International Journal of Medical Toxicology and Forensic Medicine

Authors intending to submit a manuscript to IJMTFM are strongly encouraged to carefully review the journal’s About the Journal page, section-specific policies, Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement, and Author Guidelines prior to submission.

All authors must register with the journal before submitting a manuscript. Authors who are already registered may proceed directly to the online submission system by logging into their existing account.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that their submissions comply with all applicable editorial, ethical, and formatting requirements established by the journal.

Publication Notifications

Readers are encouraged to subscribe to the journal’s publication notification service through the subscription link available on the journal’s homepage.

Subscribers will receive email notifications regarding newly published issues, including the Table of Contents, as well as announcements concerning Calls for Papers and other relevant journal updates.

The journal may use aggregated subscription information to demonstrate its readership and level of community engagement. In accordance with the journal’s Privacy Statement, subscribers’ names and email addresses will not be used for purposes other than those directly related to the journal’s communication and notification services.

IJMTFM is committed to maintaining high standards of publication ethics and adheres to the recommendations and principles of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Authors’ Responsibilities

Authors are expected to uphold the highest standards of academic integrity and are responsible for ensuring the accuracy, originality, and ethical integrity of their submitted work.

Authors must:

• Confirm that the manuscript is original and has not been previously published, in whole or in substantial part, in another publication.
• Confirm that the manuscript is not simultaneously submitted to, or under consideration or peer review by, another journal.
• Ensure that all authors who have made substantial contributions to the work are appropriately listed as authors and that all listed authors have approved the final version of the manuscript.
• Participate constructively in the peer-review process and respond appropriately and comprehensively to reviewers’ and Editors’ comments.
• Ensure that all data, results, analyses, and other information presented in the manuscript are accurate, reliable, and authentic.
• Provide sufficient methodological and supporting information to permit appropriate evaluation of the research and, where applicable, facilitate its reproducibility.
• Appropriately acknowledge and cite all sources, materials, ideas, and previous research that have contributed to the manuscript.
• Disclose all actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest that could influence the research, its interpretation, or the publication process.
• Obtain all necessary ethical approvals, informed consent, permissions, and other authorizations where applicable.
• Promptly notify the Editors if a significant error, omission, or inaccuracy is identified in a submitted or published manuscript and cooperate fully with the journal in issuing an appropriate correction, clarification, or retraction where necessary.
• Refrain from manipulating citations or including irrelevant references for the purpose of increasing citation counts, benefiting particular authors or journals, or otherwise influencing bibliometric indicators.
• Comply with all applicable copyright, intellectual property, research integrity, and publication ethics requirements.

Withdrawal of Manuscripts

Authors should carefully consider their submission before initiating the peer-review process. A manuscript should not be withdrawn during peer review or after submission without a legitimate and compelling reason.

Requests for withdrawal must be submitted to the Editors and must provide a clear justification. Where a manuscript is withdrawn without an acceptable reason, or where an author withdraws a manuscript after substantial editorial or peer-review resources have been invested, the journal reserves the right to apply the withdrawal policy and any applicable charges or penalties established by the publisher.

Peer Review Process

All manuscripts submitted to IJMTFM are subject to a rigorous and independent peer-review process.

Manuscripts are evaluated by qualified reviewers with appropriate expertise in the relevant field. Where appropriate, the journal seeks evaluations from at least three independent international reviewers. Reviewers are selected by the Editor-in-Chief or designated members of the editorial team based on their academic expertise and suitability for the manuscript.

The journal’s evaluation process may take into consideration the following criteria:

• Scientific and academic relevance
• Originality and novelty
• Significance and contribution to the field
• Methodological rigor
• Statistical validity, where applicable
• Clarity and organization
• Quality of academic writing and language
• Compliance with ethical and publication standards

Based on the peer-review and editorial assessment, the possible decisions include:

• Accept
• Minor Revision
• Major Revision
• Reject

A decision to revise and resubmit does not imply or guarantee eventual acceptance. Revised manuscripts may be subject to additional peer review at the discretion of the Editors.

Manuscripts that have been rejected will not normally be reconsidered or re-reviewed unless the Editors determine that exceptional circumstances warrant further consideration.

Originality and Duplicate Publication

Authors must ensure that their manuscript represents original work and has not been published previously or submitted simultaneously elsewhere.

The same research or substantially overlapping content must not be published in multiple journals or other publications. Any substantial overlap with previously published or submitted work must be transparently disclosed to the Editors at the time of submission.

