Privacy Statement

PUBLICATION ETHICS AND PUBLICATION MALPRACTICE STATEMENT

Our publication ethics and publication malpractice statement is mainly based on the Code of Conduct and Best-Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors (Committee on Publication Ethics, 2011).

EDITORS RESPONSIBILITIES

Publication decisions

The editor is responsible for deciding which of the papers submitted to the journal will be published. The editor will evaluate manuscripts without regard to the authors' race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy. The decision will be based on the paper’s importance, originality and clarity, and the study’s validity and its relevance to the journal's scope. Decisions to edit and publish are not determined by the policies of governments or any other agencies outside of the journal itself. The Editor-in-Chief has full authority over the entire editorial content of the journal and the timing of publication of that content. Current legal requirements regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism should also be considered.

Confidentiality

The editor and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest

Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted paper will not be used by the editor or the members of the editorial board for their own research purposes without the author's explicit written consent. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for the reviewer’s personal advantage. This applies also to invited reviewers who decline the review invitation.

Ethical Obligation

Editors will take responsive measures when ethical concerns are raised with regard to a submitted manuscript or published paper. Editors will follow COPE flow chart when dealing with cases of suspected misconduct.

REVIEWERS RESPONSIBILITIES

Contribution to editorial decisions

The peer-reviewing process assists the editor and the editorial board in making editorial decisions and may also serve the author in improving the paper.

Promptness

Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and withdraw from the review process.

Confidentiality

Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be disclosed to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor.

Standards of objectivity

Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.

Acknowledgement of sources

Reviewers should identify cases in which relevant published work referred to in the paper has not been cited in the reference section. They should point out whether observations or arguments derived from other publications are accompanied by the respective source. Reviewers will notify the editor of any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.

Disclosure and conflict of interest

Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider 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 associated with the papers.

AUTHORS DUTIES

Reporting standards

Authors of original research reports should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.

Data access and retention

Authors could be asked to provide the raw data of their study together with the paper for editorial review and should be prepared to make the data publicly available if practicable. In any event, authors should ensure accessibility of such data to other competent professionals for at least ten years after publication (preferably via an institutional or subject-based data repository or other data center), provided that the confidentiality of the participants can be protected and legal rights concerning proprietary data do not preclude their release.

Originality, plagiarism and acknowledgement of sources

Authors will submit only entirely original works, and will appropriately cite or quote the work and/or words of others. Publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work should also be cited.

Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication

In general, papers describing essentially the same research should not be published in more than one journal. Submitting the same paper to more than one journal constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.

 Manuscripts which have been published as copyrighted material elsewhere cannot be submitted. In addition, manuscripts under review by the journal should not be resubmitted to copyrighted publications. However, by submitting a manuscript, the author(s) retain the rights to the published material. In case of publication they permit the use of their work under a CC-BY license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/, which allows others to copy, distribute and transmit the work as well as to adapt the work and to make commercial use of it.

Authorship of the paper

Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors.

The corresponding author ensures that all contributing co-authors and no uninvolved persons are included in the author list. The corresponding author will also verify that all co-authors have approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest

All authors should include a statement disclosing any financial or other substantive conflicts of interest that may be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.

Fundamental errors in published works

When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and to cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper in form of an erratum.

Acknowledgement of sources

Authors should ensure that they have properly acknowledged the work of others, and should also cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work.

Human and Animal Subjects

If the work involves use of animals or human participant in the Author must ensure that all procedures were performed according to law and approved by appropriate Ethical committee. Authors should include a statement about informed consent.

References

Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). (2011, March 7). Code of Conduct and Best-Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors. Retrieved from  http://publicationethics.org/files/Code_of_conduct_for_journal_editors_Mar11.pdf

AUTHORSHIP POLICY

The policy is based on ICMJE recommendation for uniform requirements updated in December 2014.As stated the credit for authorship will be awarded to whom will meet following four criteria. 

A. Substantial contribution to conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work 
B. Drafting of the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content 
C. Final approval of the version to be published 
D. 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 

All authors will require to fill and duly sign an Authorship Performa to attest that they fulfill the above mentioned criteria. It is the collectively responsibility of authors to determine that all people named as authors meet all four criteria. The named corresponding Author will be responsible for all communication with the editor’s office during the submission, review and publication process. There is no restriction on number of authors. However any change in the order of authors, removal or addition of author after submission will be done only after a signed statement of agreement for the requested change from all listed authors and from the author to be removed or added is received by Editor-in-chief. Any person who has contributed but does not fulfill all 4 criteria of authorship should acknowledged and not listed as authors.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

All Authors at the time of submission will be required to disclose all financial, personal or institutional relationships that might bias or seen to bias their work. This will be in form of written statement. Any declaration of conflict of interest will have no bearing on editorial or review process. The disclosure will be appear at end of published manuscript.

PLAGIARISM POLICY

Independent Journal of Allied Health Sciences; follows policy to discourage and report plagiarism. It is the responsibility of the Author(s) to ensure the integrity and originality of work prior to submission of manuscript .All manuscripts are evaluated for the similarity index. When plagiarism is alleged, or concerns are otherwise raised about conduct or originality of submitted scientific work arises the editor will seek an explanation from the author(s). In case of no satisfactory explanation the Editor-in chief will initiate appropriate procedures in accordance with rules by ICMJE, PMDC, HEC guidelines/criteria for plagiarism and COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics). These can be accessed easily at  publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts , www.pmdc.pk and www.hec.gov.pk

ADVERTISEMENT POLICY

The journal will publish advertisement after declaration of conflict of interest by the company/person submitting advertisement. All advertisement will be clearly identified. The journal has a policy not to carry out advertisement of products proven to be harmful to health. The interest of organizations or agencies will have no control over classified and other non-display advertising. Same rules will apply on electronic version of journal.

PEER REVIEW PROCESS

Independent Journal of Allied Health Sciences has a policy of blind peer review. Each manuscript after check for similarity index is sent to three reviewers, on international and two national. The selection of reviewers is done by committee of editorial board members after careful consideration of credentials. All peer reviewers have to voluntarily sign a statement for respect of confidentiality of manuscript they receive for review. The details of reviewer are update on annually. All The review report is on a structured Performa which is archived for future reference. The peer reviewers are subject experts and their scientific contribution is acknowledged by the editor. The reviewers are encouraged to declare personal, financial or institutional conflict of interest. All material regarding manuscript is available to the reviewer. All correspondence is to the editor’s office. At no point the reviewer is in direct contact with the authors. The editor is ultimately responsible for the selection of all its content and editorial decisions are directed by quality and suitability for the journal. The statistical review is done by statistical team independent of reviewer.

COPYRIGHT POLICY

This journal is an open access journal. Authors sign an exclusive license agreement, where authors have copyright but license exclusive rights in their article to the publisher. In case authors have the right to:
• Share their article in the same ways permitted to third parties under relevant user license (together with personal (scholarly) purposes to create certain derivative works), so as long as they give proper attribution and credit to the published work
• Retain patent trade mark and other intellectual property rights (including raw research data).
• Proper attribution and credit for the published work

JOURNAL OWNERSHIP

Independent Journal of Allied Health Sciences is a journal of Independent Medical College, Faisalabad, Pakistan. The college is responsible for appointment and dismissal of editorial staff. This is done with advice of independent expert’s panel. Job description and contract is offered to the editor. An independent editorial board has is formulated to help the editor establish and maintain editorial policy. The Editor-in-chief has full authority over the entire editorial content of journal and timing of publication of that content. The editor has direct access to the highest level of committee of ownership appointed by the independent college.

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