1. Ethical Responsibilities

Authors

Authors must:

• Submit original, accurate, and honestly reported work.
• Avoid plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, misleading image manipulation, duplicate submission, redundant publication, and other forms of research misconduct.
• List only individuals who meet recognized authorship criteria and ensure appropriate acknowledgement of other contributors.
• Disclose funding, competing interests, prior dissemination, and relevant institutional or commercial support.
• Provide appropriate ethics approval, informed consent, and consent for publication statements where applicable.
• Accurately report methods, analyses, results, limitations, and interpretation.
• Retain relevant research records and cooperate with reasonable editorial inquiries.
• Ensure that references and citations accurately represent the sources used.
• Remain accountable for the accuracy and integrity of the work before and after publication.

Editors

Editors must:

• Make fair, independent, evidence-based, and non-discriminatory editorial decisions.
• Protect manuscript, author, and reviewer confidentiality.
• Select appropriately qualified and independent reviewers with relevant expertise.
• Identify and manage actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest.
• Ensure that editorial decisions are not influenced by commercial, personal, institutional, financial, or political interests.
• Respond appropriately to allegations of research or publication misconduct.
• Preserve the integrity of the scholarly record.
• Recuse themselves from handling manuscripts where a conflict could reasonably affect impartiality.

Reviewers

Reviewers must:

• Provide objective, respectful, constructive, and evidence-based assessments.
• Maintain confidentiality of manuscripts, supplementary files, and editorial correspondence.
• Declare relevant conflicts of interest and decline reviews where impartiality may be compromised.
• Accept reviews only when they have suitable expertise and can meet the agreed timeframe.
• Avoid using unpublished information or ideas obtained through peer review for personal, professional, academic, or commercial advantage.
• Inform editors of suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication, data manipulation, unethical research, citation manipulation, or other misconduct.
• Avoid contacting authors directly regarding a manuscript under review unless explicitly authorized by the journal.
• Not upload confidential manuscripts, figures, data, or review materials into publicly accessible artificial-intelligence systems.

Journal and Publisher

IdJMR and its publisher, Therapy Plus Clinics, are responsible for:

• Protecting editorial independence and transparent decision-making.
• Maintaining accessible publication policies and reliable editorial records.
• Supporting fair, confidential, and proportionate investigations of ethical concerns.
• Publishing corrections, retractions, and expressions of concern when required.
• Maintaining a permanent and traceable scholarly record.
• Ensuring that publication fees, advertising, sponsorship, institutional relationships, or other commercial considerations do not influence editorial decisions.

Submissions from Editors and Editorial Board Members

Manuscripts submitted by editors, editorial board members, or editorial staff must be handled independently by an editor who has no relevant professional, institutional, financial, or personal conflict with the submitting author.

The submitting editor or board member must not participate in reviewer selection, editorial discussion, or the final decision concerning their manuscript. Such submissions must undergo the same editorial and peer-review standards applied to other manuscripts.

2. Originality, Attribution, and Research Misconduct

Originality and Proper Attribution

IdJMR does not permit:

• Plagiarism.
• Self-plagiarism.
• Fabrication of data or results.
• Falsification of research records.
• Misleading manipulation of images or figures.
• Citation manipulation.
• Duplicate or simultaneous submission.
• Redundant publication.
• Undisclosed text recycling.
• Misrepresentation of research methods or results.
• Unethical or inappropriate authorship.
• Peer-review manipulation.
• Other unethical research or publication practices.

Submissions may be screened using recognized similarity-detection software. Similarity reports are treated as editorial screening tools and should not be interpreted solely according to a numerical similarity percentage. Editors assess the nature, extent, context, source, and significance of matched material before reaching a decision.

Duplicate and Simultaneous Submission

A manuscript must not be under consideration by another journal at the same time.

Authors must disclose related manuscripts, conference abstracts, preprints, theses, dissertations, reports, or previously published material that substantially overlaps with the submission.

Secondary publication may be considered only when it is ethically justified, appropriately authorized, transparently disclosed, properly cross-referenced, and consistent with applicable editorial standards.

Preprints

Posting a manuscript on a recognized preprint server before or during submission is not automatically regarded as prior publication.

Authors should disclose the existence of any preprint, including its server, persistent identifier or DOI, and relevant version. Authors are encouraged to update or link the preprint record to the final published article once the version of record becomes available.

