Editorial Policies
Outline
The Journal of BioMed RB considers the protocols of Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the World Association of Medical Editors policies (WAME), the Council of Science Editors’ White Paper on Promoting Integrity in Scientific Journal Publications, and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals.
Authorship
According to ICMJE guidelines, authorship have to following criteria:
- Substantial contributions in the conception and of designing the research project or the acquisition and analysis of data, or their interpretation.
- The drafting the manuscript or making critical revision for its intellectual content.
- Approving of the final version of manuscript to be published
- Agreement of accountability for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions relevant to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the article are properly investigated and resolved.
The designated persons as authors should meet abovementioned criteria and those who do not meet them, should be acknowledged. Authors should meet "the international standards for authors" suggested by COPE.
Authorship Changes
The naming order of authors should be in accordance with their relative contribution in study and writing the manuscript. Notably, the naming order can not be changed without consent letter which be signed by all the authors. Moreover, any changes in the manuscript main body and the reason for it should be explained to the editor in chief. Corresponding author is responsible to make sure that all authors agree with changes in the manuscript. The Journal editors do not have any responsibility for resolving authorship disputes. A probable change in authorship of published article can only be done via publishing of an Erratum or correction.
Competing interests
A Competing interest or a conflict of interest (COI) arises from the author’s financial or other relationships with others that in any way affect the author’s writing, editing, and decision making. COI per se is not unethical, but its existence should be clearly stated. For COI management, BioMed RB adheres to the WAME Policy Statement.
All authors should declare all COIs in their covering letter as well as in “Conflict of Interests” section at the end of the manuscript file (before the references). In a case that authors have no COI to state, they should clearly state it in cover letter and “Conflict of Interests” section.
Ethical approval of research/publication ethics
BioMed RB abides COPE principles and by considering allegations of publication misconduct, either prior or after publication, reserves the right to contact authors' institutions, funders, or regulatory bodies if required.
If conclusive evidence of misconduct is found, the journal may take action to correct the scientific record, including providing a correction or retraction. Authors should have enough information regarding to publication ethics, specifically with regard to authorship, dual submission, plagiarism, figure manipulation, conflicting interests, and adopted to standards of research ethics.
Statement of Ethics Approval
In the submitted research articles, the statement of the ethical code issued by the research ethics committee or the institutional review board of the studies is necessary, and the journal may receive more detailed information from the authors, such as informed consent, etc.
Patient consent and confidentiality
Any manuscript encompasses private medical information about an identifiable living individual needs the patient’s explicit consent prior the journal can publish it.
The journal policy is on the confidentiality of the patient's private information in the publication of images. The paraclinical, pathological and clinical images can be used without obtaining consent by removing any identifying signs of the patient in the images and in the text of the manuscript.
Research Reporting Guidelines
In order to providing adequate information about reliability of findings reported in manuscript, authors are encouraged to use the reporting guidelines of https://www.equator-network.org/ for the study type:
- Randomized controlled trials (RCTs): CONSORT guidelines
- Systematic reviews and meta-analyses: PRISMA guidelines and MOOSE guidelines
- Observational studies in epidemiology: STROBE guidelines and MOOSE guidelines
- Diagnostic accuracy studies: STARD guidelines
- Quality improvement studies: SQUIRE guidelines
- Case reports guidelines: CARE guidelines
Clinical trial registration
As recommended by International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), a clinical trial is being 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 relationship between a health-related intervention and a health outcome”.
In line with the ICMJE, BioMed RB only would consider those clinical trials that they have been registered with a clinical trial registry that provides free online access to public. For registration of a trial, its related details should be submitted directly to any one of the Primary Registries in the WHO Registry Network, ClinicalTrials.gov or an ICMJE approved registry.
Plagiarism
BioMed RB is powered by the iThenticate platform, a plagiarism detector service that is used to check the originality of submitted manuscript before publication. When plagiarism is detected, we will act based on COPE protocols.
