PUBLICATION ETHICS

Publication ethics: The Journal of Aziz Fatimah Medical and Dental College (JAFMDC) follows the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice and publication ethics guided by scholarly organizations.

Integrity:

Editorial decisions will be based on the relevance of a manuscript to the journal and on the manuscript’s originality, quality, and contribution to evidence about important questions.

Authorship criteria: Authorship confers credit and has important academic, social, and financial implications. Authorship also implies responsibility and accountability for published article. We strictly discouraged the gifted/ghost authorship. JAFMDC follows ICMJE recommendations for authorship available on link: https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html#:~:text=2.-,Who% 20Is%20 an%20Author%3F,for%20important%20intellectual%20content%3B%20AND

Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Assisted Technology:

At submission, the journal should require authors to disclose whether they used artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted technologies in the writing process. Authors who used such technology should describe, in both the cover letter and the submitted work, how it was used. We encourage the use of AI for improving English language grammar to enhance readability. However, we discourage using AI for writing scientific content, interpreting data, or drawing scientific conclusions.

Authors should not list AI and AI-assisted technologies as an author or co-author. These technologies cannot be held responsible for the accuracy, integrity, or originality of the work, which are essential qualities for authorship. Authors must be able to verify the absence of plagiarism in their paper, including text and images generated by AI. Additionally, authors should carefully review and edit the AI-generated work, as it may contain factual errors, be incomplete, or exhibit bias.

Changes in author name sequences: Authors should be careful in submitting authorship sequence at the time of submission. We did not entertain the request for change in authorship sequence, deletion and addition of authors before or after publication.

Plagiarism and similarity index:

This journal strongly opposes the practice of duplicate publication or any type of plagiarism.

  • This journal strives to advance the state of medical knowledge by publishing the highest quality scientific research. Plagiarism undermines this goal, and therefore will not be tolerated. Our plagiarism policy adheres to the guidelines set forth by HEC, PMDC, COPE, and ICMJE. To ensure originality, all articles are processed through Turnitin software, as mandated by HEC guidelines. Turnitin, a leading anti-plagiarism application, promotes academic integrity by encouraging original writing.
  • The ICJME Guidelines allow a similarity index of up to 19% for reports. However, if a single source contributes 5% or more un-cited content, the report requires revision to reduce the overall index to an acceptable level.
  • Following revision, it will again be processed through the same software for checking its originality. After a satisfactory report, it will be sent to reviewers for peer review.
  • Articles with a similarity index within more than 19% will not be published
  • The similarities in the document may contain matches with author's previous work; it may be ignored if it is the same work.
  • If author found guilty will be dealt with COPE guidelines available at link

https://publicationethics.org/sites/default/files/plagiarism-submitted-manuscript-cope-flowchart.pdf

Image manipulation:  Images are a reflection of underlying data and methods in biomedicine. It is therefore vital that the scholarly community can trust what it sees. Manipulating images therefore, will clearly fall under the ambit of research misconduct and plagiarism. JAFMDC discourages image manipulation. In case of suspicion, author is asked to provide raw data for images.  If author found guilty, it should be dealt as per COPEs guidelines available on link: 

https://publicationethics.org/sites/default/files/image-manipulation-published-article-cope-flowchart.pdf

Redundant (duplicate) Submission: It is immoral to submit the same manuscript to more than one journal or submit already published article. If we found duplicate submission, it will be dealt according to COPE guideline available at link :

 https://publicationethics.org/sites/default/files/duplicate-publication-submitted-manuscript-cope-flowchart.pdf

Redundant (duplicate) publication: A duplicate publication in research is one that overlaps substantially with an already published paper of the same author without acknowledging the same. We dealt duplicate publication as per COPE guidelines available at link :

https://publicationethics.org/sites/default/files/duplicate-publication-published-article-cope-flowchart.pdf

Retraction Policy: Author found guilty in any type of misconduct including falsification /fabrication, duplicate publication will be dealt with COPE guideline. Information on COPE Retraction Guidelines can be found on link below: https://publicationethics.org/files/u661/Retractions_COPE_gline_final_3_Sept_09__2_.pdf

Correction policy: Editorial team is responsible to maintain the integrity of the scientific record. As suggested by ICMJE, corrections are needed for errors of fact. During proof stage, before publication, JAFMDC sends the final PDF version of the article to the corresponding author to identify any errors to be corrected by the journal and publish article after approval of the final version by the author.

Significant errors identified after publication by authors or readers are corrected in PDF copy of the online version

Citation Manipulation: Citation manipulation is a problem when references do not contribute to the scholarly content of the article and are included solely to increase citation, the result misrepresents the importance of the specific work and the journal in which it appears. Citation manipulations are dealt as per COPE guidelines available on link:

https://publicationethics.org/sites/default/files/COPE_DD_A4_Citation_Manipulation_Jul19_SCREEN_AW2.pdf

Conflict of interest:  A conflict of interest in research occurs where a person may prefer, or be perceived to prefer, their own interests or objectives over their duties and responsibilities as a researcher. Conflicts of interest may be actual, potential or perceived and involve financial or non-financial benefits. It can arise due to some personal connections or having different ideologies.

All stakeholders including authors, editors and peer reviewers should disclose all their potential conflicts of interest during the submission, processing or reviewing the article respectively.