Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement
“International Journal of Biomedicine” (IJBM) endorses and behaves in accordance with the codes of conduct and international standards established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). IJBM publishes peer-reviewed articles on the topics of basic, applied, and translational research in biology and medicine.
Editorial Procedures
IJBM’s editorial procedures are guided by the COPE Code of Conduct for Journal Editors. The editor also may be guided by the policies of the journal’s editorial board. Manuscripts are evaluated for their content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy. IJBM is committed to following best practices on ethical matters, errors, and retractions, and to providing legal review if necessary.
Confidentiality
The editor and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author and reviewers, other editorial advisers, as appropriate.
Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest
Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor's own research without the express written consent of the author. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. All authors must disclose any financial or other relations that could lead to a conflict of interest. If a potential conflict exists, its nature should be stated for each author. When there is a stated potential conflict of interest, a footnote will be added indicating the author's equity interest in or other affiliation with the identified commercial firms. All sources of financial support for the study should be cited, including federal or state agencies, nonprofit organizations, and pharmaceutical or other commercial sources. Acknowledgment of those who contributed to the research or preparation of the paper should follow the text.
Review Process
After manuscript submission, the Editor-in-Chief screens manuscripts for fit with the journal's scope and basic quality, and notifies the corresponding author whether it is under consideration for publication. The Editor-in-Chief may sometimes reject a manuscript without external peer review if the manuscript is outside the scope of IJBM or does not meet the journal’s quality standards. Articles under such consideration are sent to peer reviewers selected by the Editor-in-Chief or the Editorial Board members to whom the task has been delegated. Experts are usually not part of the editorial staff. The Editor-in-Chief or the Editorial Board members send confidential information to the reviewer with the invitation letter, which contains explicit instructions on the IJBM’s expectations for the scope, content, quality, and timeliness of their reviews to promote thoughtful, fair, constructive, and informative critique of the submitted manuscript. The Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Board members ensure that reviewers have access to all materials that may be relevant to the evaluation of the manuscript, including supplementary materials. Reviewers should clearly express their views, supported by arguments. If the reviewers recommend extensive revisions or have questions, authors may be asked to revise their manuscript and then resubmit the article. Reviewers are not allowed to make copies of the manuscript for their files. Reviewers should return or destroy copies of manuscripts after submitting reviews. The Editor-in-Chief oversees the entire peer-review process to ensure quality, ethical standards, and compliance with the journal’s scope. All articles in the IJBM are evaluated by the editor-in-chief, who makes final decisions (accept, reject, or revise) based on reviewer recommendations, expert assessments, and the journal's strategic goals. IJBM editors reserve the right to edit text for clarity, style, and length. Page proofs are sent to the authors electronically and must be returned within 72 hours to avoid delay of publication. Generally, peer review is completed within 6-8 weeks.
The Editor-in-Chief ensures ethical oversight, investigating allegations of plagiarism, falsification, or unethical research conduct. The Editor-in-Chief is the primary contact for authors.
IJBM will be pleased to accept the services of reviewers in the fields of clinical science, experimental medicine, and biology.
Publication
Research papers are published in print and online 4 to 8 weeks after acceptance. The official publication date of these papers is the date that they are posted online. Authors whose papers are published in the current issue will receive a free Certificate of Publication in recognition of their contribution to biomedical science.
Duties of Authors
IJBM accepts manuscripts that have not been published elsewhere and are not under consideration for publication by other print or electronic media. Authors must present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. The underlying data should be accurately represented in the paper. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable. The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if they have used the work of others, that this has been appropriately cited. Manuscript should conform to the Uniform Requirements for Manuscript Submitted to Biomedical Journals, developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors and available at http://www.icmje.org. Please review the section “For Authors.”
Ethical Considerations in the Conduct and Reporting of Research: Protection of Human Subjects and Animals in Research
Studies involving human subjects or tissues must adhere to the Declaration of Helsinki and Title 45, US Code of Federal Regulations, Part 46, Protection of Human Subjects, and must have received approval of the appropriate institutional committee charged with oversight of human studies. Informed consent must be obtained. All research studies involving animals must have been conducted in accordance with animal welfare guidelines, such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals or equivalent documents.
Copyright & Self-archiving
IJBM articles are published under an IMRDC user license. The author grants the Journal an exclusive right to publish his/her article on the Journal’s online platform and the right to share it in all formats, so his/her research is widely distributed after publication using the latest technology. Articles published under an IMRDC user license are protected by copyright and may be used for non-commercial purposes. A copy of the full text of each Open Access article is archived in an online repository separate from the Journal. The authors can also self-archive the final publisher's version/PDF on their personal website, departmental website, or institutional repository with a link to the publisher's version.
Users may access, download, copy, translate, text and data mine (but may not redistribute, display or adapt) the articles for non-commercial purposes provided that users cite the article using an appropriate bibliographic citation (i.e. author(s), journal, article title, volume, issue, page numbers, DOI and the link to the definitive published PDF version on www.ijbm.org).
IJBM is committed to working closely with research organizations and institutions in line with CORE’s advice on Cooperation between Research Institutions and Journals on Research Integrity Cases.
Editor-in-Chief
