Research Ethics Policy

IEJ follows the “Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, released by ICMJE” in which an AUTHOR is defined as someone who concurrently meets all the following conditions/requirements:

• Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
• Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
• Final approval of the version to be published; AND
• 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.

There is a distinct difference between an author and a contributor. An AUTHOR should have all the above-mentioned characteristics and significantly contributed to research/manuscript/paper. The ones, with a lesser role in the research/manuscript/paper, should be considered CONTRIBUTORS and can be mentioned in the “Acknowledgement” section.

IEJ demands authors to take full responsibility for their submitted work/manuscript/paper; e.g. validity of data, data presentation, methods/materials used, proofs, and its published form. “Methods and Materials” section should be clearly, precisely and unambiguously defined in detail(s) so as to be used by other researchers. Authors should all participate in the process of peer review and follow the requirements needed for the process.

Moreover, IEJ requires authors to carefully consider the names, order and list of all authors of the manuscript before the submission of the paper and thus, at the time of original submission, IEJ expects to be provided with the definitive/final list of authors. Any modifications in the authors list, i.e. rearrangement, addition or deletion of authors’ names in the final authorship list, should be made, following COPE guidelines, when the modification is approved by the Editor-in-Chief. To send a request for the aforementioned change, the Editor-in-Chief must receive the reason(s)/cause(s) for the change(s)/modification(s) in the list of authorship and a written letter of confirmation on the modification(s)/change(s) signed by all authors showing their agreement on the rearrangement, addition or deletion. When an author is added/removed from the paper, the letter should also show the confirmation from the author who has been added/removed from the manuscript.

The corresponding author is the author who accepts full responsibility for the communication with IEJ during the submission of manuscript(s), peer review/publication process and provides IEJ with administrative/publishing requirements; e.g. ethics committee approval, clinical trial registration documentation, gathering conflict of interest statements, providing details of authorship and so forth. Correspondence should reflect professionalism and be timely. In addition, the corresponding author shoulders the responsibility of responding to all the queries of the editorial board throughout the review and publication process in a timely manner. He/she should be in touch/cooperate with all the requests and queries from IEJ after publication. IEJ does not accept multiple corresponding authors for one manuscript, only one author is assigned to correspond with the editorial office and other addressees.

If authors do not wish to respond to the comment(s) of editor(s)/reviewer(s) and/or wish to withdraw their manuscript after conditional acceptance, the corresponding author should immediately write to the Editor-in-Chief. Additionally, the corresponding author is responsible for the accurate reflection of individual contribution to IEJ.

Publishing Ethics Issues

The editorial board of IEJ shall maintain the integrity of the academic record of IEJ, and will safeguard/monitor its publishing ethics. No fraudulent data and no plagiarism shall be allowed in the journal.

Disclosure of Funding Sources

IEJ demands authors to reveal/show/identify the source of financial support for the study/research, and if any, succinctly elaborate the role(s) of sponsor(s) in “Methods and Materials” section.

Use of Inclusive Language

IEJ believes in using inclusive language. Manuscript(s) should not have any content which may convey superiority of one to another on the grounds of sex, race, culture and/or any other characteristics, or make any assumptions regarding the beliefs and/or commitments of any reader. Inclusive language should be used throughout the manuscript. In addition, IEJ demands authors to ensure that writing is free from bias, and use job titles free of any stereotype.

Reporting Clinical Trials

CONSORT guidelines should be presented/followed for randomised controlled/clinical trials. At the time of manuscript submission, CONSORT checklist, accompanied by a flow diagram, must be provided to show the progress of patient(s) throughout the trial; including enrollment, randomization, recruitment, withdrawal, completion, and a detailed explanation on the process of randomization. IEJ will make the CONSORT checklist and template flow diagram available online.

Originality and Duplicate Publication

IEJ does not accept/acknowledge manuscripts reviewed/revised/published by other journals. It is the responsibility of author(s) to resolve any issues on copyright when citation of a figure and/or table is necessary form (an)other journal(s) which is/are not open access.

Post-Publication Discussions

The post-publication discussions may be obtained via a “letter to the editor”. If there are concerns/worries regarding any published paper(s), readers can submit a “letter to the editor” in a 3-month period after the publication of the manuscript.

