Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

Section A: Publication and authorship

1. All submitted papers are subject to a strict peer-review process by at least two international reviewers that are experts in the area of the particular paper. Reviewers are being selected by Associate Editors and Editor in Chief. The author also can propose reviewers for some journals and article types.
2. The factors that are taken into account in the review are relevance, originality, readability, statistical validity, and language.
3. The possible decisions include acceptance, minor revisions, major revisions, or rejection.
4. If authors are encouraged 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 the same journal or in another journal.

Section B: Authors' responsibilities

1. Authors must certify that their manuscript is their original work.
2. Authors must certify that the manuscript has not previously been published elsewhere, or even submitted and reviewed in another journal.
3. Authors must participate in the peer review process and follow the comments.
4. Authors are obliged to provide retractions or corrections of mistakes.
5. All Authors mentioned in the paper must have significantly contributed to the research. The level of their contribution also must be defined in the “Authors’ Contributions” section of the article.
6. Authors must state that all data in the paper are real and authentic.
7. Authors must notify the Editors of any conflicts of interest.
8. Authors must identify all sources used in the creation of their manuscripts.
9. Authors must report any errors they discover in their published papers to the Editors.
10. Authors must not use irrelevant sources that may help other researchers/journals.
11. Authors cannot withdraw their articles within the review process or after submission, or they must pay the penalty defined by the publisher.
    
    

Section C: Peer review/responsibility for the reviewers

1. Reviewers should keep all information regarding papers confidential and treat them as privileged 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 150 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.
   
   

Section D: 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 on the paper's importance, originality, clarity, and relevance to the 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 internationally 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 rejecting or accepting it) unless they have a serious reason.
    
    

Section E: Publishing Ethics Issues

1. The MHJ’s policy regarding suspected scientific misconduct including plagiarism, fabricated data, falsification, and redundancy is based on the guidelines on good publication practice of the “Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)”. The complete guidelines appear on COPE website: http:/www.publicationethics.org.uk.
2. All editorial members, reviewers, and authors must confirm and obey the rules defined by COPE.
3. The 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).
4. Authors cannot make major changes in the article after acceptance without a serious reason.
5. All editorial members and authors must will to publish any kind of corrections honestly and completely.
6. Any notes of plagiarism, fraudulent data, or any other kinds of fraud must be managed based on the COPE recommendations.
   
   

Section F: Plagiarism policy

Definition:

Plagiarism means presenting the work of someone else as your own. In another word, The time an author uses a considerable portion of his or her own previously published work in a new one without properly citing the reference, it is called a duplicate publication sometimes also referred to as self-plagiarism.

Policy:

The editorial team/reviewers of “Men's Health Journal” will check the submitted manuscripts for plagiarism twice (once after submission and once before publication) using available plagiarism detection software such as iThenticate. If suspected plagiarism is found in an article either before (by reviewers or editorial team) or after (by readers) publication, Men's Health Journal will act according to COPE’s code of conduct and flowcharts. 

Section G: Authorship conflicts

Based on the ICJME recommendations "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".

Any change in authorship (i.e. order, addition, and deletion of authors) after initial submission must be approved by all authors via written confirmation, in line with COPE guidelines. It is the corresponding author’s responsibility to ensure that all authors confirm they agree with the proposed changes. If there is disagreement amongst the authors concerning authorship and a satisfactory agreement cannot be reached, the authors must contact their institution(s) for a resolution. It is not the journal editor’s responsibility to resolve authorship disputes. A change in authorship after publication of an article can only be amended via publication of an Erratum.

Section H: Intellectual Properties

Based on the obtained author agreement upon submission, "Men's Health Journal" is the copyright owner of the published material. However, according to Bethesda Statement, all works published in this journal are open access and freely available to anyone on the journal website without cost under creative common license BY-NC. Based on this license, under the condition of proper citation, “Men's Health Journal” grants all users the following rights:

1. Free, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual access to all published materials.

2. To copy, use, distribute, transmit and display the work.

3. To make and distribute derivative works in any digital medium for any non-commercial purpose.