Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement


1. Commitment to Ethical Standards

The International Journal of Innovative Medicine (IJIM) is committed to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics and takes all possible measures against publication malpractice. Our ethical guidelines are strictly based on the recommendations of the ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors) and the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors.

2. Ethical Guidelines for Research

  • Human Subjects and Helsinki Declaration: For research involving human subjects, authors must ensure that the work was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (World Medical Association).

  • Ethical Approval: A statement indicating that the protocol and procedures were approved by the local Institutional Review Board (IRB) or ethics committee must be included in the "Materials and Methods" section, including the approval number and date.

  • Informed Consent: Written informed consent must be obtained from all participants. For case reports involving potentially identifiable patient information/images, written consent for publication is mandatory.

  • Animal Rights: Research involving animals must comply with international guidelines (e.g., ARRIVE guidelines) and national regulations. Authors must state the approving ethics committee and the reference number of the approval in the manuscript.

3. Clinical Trial Registration

IJIM requires that all prospective clinical trials involving human participants be registered in a public trials registry (e.g., ClinicalTrials.gov, WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform) prior to participant enrollment. The trial registration number must be provided at the end of the Abstract.

4. Authorship Criteria (ICMJE Standards) & AI Policy

IJIM adheres to the ICMJE definition of authorship. An author must meet all four of the following criteria:

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

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

  3. Final approval of the version to be published; AND

  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.

  • AI and Authorship: Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools (e.g., ChatGPT, LLMs) cannot be listed as authors. The use of AI tools for writing, editing, or data analysis must be transparently disclosed in the "Materials and Methods" or "Acknowledgements" section.

5. Conflict of Interest and Funding

  • Conflict of Interest: All authors must disclose any financial, personal, or professional relationships (e.g., employment, consultancies, stock ownership) that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest regarding their submitted work.

  • Funding Sources: Authors must explicitly state who funded the work, including grant numbers, or declare if no funding was received.

6. Scientific Misconduct

IJIM has a zero-tolerance policy towards scientific misconduct. All submissions are screened for plagiarism using Turnitin/iThenticate. Forms of misconduct include:

  • Plagiarism: Copying text or ideas from others without proper attribution.

  • Data Fabrication: Making up data or results.

  • Data Falsification: Manipulating research materials, equipment, or processes, or changing/omitting data.

  • Image Manipulation: Enhancing, obscuring, moving, removed, or introducing a specific feature in an image. Adjustments of brightness, contrast, or color balance are acceptable only if applied to the whole image and do not misrepresent the information.

  • Salami Slicing: Publishing the same research in small "slices" across multiple papers.

Action in Case of Misconduct: If scientific misconduct is suspected or detected at any stage (before or after publication), the Editorial Board will investigate the issue following COPE flowcharts. This may result in rejection of the manuscript or retraction of the published article.

7. Duties of Editors and Reviewers

  • Fair Play: Editors evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.

  • Confidentiality: Editors and reviewers must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, and the publisher.

  • Objectivity: Reviewers should conduct their reviews objectively, avoiding personal criticism of the author.

  • Reviewer Conflict of Interest: Reviewers must not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.