Preprint posting does not exempt a manuscript from any other ethical or editorial requirement of IdJMR.

Data Integrity and Supporting Records

Authors must maintain accurate and complete research records.

When necessary to assess the integrity, reproducibility, or ethical conduct of a submission, IdJMR may request relevant supporting materials, including:

• Raw or processed data.
• Statistical outputs.
• Analysis code.
• Study protocols.
• Ethics approvals.
• Consent documentation.
• Clinical-trial registration records.
• Original figures or images.
• Laboratory records.
• Questionnaires or data-collection instruments.
• Other relevant documentation.

Failure to provide reasonable supporting documentation may result in rejection, suspension of editorial consideration, correction, expression of concern, retraction, or another appropriate editorial action.

Handling Allegations of Misconduct

Allegations of suspected research or publication misconduct will be assessed fairly, confidentially, proportionately, and with appropriate due process.

IdJMR may:

• Request explanations or supporting documentation from authors.
• Suspend editorial consideration while a concern is investigated.
• Seek additional independent expert advice.
• Contact co-authors where appropriate.
• Contact institutions, ethics committees, research-integrity offices, or funders where necessary.
• Reject a manuscript when serious ethical concerns are substantiated.
• Publish a correction, expression of concern, or retraction for published work.
• Apply proportionate restrictions in serious or repeated cases.

The journal will, where appropriate, follow relevant COPE procedures and internationally recognized publication-ethics guidance.

3. Conflicts of Interest and Funding

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

Authors must disclose all financial and non-financial interests that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the research, interpretation, authorship, review, or publication of an article.

Financial interests may include:

• Research grants.
• Employment.
• Consultancies.
• Honoraria.
• Paid expert testimony.
• Stock or share ownership.
• Patents or patent applications.
• Royalties.
• Travel or accommodation support.
• Equipment or material support.
• Medical writing, statistical, or analytical support.
• Relevant personal or family financial interests.

Non-financial interests may include:

• Personal relationships.
• Institutional affiliations.
• Professional rivalries.
• Academic competition.
• Advisory or leadership positions.
• Editorial roles.
• Advocacy or ideological commitments.
• Relevant legal disputes.
• Membership in organizations with an interest in the subject matter.

Recommended no-conflict statement:

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Editors and reviewers must also disclose relevant conflicts and recuse themselves whenever impartial handling or assessment could reasonably be questioned.

Funding Statements

Research articles must contain an appropriate funding statement.

For funded research:

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by [full name of funding organization] under grant number [grant number].

For unfunded research:

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Role of the Funder

Authors must describe the role of the funder or sponsor, where applicable, in:

• Study conception and design.
• Data collection.
• Data management.
• Statistical analysis.
• Interpretation of results.
• Manuscript preparation.
• Review or approval of the manuscript.
• The decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

Where the funder had no role, this should be stated.

Funding arrangements must not prevent researchers from accessing their data, reporting findings accurately, or publishing scientifically valid results.

Industry-Funded Research

Direct and indirect commercial support must be disclosed, including support from pharmaceutical, medical-device, diagnostic, biotechnology, tobacco, electronic-cigarette, cannabis or cannabinoid, food and nutrition, digital-health, healthcare technology, or other industries relevant to the research.

Failure to disclose relevant commercial support may result in rejection, correction, expression of concern, retraction, institutional notification, or another appropriate editorial response.

4. Ethics Approval, Informed Consent, and Participant Protection

Research involving human participants, animals, identifiable personal information, medical records, biological materials, or vulnerable populations must comply with applicable ethical, institutional, regulatory, and legal requirements.

Research involving human participants must be conducted in accordance with internationally recognized ethical principles, including the Declaration of Helsinki, and requirements of the responsible institutional ethics committee or institutional review board.

Studies Involving Human Participants

Authors must report, where applicable:

• The full name of the approving ethics committee or institutional review board.
• The institution and location of the committee.
• The approval or reference number.
• The approval date, where available.
• The method of informed consent.
• Whether consent was written, verbal, electronic, or waived.
• The justification for any waiver of consent.
• Measures used to protect participant privacy and confidentiality.