The journal considers duplicate publication, redundant publication, plagiarism, and inappropriate reuse of previously published material to be serious breaches of publication ethics.

Authorship and Corresponding Author

Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made substantial contributions to the conception, design, execution, analysis, or interpretation of the research and who have participated in drafting or critically revising the manuscript.

All authors must approve the final version of the manuscript and agree to its submission and publication.

The corresponding author is responsible for communicating with the journal throughout the submission, peer-review, revision, and publication processes. The corresponding author should ensure that all authors have reviewed and approved the manuscript and are aware of its submission status.

Any changes to the authorship of a manuscript after submission must be justified and approved by all affected authors and the journal’s Editors. Changes to authorship after acceptance will only be considered in exceptional circumstances and require appropriate justification.

Changes Following Acceptance

Once a manuscript has been accepted for publication, authors should not make substantial changes to its content without a compelling and properly documented reason.

Any proposed major change after acceptance must be submitted to the Editors for consideration and approval. The Editors reserve the right to determine whether such changes require additional editorial assessment or peer review.

Conflicts of Interest

Authors must disclose any financial, professional, personal, institutional, or other relationships that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the research or its interpretation.

Reviewers and Editors must also disclose any potential conflicts of interest and, where appropriate, decline participation in the evaluation or editorial decision-making process.

The absence of a conflict of interest should be stated where applicable.

Research Integrity and Ethical Approval

Authors are responsible for ensuring that their research complies with all relevant ethical standards, institutional requirements, and applicable national and international regulations.

Where research involves human participants, animals, identifiable personal information, or other ethically sensitive materials, authors must obtain the appropriate ethical approval and provide relevant information regarding such approval in the manuscript.

Where informed consent is required, authors must confirm that appropriate consent has been obtained.

Corrections and Retractions

The journal is committed to maintaining the accuracy and integrity of the scholarly record.

If a significant error is identified after publication, authors are required to notify the Editors promptly. Depending on the nature and significance of the error, the journal may publish a correction, clarification, expression of concern, or retraction in accordance with applicable publication ethics guidelines.

Authors and editorial personnel are expected to cooperate fully and transparently in the correction or retraction of published material when necessary.

Plagiarism, Fabrication, and Falsification

IJMTFM has a zero-tolerance approach toward plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, and other forms of research and publication misconduct.

Plagiarism includes the unauthorized use or presentation of another person’s words, ideas, data, images, or other intellectual contributions without appropriate acknowledgment.

Fabrication refers to the invention or reporting of data or research results that do not exist. Falsification includes the manipulation, alteration, omission, or selective presentation of research materials, data, or results in a manner that misrepresents the research findings.

Suspected cases of plagiarism, fabricated or falsified data, duplicate publication, inappropriate authorship, citation manipulation, or other forms of misconduct will be investigated in accordance with the journal’s procedures and relevant COPE recommendations.

Where misconduct is confirmed, the journal may take appropriate action, including rejection, correction, retraction, notification of relevant institutions, or other measures considered necessary to protect the integrity of the scholarly record.

Editorial and Reviewer Responsibilities

Editors and reviewers are expected to conduct their responsibilities with integrity, confidentiality, fairness, and impartiality.

Editors must make publication decisions based on the academic quality, originality, relevance, and ethical integrity of manuscripts and must not discriminate against authors on the basis of personal characteristics, institutional affiliation, nationality, gender, religion, or other irrelevant considerations.

Reviewers must maintain the confidentiality of manuscripts under review and must not use unpublished information obtained through the peer-review process for personal or professional advantage.

Reviewers should provide objective, constructive, and evidence-based evaluations and should promptly disclose any potential conflict of interest that could affect their impartiality.

Compliance with Publication Ethics Standards

All authors, Editors, reviewers, and editorial staff associated with IJMTFM are expected to comply with the journal’s publication ethics policies and the relevant recommendations of COPE and ICMJE.

Any allegation of research or publication misconduct will be treated seriously and investigated in a fair, transparent, and confidential manner.

The journal reserves the right to update these policies when necessary to reflect developments in international standards, ethical guidelines, and best practices in scholarly publishing.

International Journal of Medical Toxicology and Forensic Medicine (IJMTFM) encourages libraries to include this open-access journal among their electronic journal holdings. It may also be worth noting that the journal’s open-source publishing system is suitable for libraries and academic institutions that wish to host and support journals in which their faculty members are involved in editorial and publishing activities, such as through Open Journal Systems (OJS).