Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

This journal adheres to the ethical guidelines set forth by the "Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)" and will act in accordance with its principles in cases of misconduct. All editorial members, reviewers and authors must confirm and obey rules defined by COPE. The journal "Health in the Field" fully commits to ethical considerations and avoids plagiarism in submitted articles.

Publication and authorship

1. All submitted papers are subject to strict peer-review process by at least 3 reviewers that are experts in the area of the particular paper. Reviewers are being selected by Associate Editors and Editor in Chief. Author also can propose reviewers for some article types.

   The reviewing process in JHF is double blind, and the authors and reviewers do not know each other's identity. Manuscripts are reviewed by at least three reviewers with related fields and expertise.

2. The factors that are taken into account in review are relevance, originality, readability, statistical validity and language.
3. The possible decisions include acceptance, minor revisions, major revision or rejection.
4. If authors are advised to revise and resubmit a submission, there is no guarantee that the revised submission will be accepted.
5. Rejected articles will not be re-reviewed.
6. The paper acceptance is constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism.
7. No research can be included in more than one publication, whether within this journal or in another journal.

 Authors' responsibilities

1. Authors must certify that their manuscript is their original work.
2. Authors must confirm that the manuscript has not previously been published elsewhere, or even submitted and been in reviewed in another journal.

3.  All the names that have been introduced as the authors must have one of the conditions 1 and conditions 2, 3 and 4:

   1- Significant participation in the general idea and design of the article idea or data collection or data analysis and interpretation 2- Designing the article or critically revising the article to find the importance of its intellectual content 3- Reviewing and checking the final version 4- Accepting responsibility for all aspects of the article and being responsible for the correctness and accuracy of the mentioned information

4. Authors' commitment agreement letter must be completed by the responsible author on behalf of all authors and approved and signed by all authors.
5. All authors mentioned in the paper must have significantly contributed to the research.
6. Authors must participate in the peer review process and follow the comments.
7. Authors are obliged to provide retractions or corrections of mistakes.
8. Authors must state that all data in the paper are real and authentic.
9. Authors must notify the editors of any conflicts of interest.
10. Authors must identify all sources used in the creation of their manuscript.
11. Authors must report any errors they discover in their published paper to the editors.
12. Authors must not use irrelevant sources.

Peer review/responsibility for the reviewers

1. Reviewers should keep all information regarding papers confidential and treat them as private information.
2. Reviews should be conducted objectively, with no personal criticism of the author. No self-knowledge of the author(s) must affect their comments and decision.
3. Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments in 500 to 1000 words.
4. Reviewers may identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors.
5. Reviewers should also call to the Editor in Chief's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.
6. Reviewers should not review manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

 Editorial responsibilities

1. Editors (Associate Editors or Editor in Chief) have complete responsibility and authority to reject/accept an article.
2. Editors are responsible for the contents and overall quality of the publication.
3. Editors should always consider the needs of the authors and the readers when attempting to improve the publication.
4. Editors should guarantee the quality of the papers and the integrity of the academic record.
5. Editors should publish errata pages or make corrections when needed.
6. Editors should have a clear picture of a research's funding sources.
7. Editors should base their decisions solely one the papers' importance, originality, clarity and relevance to publication's scope.
8. Editors should not reverse their decisions nor overturn the ones of previous editors without serious reason.
9. Editors should preserve the anonymity of reviewers (in half blind peer review journals).
10. Editors should ensure that all research material they publish conforms to international accepted ethical guidelines.
11. Editors should only accept a paper when reasonably certain.
12. Editors should act if they suspect misconduct, whether a paper is published or unpublished, and make all reasonable attempts to persist in obtaining a resolution to the problem.
13. Editors should not reject papers based on suspicions; they should have proof of misconduct.
14. Editors should not allow any conflicts of interest between staff, authors, reviewers and board members.
15. Editors must not change their decision after submitting a decision (especially after reject or accept) unless they have a serious reason.

Publishing Ethics Issues

1. All editorial members, reviewers and authors must confirm and obey rules defined by COPE.
2. Corresponding author is the main owner of the article so she/he can withdraw the article when it is incomplete (before entering the review process or when a revision is asked for).
3. Authors cannot make major changes in the article after acceptance without a serious reason.
4. All editorial members and authors must will to publish any kind of corrections honestly and completely.
5. Any notes of plagiarism, fraudulent data or any other kinds of fraud must be reported completely to COPE.

   The below document contains useful ethical guidelines for authors provided by COPE:

   https://publicationethics.org/files/COPE_DD_A4_Authorship_SEPT19_SCREEN_AW.pdf

    Plagiarism

   The Journal of Health in the Field addresses any unethical acts of copying or plagiarism in any form. Plagiarism occurs when large portions of a manuscript are copied from previously published sources. It is an unethical act of copying ideas, processes, results, or words from others without appropriate citation of the original source. Another form is self-plagiarism, where the author reuses large sections of their previously published work without proper sourcing. Manuscripts identified as containing plagiarism during the initial review stages will be definitively rejected and will not be considered for publication in the journal. If a manuscript is identified as plagiarized after publication, the editor will conduct a preliminary investigation, and if necessary, will form an advisory committee for a more thorough examination of the issue. If plagiarism is confirmed, the editor will contact the responsible author as well as, if needed, the supporting institution or organization. The Journal will publish a dual online statement related to the article to highlight the plagiarism and provide reference to the plagiarized materials. If plagiarism is substantiated and the author is unable to provide a suitable defense, the article will be retracted.

   Detection of Plagiarism

   To determine and detect plagiarism in articles, iThenticate software and other similarity detection software are used.

   Artificial Intelligence

   Currently, the journal does not accept articles that utilize artificial intelligence in their writing. Authors must declare that they have not used artificial intelligence in the preparation of their manuscript

   Licensing and Copyright Notice

   All articles published in this journal are open access and the articles are freely available online for anyone to download and use the providing address to the individual authors. Articles in this journal are licensed under a Creative Commons licence (CC BY 4.0) International License. Users are permitted to copy, distribute and reproduce the work in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. It is recommended that the digital object identifier (DOI) be included when referencing any article.

   The health in the field journal reserves copyright for authors of articles and allows them to retain full copyright of their works. This policy enables authors to maintain control over their intellectual property while also sharing their articles freely. All articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4. International License (CC BY 4.), which allows others to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the works, provided appropriate credit is given to the original author. This approach not only helps increase the visibility of research findings but also encourages collaboration within the academic community. We are committed to recognizing the contributions of authors and supporting their rights.