Publication ethics and malpractice statement for the journal

Medicine & Health (Online ISSN e-2289-5728) strictly follows to best practices in all matters related to ethics and retractions. The journal's Editorial Board does not accept plagiarism in any form or data manipulation/falsification. Authors submitting their manuscripts are advised to screen their work through a plagiarism checker or software to avoid any embarrassment. Submissions that show unreasonably high similarity in the text with existing published materials are not acceptable.

The journal follows the COPE's Core Practices and the ICMJE’s recommendations for the conduct, reporting, editing and publication of scholarly work in medical journals.

If any complaints or doubts arise during the processing or after the publication of an article, the editor-in-chief has the right to launch an investigation, including requesting all versions of manuscripts, similarity reports, full data sets, logbooks, or all necessary documents directly from the corresponding authors or through the help of the authors’ institutions. Failure to address to the enquiries and cooperate in the investigation will lead to immediate rejection of the manuscript or retraction of the published article (with retraction notice). 

It is pertinent to mention the following duties of Editor-in-Chief, authors and reviewers
 

Duties of Editor-in-Chief

1.    The Editor-in-Chief may decide or accept or reject an article entirely based on the input by reviewers and the editorial board members.
2.    The editor assigns at least two independent blind reviewers to review the manuscript.
3.    No biased decisions are taken to accept or reject any manuscript.
4.    All facts related to the work may be kept confidential.
5.    The Editor-in-Chief of this Journal is not in a position to publish any content of the submitted manuscript without having written consent from the author.
6.    Wherever necessary, errata may be published to correct any facts and the Editor-in-Chief should be in a position to clarify, rectify, retract or apologise for any event.
7.    All experiments and procedures should comply with ethical guidelines. The Editor-in-Chief reserves the right to reject any manuscript if proper ethical guidelines are not met.
8.    The Editor-in-Chief may take necessary actions if any malpractice is committed. Usually, such decisions may also be made during an editorial board meeting.
 

Duties of Authors

1.    Authors are requested to follow the journal submission guidelines.
2.    Authors must declare that their work is original and not published elsewhere.
3.    Authors may not submit the manuscript elsewhere. No duplicate publications are allowed.
4.    Authors may respond to the review comments and submit the revision within the stipulated time of one month. In case more time is needed, the authors may request it well in advance.
5.     All authors should fulfil the criteria of authorship. Regarding role of authors and contributors the journal strictly follows the ICMJE rules.
6.    Data in the manuscript text should not be manipulated and the authors should be able to produce raw data to the journal’s office for cross verification.
7.    Authors should not manipulate any data related to the manuscript.
8.    Authors should clearly state any conflicts of interest and source of funding.
9.    Authors are required to submit the declaration form or else the manuscript may not be published.
10.  The journal does not support manuscripts written by ghost authors.
 

Duties of Reviewers

1.    Reviewers should maintain the confidentiality of the manuscript.
2.    Reviewers must ensure that authors have properly acknowledged all involved organizations and institutions in the manuscript.
3.    Reviewers should accept or reject the manuscript with genuine critical comments. No biases or individual decisions should be made.
4.    If the reviewers detect any plagiarism, they should immediately alert the editor and editorial board.
5.    The reviewers should state clearly that they do not have any conflict of interest with regard to the work submitted by the authors or any organisations or institutions.
6.    The reviewers should not hold the manuscript for a longer duration beyond the permitted time for review. The reviewers should inform the Editor-in-Chief about any possible delay in reviewing the manuscript.