JMHSA is very sensitive to research misconduct and uses all means available to prevent publishing miscounted researchThe journal uses this definition of the misconduct in its dealing with the issue and follows strictly the COPE follow chart in dealing with research misconduct.
Though there is no a standard definition of research misconduct, the Council of Science Editors defines research misconduct broadly in three categories of action and conducts:
- Mistreatment of research subjects
- Falsification and Fabrication of data
- Piracy and Plagiarism
Protection of human subject:
JMHSA does not publish manuscripts that do not declare a statement about the protection of human subject. Normally, the journal requires that a statement is declared that research has been reviewed by an institutional review board (IRB) either the material method section of the manuscript or in the acknowledgment section of the manuscript.
Falsification and Fabrication of data:
Fabrication is defined as making up of data without actually collecting or synthesizing scientific data. Falsification is defined as the manipulation of research material in order to reach a favorable result. Fabrication and falsification could happen at any stage of research (in the field) up to the publication of manuscript where a misuse of citation can happen (referencing to a citation when the citation does not support the argument). JMHSA tries to identify any kind of fabrication or falsification in all level of manuscript processing, from initial screening to comprehensive evaluation of a revised manuscript and even after a manuscript has been published. Report of any fabrication and falsification is an ethical duty of our authors, co-authors, reviewers, editors, and readers. In any event of falsification or fabrication, JMHSA keeps its right to retract or withdraw the fabricated or falsified article. JMHSA strictly follows the COPE follow chart in dealing with fabrication and falsification.
Plagiarism:
Plagiarism is defined as the appropriation of another person's ideas, processes, results, or words without giving appropriate credit. Another category of plagiarism is self-plagiarism when author published his own idea, data, and text in different journals when no need of such duplication exists. JMHSA uses all means to detect plagiarism. As a matter of quality assurance, a similarity of more than 25 percent in the text of a manuscript will be returned to the author to remove the similarities and reduce the chance of plagiarism. JMHSA strictly follows the COPE follow chart in dealing with plagiarised articles. All of manuscripts submitted to JMHSA will be screened for plagiarism by using Turnitin.
Authorship Consideration and Dispute Management.
JMHSA considers an author as a person who has substantially contributed in all stages of a research that the manuscript reports its result. In other hands, all authors who are listed in a manuscript have contributed to the research and the manuscript submitted to the journal. There are many different definitions of authorship among different bodies that oversee authorship rights and responsibilities. The COPE define the authorship as “The term authorship can refer to the creator or originator of an idea (eg, the author of the theory of relativity) or the individual or individuals who develop and bring to fruition the product that disseminates intellectual or creative works (eg, the author of a poem or a scholarly article).” International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) bases the authorship on the following four criteria:
- “Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work;
- Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content;
- Final approval of the version to be published;
- 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”.
JMHSA policies in maintaining its high standard of ethics have many provisions that help editorial to establish the authorship requirement that was defined by COPE or ICMJE. For this, JMHSA uses its editorial management system to validate the authorship of a manuscript submitted. CBS Int. Journal’s initial engagement with authors is through its “Editorial Management System”. The system functionally deals with the corresponding author but informs other authors any changes or major steps that are taken in the process of submission, review, revision, editing and final steps of publication. The only means of communication with authors are by email. All listed authors are required to verify their contribution to a submitted manuscript by receiving an email that informs them of the submission and the nature of authorship of the manuscript (author list with the order that is registered in the EMSS). The email clearly validates the contribution of listed authors in the manuscript. In a case that an author disputes the submitted manuscript or his contribution, the journal returns the manuscript to the corresponding author and ask to resubmit when the dispute is resolved. Any authorship dispute, after the initial step, is managed as the COPE recommends. Authors that may need information on authorship right and responsibility and the way handle disputes are referred to the COPE publication on how to handle authorship dispute at (https://publicationethics.org/files/2003pdf12_0.pdf) or to Defining the Role of Authors and Contributors in ICMJE ‘s web site at (http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html). We expect that all authors listed in a manuscript will receive the journal’s email and read and the content of the email that is provided for the purpose of authorship validation.
Other Ethical Considerations
Protection of Human and Animal Subjects
JMHSA endorses the principles governing the protection of human subjects in research embodied in the Declaration of Helsinki and expects that all investigations and research involving human subjects have been performed in accordance with these principles. It is expected that all information regarding research involving humans has been approved by an Institutional Review Board.
All manuscripts reporting human experimentation must include the following:
- A statement that the human investigations were performed only after approval by an Institutional Review Board or ethics committee;
- That it was performed in accordance with the ethical principles of the Declaration of Helsinki;
- A statement that the researchers/investigators obtained informed consent from each participant or each participant’s guardian, prior to conducting any such research;
- When reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate whether the institutional and national guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals, were followed.
Conflict of Interest
At the time of manuscript submission, the JMHSA requires that corresponding authors disclose any conflict of interest.
Photographs with Identifiable Patients
In photographs, sonograms, CT scans, etc., the physical identification of a patient should be masked whenever possible. If a patient is identifiable, written permission to use the photograph must be obtained from the patient or guardian and sent to the Journal’s Editorial Office upon manuscript submission. It must be clearly stated in the manuscript that informed consent was obtained.
Simultaneous Submission and Online Posting
JMHSA will not consider manuscripts that are concurrently submitted elsewhere or have been published previously (including online publication). The presentation of research results at scientific conferences or in the abstract book of such a conference does not constitute a previously published article. A manuscript cannot be posted on the author’s or institutional website when it has been submitted to CBS Int. Journal.
Permission to use copyrighted materials
Use of previously published or copyrighted material reproduced from another source must be properly cited. The corresponding author is responsible for obtaining written permission from the appropriate authors and/or copyright holders to use previously published or copyrighted material. Signed permission statements from the copyright holder for both print and online reproduction, must be sent to the JMHSA Editorial Office upon manuscript submission. Permission statements must also be obtained from at least one author when citing “in press” articles.
Authors' Professional and Ethical Responsibilities
JMHSA reserves the right to forward any claim of scientific misconduct to the sponsoring or funding institution, or to any other appropriate authorities for investigation ― JMHSA does not investigate or make determinations of misconduct. The author will be notified if the JMHSA forwards any manuscript to the sponsoring or funding institution for such a claim.