Sample human-research statement:

This study was approved by the [full name of ethics committee or institutional review board], [institution and location], under approval number [number] on [date]. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants before enrolment.

If verbal or electronic consent was used, authors must explain how it was documented and why it was appropriate.

If formal ethics approval was not required, the manuscript must identify the responsible authority and explain the basis for exemption.

Retrospective Studies and Medical-Record Reviews

Retrospective study design does not automatically remove the requirement for ethics review.

Authors must provide appropriate ethics approval or exemption, explain consent requirements, and describe how confidentiality and identifiable patient information were protected.

Vulnerable Participants

Additional safeguards are required when research involves participants who may be vulnerable because of age, health status, decision-making capacity, socioeconomic circumstances, institutional dependency, displacement, communication difficulties, or other relevant factors.

Examples may include:

• Children and adolescents.
• Persons with impaired decision-making capacity.
• Prisoners.
• Refugees and displaced persons.
• Economically disadvantaged populations.
• Patients dependent on investigators for healthcare.
• Persons with communication or cognitive impairments.

Consent and assent procedures must be appropriate to participants' age, capacity, language, communication needs, cultural context, and circumstances.

Studies Involving Animals

Animal research must receive prior approval from an appropriate animal ethics committee or equivalent institutional authority.

Authors must identify the approving committee and approval number where applicable and should describe:

• Relevant animal-welfare standards.
• Species and number of animals used.
• Housing and care.
• Experimental procedures.
• Anaesthesia and analgesia where applicable.
• Humane endpoints.
• Measures taken to minimize pain, distress, and unnecessary animal use.

Sample animal-research statement:

The study protocol was approved by the [full name of animal ethics committee], [institution], under approval number [number] on [date]. All procedures were conducted in accordance with applicable animal-welfare guidelines.

Studies Not Involving Humans or Animals

Where appropriate, authors may use a statement such as:

This article does not contain any studies involving human participants or animals conducted by any of the authors.

Reviews, editorials, commentaries, methodological papers, and similar articles should include an ethics statement that accurately reflects their content, methodology, and data sources.

Case Reports and Clinical Images

Authors must state whether institutional ethics approval was required for a case report or clinical image.

Written informed consent for publication must be obtained from the patient or, where appropriate, a parent, guardian, or legally authorized representative.

Identifiable information must not be published without explicit consent for publication.

Potential identifiers include:

• Names and initials.
• Dates of birth.
• Hospital or medical-record numbers.
• Detailed addresses.
• Facial images.
• Audio or video recordings.
• Distinctive physical characteristics.
• Rare or recognizable personal circumstances.
• Clinical images.
• Direct quotations.
• Pedigrees.
• Genetic information.
• Combined details that could permit identification.

De-identification alone may be insufficient where an individual could still reasonably be recognized.

For deceased patients, appropriate consent should be obtained from a legally authorized representative or next of kin where ethically or legally required.

Consent to Participate

The consent process should:

• Use language and communication methods participants can understand.
• Explain the study purpose and procedures.
• Explain reasonably foreseeable risks and potential benefits.
• Make clear that participation is voluntary.
• Explain the right to withdraw without inappropriate penalty.
• Describe confidentiality and data handling.
• Address compensation, treatment, or support where applicable.
• Provide appropriate contact details for questions or concerns.

Consent for Publication

Consent for publication is separate from consent to participate in research.

Specific publication consent is required for identifiable personal information, photographs, audio, video, clinical histories, quotations, diagnostic images, pedigrees, genetic information, or other potentially identifying or sensitive material.

Authors must retain evidence of consent and provide confirmation to the journal when requested. Consent forms containing confidential personal information should not normally be uploaded with the manuscript unless specifically requested by the editorial office.

Community-Based, Qualitative, and Global Research

Researchers should obtain appropriate ethical review before data collection, respect local values, use culturally and linguistically appropriate consent procedures, explain reasonable limitations to confidentiality, minimize individual and community harm, avoid stigmatizing language, and ensure fair representation.

Permission from a community leader or institutional authority does not replace individual consent when individual consent is ethically required.

International and cross-institutional research should seek:

• Meaningful local participation.
• Appropriate local ethics oversight.
• Fair distribution of research benefits and burdens.
• Culturally appropriate communication.
• Fair and transparent authorship.
• Responsible governance of data and biological samples.
• Avoidance of exploitative research practices.