Handling Complaints and Appeals

Reviewers, authors and readers may document/register/send their appeal(s)/complaint(s) to the Editor-in-Chief/editor via a letter on various issues; e.g. authorship dispute, fabrication, duplicate publication, plagiarism, falsification, conflict of interest, informed consent, un-ethical treatment of animals, bias or unfair/inappropriate competitive acts, stolen data, copyright, defamation, and legal problem. In the mentioned cases, tangible/concrete information with reliable replies to factual questions (who, when, where, what, why, how) should be sent to the editor. IEJ uses flowchart provided by the “Committee of Publication Ethics” available from: https://publicationethics.org/appeals to manage appeal(s) and complaint(s).

Data Sharing and Reproducibility

IEJ recommends authors to share/publicize??? their data to promote public trust. Consequently, IEJ encourages authors to declare the related code. If data has been already publicised, its URL or source(s) must be disclosed to the public. IEJ follows ICMJE guidelines for scholarly journal practice and ICMJE data sharing policy. Moreover, IEJ requires a data sharing statement, including “conditions of consideration for publication of a clinical trial report” as defined by ICMJE, when manuscript(s) submitted to IEJ report(s) results of clinical trials.

Privacy Statement

IEJ will not disclose names and email addresses and shall not make them available to any parties and/or for any purposes. The submitted names and email addresses are exclusively used for the purposes defined above by IEJ.

Ethical Consideration for Human and Animal Subjects

IEJ requires full registration with the “Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials” (www.irct.ir)” website or related organisation of the authors’ country, the corresponding ethical committee of university and/or research center, and any other appropriate trial registries/bodies if human subjects are used in the study; e.g. in randomized clinical trials. When human subjects are involved, the research should be conducted consistent with the principles of ethics; e.g. “WMA Declaration of Helsinki-Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects (2008) http://www.wma.net/en/30publications/10policies/b3/index.htm”. The submitted manuscripts must clearly state the involvement of human subjects in their “Methods and Materials” section with a statement showing whether the conducted study has been reviewed independently and/or ratified by an ethical board. When human subjects are involved, IEJ requires informed consent describing the procedure/research. In addition, possible risks should be fully explained to all participants who have taken part in the study/research/investigation. Human subjects should feel free to reject research participation.

IEJ requires a statement protocol approval included by an animal care institution if animals are involved in the research. Furthermore, experiments on animals should be conducted in accordance with the “European Communities Council Directive of 24 November 1986 (86/609/EEC)” next to local rules, regulations and laws governed within that country or guidelines defined by the “National Institute of Health (NIH)” in the USA regarding the use and care of animals for experimental procedures. The experiments involving animals must conform to ARRIVE guidelines. “Methods and Materials” section must demonstrate the precise and accurate measures taken to lower/minimise pain and/or discomfort. IEJ may reject the manuscripts(s) if editors realize that the study/research/investigation has not been conducted in accordance with proper ethical framework. Editor(s) may rarely contact the ethics committee to obtain further information on a particular study.

Copyright, Intellectual Property and Licensing

Copyright

IEJ demands author(s) to declare that the work/study/research is original, has not been published elsewhere before, and is not under consideration in any format by any other journal(s) for publication in printed and/or electronic version. IEJ will not accept same manuscript/study/research published in any other journals.

Deposit Policy

IEJ allows author(s) to archive published papers in any repository if the repository is properly cited.

Authorship Conflicts

IEJ commits itself to the recommendations of ICMJE, which states: “All those designated as authors should meet all four criteria for authorship, and all who meet the four criteria should be identified as authors. Those who do not meet all four criteria should be acknowledged.” If a change in authorship is imminent (e.g. order/addition/deletion of authors) after the initial submission of the manuscript, the request should be confirmed, written and signed by all authors, sent by the corresponding author and be in accordance with COPE guidelines. It is of the responsibility of the corresponding author to ensure that all authors agree on the proposed alterations. It is not the responsibility of IEJ to find a proper resolution for disputes on authorship. However, changes in authorship after the acceptance/publication of a manuscript can be only considered via a formal written request from the corresponding author signed by all authors presenting all cause(s)/reason(s) to the Editor-in-Chief. However, the final decision is made by the Editor-in-Chief based on the policies/standards/regulations of IEJ, the overview of the editorial process for individual manuscripts, the reviews provided and queries from editors.