Plagiarism encompasses, but is not limited to:
- Directly copying text from other sources
- Using an idea from another source with moderately modified language
- Copying any materials from other sources including ideas, images, or data
- Reusing text from your previous published work
Plagiarism Policies
- If plagiarism is recognized during the peer review step, the manuscript may be rejected.
- If plagiarism is identified after publication of the article, we reserve the right to request a correction or retract the article based on COPE protocols.
Peer Review Procedure
All manuscript submitted to the BioMed RB are entered into following procedures:
1-Primary check by internal staff to assure whether or not the manuscript has adhered to policies of BioMed RB, including format and style of manuscript as well as ethical requirements for human and animal studies. If a submission has not considered the journal guides, it will send back to authors to resolve incompatibilities.
2-Submitted manuscripts are then assigned to an Editor for evaluation. The Editor decides if there is need for reviews from additional experts to evaluate the manuscript.
3- Once a manuscript could pass abovementioned steps, Peer-Review procedure which includes rigorous reviewing by two or three reviewers is being initiated to ensure quality of manuscripts accepted for publication. Although, the majority of manuscripts are reviewed by three external reviewers, the number of required reviewers is determined based on editor’s decision.
4- After receiving reviewer’s comments, the Editor chooses between the following decisions:
1. Acceptance
2. Minor Revision
3. Major Revision
4. Rejection
5-If the decision is Minor Revision or Major Revision, authors should resubmit the revised manuscript within 35 days. Authors may contact email address if they require to additional time to complete their revision.
6-Upon resubmission, the Editor may choose to send the manuscript back to external reviewers, or may make a decision based on personal expertise.
Editors have the right to decline review procedures of the submissions when the subject of the manuscript is outside the aim and scope of the Journal, or manuscript has technical problems or no novelty and is written in poor English.
Peer review policy
All the submitted manuscripts to BioMed RB are handled anonymously and entered into double-blind peer-review process.
Once the Editor-in-Chief received a submission, H/she may send it to Associate Editor who sends the submitted manuscript to two or three reviewers based on the type of manuscript.
Editors may ask an Editorial Board Member to suggest suitable reviewer.
Received comments from reviewers are evaluated by the Editor-in-Chief and/or Associate Editors, who filmizes the decision.
Both editorials and obituaries written by the journal’s editor do not subject to external peer review.
Submissions from editorial Board Members to BioMed RB are welcome. However, such submissions will not have any priority for entry to reviewing procedures and will pass same process as other submissions.
In a case that a submission belongs to an Editorial Board Member, H/She will not be involved in the editorial review of the manuscript, will not access to confidential information on the editorial procedure, and influence on the final decision.
Research articles written 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 procedure or final decision for it.
Any interests of editorial board members of BioMed RB that may have influence, or be perceived to influence, their activities in editorial board are required to be declared.
The editorial board members should not include themselves to handling the manuscripts which has a conflict of interest, financial or others. This policy included for previous publishing with one or more authors or sharing the same institution as one or the more authors.
In case of receiving submission from the Editors or Editorial Board members by the journal, this submission will be sent to Editors unaffiliated with the author or institution and monitored to assure there is no bias in peer review procedure.
Permissions
Authors responsible to secure all permissions required for using any written or illustrative materials which have been or will be published elsewhere. Authors should obtain written consent of the copyright holder. This includes authors own previously published materials if they are not copyright holder.
Reproducing materials
The materials published by the BioMed RB may be reproduced in full or part in any medium, but only if the original material is cited properly.
Publication frequency
Quarterly. The BioMed RB is released four times a year.
Publication Fees
BioMed RB is an open access journal which means no fee is payable by the authors as publishing charge.
Open Access Agreement
Based on open access policy. All the articles published in BioMed RB can be downloaded, accessed and read free of charge.
Sending Complaints
Any complaint about editorial policies or submissions handling should be emailed to contact@biomedrb.com