If local ethics review was not obtained, authors must provide a clear and credible explanation.

5. Privacy, Confidentiality, Data Integrity, and Transparency

Patient and Participant Privacy

Authors must protect the privacy, dignity, and confidentiality of patients and research participants.

Identifying information should be removed unless:

1. It is scientifically or clinically necessary;
2. Explicit consent for publication has been obtained; and
3. Publication is ethically and legally permissible.

Authors must not fabricate or materially alter personal information merely to create apparent anonymity.

Data Integrity and Record Retention

Research records must be accurate, complete, and retained for a period consistent with applicable institutional, legal, funding, and disciplinary requirements.

Authors must cooperate with legitimate editorial requests for:

• Research data.
• Analysis files.
• Study protocols.
• Ethics approvals.
• Original images.
• Laboratory or clinical records.
• Other documentation needed to assess research integrity.

Data Availability Statements

Where relevant, a data-availability statement should explain:

• Whether research data are publicly available.
• The repository and persistent identifier, where applicable.
• Whether data are available upon reasonable request.
• The person or institution from whom data may be requested.
• Why data cannot be shared, where applicable.
• Any ethical, legal, privacy, consent, contractual, institutional, or security restrictions.

Sensitive Data

Identifiable, confidential, or sensitive data must not be shared in a manner that violates participant consent, privacy, confidentiality, institutional obligations, data-protection requirements, or applicable law.

6. Clinical-Trial Registration and Reporting Standards

Clinical-Trial Registration

Prospective clinical trials should be registered in an appropriate publicly accessible clinical-trial registry before enrolment of the first participant.

The manuscript should provide:

• Registry name.
• Registration number.
• Registration date.
• A link or persistent identifier where applicable.

Any retrospective registration must be transparently disclosed and explained.

Trial registration does not replace ethics approval or informed consent requirements.

Reporting Guidelines

Authors should follow reporting guidelines appropriate to the study design, including where applicable:

• CONSORT — Randomized Controlled Trials.
• STROBE — Observational Studies.
• PRISMA — Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses.
• CARE — Case Reports.
• SPIRIT — Clinical Trial Protocols.
• STARD — Diagnostic Accuracy Studies.
• ARRIVE — Animal Research.
• COREQ / SRQR — Qualitative Research.
• TREND — Non-randomized Evaluations.

Authors should use relevant guideline extensions and discipline-specific standards where appropriate.

The editorial office may request completed reporting checklists, flow diagrams, protocols, or related documentation during submission, peer review, or revision.

7. Use of Artificial Intelligence and AI-Assisted Technologies

Artificial-intelligence tools cannot be listed as authors because they cannot accept responsibility for submitted work, approve a final manuscript, disclose conflicts of interest, or be held accountable for accuracy and research integrity.

Human authors remain fully responsible for all submitted content, including content created, revised, translated, analyzed, or otherwise assisted by AI technologies.

Required Disclosure

Where generative AI or AI-assisted technology has been used in preparing a manuscript or conducting relevant research activities, authors should disclose, where appropriate:

• The name of the tool.
• The version, where relevant.
• The purpose for which the tool was used.
• The manuscript sections or research processes in which it was used.
• The extent of human review, checking, editing, validation, and accountability.

Routine spelling, grammar, or formatting tools that do not generate substantive scientific content may be treated differently where appropriate.

Author Responsibilities

Authors must independently verify AI-generated or AI-assisted:

• Facts.
• References and citations.
• Scientific interpretations.
• Translations.
• Images.
• Statistical outputs.
• Computer code.
• Analyses.
• Summaries or conclusions.

AI technologies must not be used to:

• Fabricate research data.
• Invent references.
• Manipulate or falsify findings.
• Conceal plagiarism.
• Misrepresent authorship.
• Replace necessary scientific, clinical, or ethical judgment.
• Generate false patient information.
• Process confidential or sensitive information without appropriate safeguards.

Authors remain responsible for ensuring that any AI-assisted content complies with intellectual-property, confidentiality, privacy, attribution, and research-integrity requirements.

Editors and Reviewers

Editors and reviewers must preserve manuscript confidentiality.

