FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
International Pharmacy Acta
Welcome to the FAQ section of International Pharmacy Acta (Int Pharm Acta), published by the Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences. This section addresses common administrative, procedural, and ethical inquiries regarding the publication lifecycle. If your query is not resolved below, please contact the editorial office at the official contact address provided on our portal.
General and Journal Scope
What is the scope and publishing frequency of International Pharmacy Acta?
International Pharmacy Acta is a peer-reviewed academic journal dedicated to publishing high-quality original research, critical reviews, short communications, and clinical evaluations across all disciplines of pharmaceutical sciences, clinical pharmacy, pharmacology, toxicology, and pharmaceutical biotechnology. Editorial screening focuses on experimental rigor, ethical integrity, and methodological validity.
What are the publication charges or Article Processing Charges (APCs)?
In alignment with our commitment to equitable global dissemination of scientific knowledge, International Pharmacy Acta levies no submission fees, editorial processing fees, page charges, or Article Processing Charges (APCs). The entire publication lifecycle is sponsored by the Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Center at Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences.
Does the journal accept commercial advertising?
To preserve strict editorial autonomy and eliminate conflicts of interest, International Pharmacy Acta does not host commercial, product-specific, or pharmaceutical corporate advertisements on its web portal or within published issues. Editorial assessments remain fully sequestered from commercial influence, in strict adherence to COPE Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing.
Account Registration and Portal Access
How do I register an account on the journal portal?
Navigate to the Register portal on the homepage header. Complete all mandatory fields, including full institutional affiliation, academic email address, and persistent digital identifier (ORCID iD). Authors and prospective reviewers should indicate their designated system roles during initial profile completion. A system-generated verification notification will confirm successful account activation.
Select the Forgot Your Password link positioned on the primary login interface. Provide your verified primary institutional email used during profile registration and select Reset Password. A secure, time-sensitive authentication link will be transmitted to your email to establish new access credentials. If you experience persistent technical difficulties, contact the Journal Manager.

Manuscript Submission and Preparation
How should a new manuscript be submitted?
Submissions must be lodged electronically through the journal manuscript management platform. Ensure the text complies strictly with the Instructions for Authors regarding file formatting, reference styles, and ethical requirements. Log in with your registered account credentials, verify your author status, select New Submission, and follow the five-step sequential checklist, which includes metadata indexing, ethical declarations, and blinded file transfers.
Why does the New Submission option not appear in my dashboard?
A missing submission link indicates that the author role is unassigned in your user account settings. Click on your profile identifier in the upper right-hand corner, navigate to View Profile, access the Roles tab, check the Author box, and save the settings. The active submission link will subsequently populate in your navigation sidebar.
What primary documents must accompany a manuscript submission?
Each submission must include:
Complete, anonymized primary manuscript text containing tables and figure callouts.Separate title page containing full author names, institutional affiliations, corresponding author contact details,

and explicit contributorship statements conforming to ICMJE guidelines.Relevant ethics committee approval documentation and clearance codes (for human or animal investigations).Signed Conflict of Interest declaration forms (ICMJE unified format).High-resolution, uncompressed image source files.Peer Review and Editorial Processing
What peer-review model is utilized by the journal?
International Pharmacy Acta enforces a rigorous double-blind peer-review system. Both author identities and reviewer identities are concealed throughout the evaluation sequence. To ensure comprehensive evaluation, every manuscript advancing past initial desk screening is reviewed independently by a minimum of three external subject-matter experts.
How can a qualified scholar serve as a peer reviewer?
Qualified researchers holding terminal doctoral qualifications (Ph.D., Pharm.D., or equivalent clinical degrees) with an established publication record may register their interest by selecting the Reviewer role within their profile settings and detailing their primary research taxonomy and keywords. Alternatively, a curriculum vitae and summary of relevant expertise may be submitted directly to the editorial office for evaluation.
I have received an invitation to evaluate a manuscript; what protocol should I follow?
Follow the secure direct evaluation link embedded within the editorial invitation dispatch. Upon entry, examine the supplied abstract, assess whether any institutional, financial, or academic conflict of interest exists, and explicitly record your acceptance or decline within the system interface. If accepting, submit your objective, itemized scientific report through the structured critique form within the allotted evaluation window.

Manuscript Revisions and Decisions
What is the permitted timeline for submitting revised manuscripts?
Authors receiving a decision of Minor Revision or Major Revision are allocated two to four weeks (as designated in the official editorial decision letter) to complete the necessary textual adjustments, experimental supplements, and point-by-point rebuttal registers. If exceptional circumstances necessitate an extension, a formal request must be directed to the handling editor prior to deadline expiration.
How and where do I upload the revised manuscript files?
Log into your author portal, locate the active manuscript within your dashboard, and access the manuscript workflow stage. Upload the revised, fully blinded text with track-changes or highlighted text, accompanied by an explicit, line-by-line response document addressing every reviewer and editorial query. Finalize the transaction by clicking Upload.
The submission status did not update after uploading revised files. Has the submission been received?
In the manuscript tracking architecture, the primary manuscript indicator may retain its general evaluation designation until the handling editor performs quality screening on the revised files. If your files appear within the Revisions pane, they are secure and queued for editorial verification and re-dispatch to the original reviewers.

Ethical Standards, Authorship, and Post-Publication Inquiries
Can authorship arrangements be modified after initial submission or acceptance?
Any proposed amendment to the authorship list (including additions, removals, or re-ordering) post-submission requires formal written submission of an Authorship Change Form to the Editor-in-Chief. This form must specify the concrete academic rationale for the alteration and carry authenticated signatures from every original author alongside the author(s) being added or removed. Conforming to COPE guidance, authorship modifications following formal manuscript acceptance are not permitted, except in rare, thoroughly documented institutional determinations.
What are the explicit ethical clearance criteria for biomedical studies?
All investigations involving human clinical cohorts, diagnostic tissues, or patient records must state adherence to the Declaration of Helsinki and cite an active, verifiable institutiona

l review board approval number issued by an accredited entity, such as the National Committee for Ethics in Biomedical Research (Iran Ministry of Health and Medical Education). Clinical interventional trials must be prospectively indexed within the Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials (IRCT) or an equivalent WHO-recognized registry. Animal models must strictly satisfy ARRIVE metrics and institutional animal welfare board oversight.
How does the journal identify textual overlap and handle misconduct allegations?
All received submissions undergo automated similarity benchmarking via iThenticate prior to reviewer dispatch and again prior to production. Manuscripts displaying uncredited textual replication, redundant publication, falsified data points, or unacknowledged sources are rejected summarily. Suspected breaches of research integrity or post-publication grievances are investigated systematically in accordance with COPE flowcharts, with notifications routed to institutional oversight bodies where warranted.

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