case reports should be according to the CARE
Authorship Policy:
- All persons designated as authors should qualify for authorship. An author is generally considered to be someone who has made substantive intellectual contributions to a published study. To qualify as an author one should meet all the 4 criteria for authorship as recommended by The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.
1) have made substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data [must have contributed for at least ONE of these] AND
2) have been involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
3) have given final approval of the version to be published, AND
4) agree 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. - Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content. Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group, alone, does not justify authorship.
- Any issue related to authorship/contributership including Ghosts, Guests and other Distortions of Authorship etc will be dealth as per COPE Guidelines.
Authors are advised to consult COPE guidelines to avoid and handle disputes regarding authorship
Plagiarism Policy:
To verify the originality of articles submitted to JGMDS, all submitted manuscripts are scanned and compared with the Turnitin database. JGMDS strictly follows the PMDC and HEC guidelines/criteria for all types of plagiarism. The duplicate publication can range from getting an identical paper published in multiple journals to salami-slicing, where authors add small amounts of new data to a previous paper. If plagiarism is detected by JGMDS, the editorial board member, reviewer, and editor will not accept the manuscript at any stage. The similarity index should not be more than 17%.
Ethical/Scientific Misconduct:
JGMDS follows the guidelines provided by the COPE, WAME, ICMJE, and HEC for dealing with scientific misconduct below;
- Falsification of data: ranges from fabrication to deceptive selective reporting of findings and omission of conflicting data or willful suppression and distortion of data.
- Plagiarism: The appropriation of the language, ideas, or thoughts of another without crediting their true source and representation of them as one's original work.
- Improprieties of authorship: Improper assignment of credit, such as excluding others, misrepresentation of the same material as original in more than one publication, the inclusion of individuals as authors who have not made a definite contribution to the work published; or submission of multi-authored publications without the concurrence of all authors.
- Misappropriation of the ideas of others: An important aspect of scholarly activity is the exchange of ideas among colleagues. Scholars can acquire novel ideas from others while reviewing grant applications and manuscripts. However, improper use of such information can constitute fraud. Wholesale appropriation of such material constitutes misconduct.
- Violation of generally accepted research practices: Serious deviation from accepted practices in proposing or carrying out research, improper manipulation of experiments to obtain biased results, deceptive statistical or analytical manipulations, or improper reporting of results.
- Material failure to comply with legislative and regulatory requirements affecting research, Including but not limited to serious or substantial, repeated, willful violations of applicable local regulations and law involving the use of funds, care of animals, human subjects, investigational drugs, recombinant products, new devices, or radioactive, biologic, or chemical materials.
- Inappropriate behaviour with misconduct: This includes unfounded or knowingly false accusations of misconduct, failure to report known or suspected misconduct, withholding or destruction of information relevant to a claim of misconduct and retaliation against persons involved in the allegation or investigation. (http://www.wame.org/recommendations-on-publication-ethics-policies-for-medical-journals).
- Every allegation of ethical/scientific misconduct is taken seriously at JGMDS. We will follow the guidelines prescribed by COPE and ICMJE. The manuscript processing will be halted while the fact-finding investigation is carried out.
Retraction Policy:
As per COPE Guidelines, a publication should be retracted by the editors if:
- There is clear evidence that the findings are unreliable due to major errors (experimental error or miscalculation), fabrication or falsification (image manipulation).
- There exists plagiarism.
- The findings have been published elsewhere without proper attribution to previous sources, disclosure to the editor, permission to republish, or justification.
- It contains material or data without authorization for use.
- Copyright has been infringed, or there is some other serious legal issue.
- It reports unethical research.
- It has been published solely based on a compromised or manipulated peer review process.
- The Author failed to disclose a major competing interest (a.k.a. conflict of interest) that, in the editor's view, would have unduly affected interpretations of the work or recommendations by editors and peer reviewers.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) Assisted Technology Policy:
As per ICMJE recommendations, Authors must disclose any use of AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, image generators) in both the cover letter and manuscript, specifying how they were used. AI tools cannot be listed or cited as authors. Human authors are fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, and integrity of the work, including AI-assisted content. All AI-generated material must be reviewed, free of plagiarism, and properly cited.
Conflict of Interest Policy:
A definition by WAME states that "conflict of interest exists when a participant in the publication process (author, peer reviewer, or editor) has a competing interest that could unduly influence (or be reasonably seen to do so) his or her responsibilities in the publication process."
Any conflict of interest should be declared by all authors. This may include grants or honorarium, credits and promotions, memberships or any personal or professional relationships which may appear to influence the manuscript. Such competing interests are not unethical but should be declared. Authors should state the conflict of interest clearly in the submission statement form. This statement should also appear at the end of the text before the references. If there are no conflicts of interests, the authors should state, none to declare (to Comply with ICMJE recommendations)