Confidential manuscripts, figures, datasets, reviewer reports, supplementary files, or editorial correspondence must not be uploaded to publicly accessible AI systems or third-party AI platforms where such material may be retained, used for training, shared, or otherwise processed without appropriate authorization and safeguards.

8. Corrections, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern

IdJMR is committed to correcting the scholarly record when significant errors or ethical concerns are identified.

Post-publication notices should be transparent, appropriately linked to the affected article, and maintained as part of the permanent scholarly record.

Corrections

A correction may be issued when an error affects:

• Article accuracy.
• Authorship.
• Author affiliations.
• Indexing or bibliographic information.
• Data presentation.
• Statistical reporting.
• Interpretation.
• Figures or tables.
• Another material element of the article.

A correction is generally appropriate when the error does not invalidate the central findings of the published work.

Retractions

Retraction may be considered when:

• Findings are unreliable because of major error, fabrication, or falsification.
• Serious plagiarism has occurred.
• Duplicate or redundant publication has occurred.
• Peer review has been manipulated.
• Research lacked required ethics approval.
• Serious violations of informed consent or participant privacy occurred.
• Authorship has been seriously misrepresented.
• Data or images have been manipulated in a way that materially affects reliability.
• Another major ethical or research-integrity failure makes the publication unreliable.

Retracted articles should normally remain part of the scholarly record rather than being silently removed.

The article and its online record should be clearly identified as retracted, and the retraction notice should explain the reason for retraction while avoiding defamatory, confidential, or legally inappropriate statements.

Expressions of Concern

An expression of concern may be issued when serious questions exist about a publication but:

• An investigation is incomplete.
• Available evidence is inconclusive.
• An institution or responsible body has not completed its investigation.
• Additional information is required.
• Readers should be alerted to a significant unresolved concern while due process continues.

Author Cooperation

Authors must promptly inform the editorial office when they discover a material error in a submitted or published work.

Authors are expected to cooperate with reasonable requests for:

• Explanation.
• Documentation.
• Research data.
• Correction.
• Clarification.
• Retraction where necessary.

Protecting the integrity and accuracy of the scholarly record takes priority over reputational or personal inconvenience.

9. Complaints, Appeals, and Confidential Reporting

Complaints and Appeals

Authors, reviewers, readers, research participants, institutions, and members of the public may raise concerns regarding:

• Editorial decisions.
• Peer-review conduct.
• Publication ethics.
• Conflicts of interest.
• Research misconduct.
• Discrimination or inappropriate editorial behaviour.
• Authorship disputes.
• Corrections and retractions.
• Journal procedures.

A complaint or appeal should, where possible, include:

• The complainant's name and contact information, unless anonymity is necessary.
• The manuscript or article title.
• Manuscript number or DOI, where available.
• A clear description of the concern.
• Relevant supporting evidence.
• The requested outcome, where appropriate.

An appeal against an editorial decision should identify a factual, methodological, ethical, or procedural issue that may have materially affected the decision.

Disagreement with academic or editorial judgment alone does not automatically provide sufficient grounds for an appeal.

Review and Escalation

Complaints and appeals should be reviewed fairly and, where appropriate, by an editor or responsible person who was not directly involved in the matter under dispute.

The journal will seek to acknowledge complaints within a reasonable period and provide a substantive response as promptly as the complexity of the matter allows.

Where investigation by an institution, ethics committee, funder, research-integrity office, or independent expert is required, additional time may be necessary.

Normally, one formal appeal will be considered for each editorial decision unless exceptional circumstances justify further review.

Where a complainant remains dissatisfied and the concern relates to publication ethics or research integrity, the matter may be referred to the publisher, relevant institution, ethics committee, or an appropriate external publication-ethics body.

Confidential Reporting

Ethical concerns may be reported confidentially.

IdJMR will make reasonable efforts to protect individuals who raise concerns in good faith and will not tolerate retaliation against individuals for legitimate reporting of potential misconduct.

Anonymous reports may be considered when sufficient specific information or evidence is provided, although anonymity may limit the journal's ability to investigate fully.

Contact the Editorial Office

Questions, complaints, appeals, authorship requests, conflict-of-interest disclosures, corrections, and ethical concerns should be submitted through the official contact channel of the Interdisciplinary Journal of Medical Research (IdJMR).

Correspondence should include sufficient information to identify the relevant manuscript, article, author, or ethical concern.