This Editorial Policy sets out the publication ethics and editorial standards of the Journal of Basic & Clinical Medical Sciences (JBCMS). The journal follows the guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the Recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). Authors should read this policy, together with the Guide for Authors, before submitting a manuscript.

All articles in JBCMS are freely available online immediately on publication, without subscription or registration. Articles are published under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license, and authors retain copyright in their work. See Open Access.

Editorial decisions are based only on a manuscript's scientific merit, originality, and relevance to the journal's scope. The publisher, advertisers, and funders have no role in these decisions. Decisions are made independently of publication charges; requests for waivers are handled by the publisher and are not seen by the editors.

Manuscripts submitted by editors or Editorial Board members go through the same peer review as all other submissions. An editor who is an author takes no part in handling the manuscript or in the decision. See Editorial Structure.

JBCMS follows the ICMJE criteria for authorship. Each author must meet all four of the following: 

• a substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work, or to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data;
• drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content;
• approval of the final version to be published;
• agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work, including the accuracy and integrity of any part of it.

Contributors who do not meet all four criteria should be listed in the Acknowledgments. Generative AI tools cannot be listed as authors; see Use of Generative AI below.

All articles require an author contributions statement using the roles defined by the CRediT taxonomy. Each role should be followed by the initials of the authors who performed it, and only the roles that apply should be listed. For example:

Author contributions: Conceptualization, AB and CD; methodology, AB; software, EF; validation, AB, CD, and EF; formal analysis, AB; investigation, AB; resources, CD; data curation, EF; writing—original draft, AB; writing—review and editing, CD and EF; visualization, EF; supervision, CD; project administration, CD; funding acquisition, CD. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

For single-author articles:

Author contributions: The author wrote and revised the manuscript, and approved the final version.

All authors are encouraged to provide an ORCID iD.

Authors should confirm the author list, and the order of authors, before submission. Any change to authorship after submission, including adding, removing, or reordering authors, must be requested using the Change of Authorship Form, signed by all authors, including any author being added or removed, and sent to the Editorial Office with the reason for the change. Changes are normally accepted only before the manuscript is accepted. Requests after acceptance are considered only in exceptional circumstances and are handled in accordance with COPE guidance.

Download Change of Authorship Form

A conflict of interest exists when professional judgment concerning a primary interest, such as the validity of research or patients' welfare, may be influenced by a secondary interest, such as financial gain or a personal relationship. The existence of a conflict of interest does not in itself imply wrongdoing.

Authors must declare all financial and non-financial competing interests relating to the work, covering the 36 months before submission, on the title page of the manuscript.

Where there are none, the following statement should be used:

Conflict of interest: The author(s) declare(s) no conflicts of interest.

A declared conflict of interest does not by itself lead to rejection.

Editors, Editorial Board members, and reviewers must also declare any conflict of interest relating to a manuscript, and do not handle or review manuscripts in which they have a conflict.

Further guidance is available from COPE and the ICMJE.

The journal's full policy on generative AI and AI-assisted technologies is set out in the Guide for Authors. In summary:

• Authors: AI tools cannot be authors. Any use of generative AI in preparing a manuscript must be declared, and authors are responsible for the accuracy of all content.
• Reviewers: Reviewers must not upload any part of a manuscript or their review to a generative AI tool, and must not use AI tools to assess the manuscript or write the review. AI-assisted language tools may be used only to improve the readability of their own comments, provided no manuscript content is entered, and such use must be declared.
• Editors: Editors must not upload manuscripts or any part of them to generative AI tools. Editorial decisions are made by editors and are not generated or determined by AI tools.

Manuscripts under review are confidential. Editors, reviewers, and editorial staff must not share or discuss a manuscript, or use any information from it, except as required for the review process. The journal does not disclose the identities of reviewers. Reviewers follow the COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers.

Authors should cite literature that is relevant to and supports their work, in all article types. Citation manipulation, such as excessive self-citation or agreements between authors or groups to cite each other's work in order to inflate citation metrics, is not acceptable, and manuscripts found to contain it will be rejected. Editors and reviewers must not ask authors to cite their own work, or the journal's, unless the citation is scientifically justified. See the COPE guidance on citation manipulation.

Plagiarism is the use of another person's ideas, data, words, text, or illustrations, from published or unpublished sources, without proper attribution. It includes the reuse of authors' own previously published text without acknowledgment. Authors must cite the original source of any material they use.

Suspected plagiarism is handled in accordance with COPE guidance. Depending on the stage at which it is identified, manuscripts may be rejected, and published articles may be corrected or retracted.

Logixs Journals is a member of Crossref Similarity Check, powered by iThenticate, which compares submitted manuscripts with published literature and web content. All manuscripts submitted to JBCMS are screened with iThenticate before peer review.

JBCMS considers only manuscripts that have not been published and are not under consideration elsewhere. Manuscripts submitted simultaneously to another journal will be rejected.

Manuscripts based on a thesis or dissertation, or previously posted on a recognized preprint server, may be submitted. Authors should disclose the preprint at submission, give its DOI, and cite it in the manuscript.

Redundant publication, including dividing one study into several articles ("salami slicing"), is not acceptable. Manuscripts substantially similar to previously published work will be rejected, and published articles found to be redundant will be retracted.

Data falsification is the manipulation of research materials, data, or images to give a false impression, for example by altering results, selectively omitting data or outliers without justification, or adding or changing data sets. Data fabrication is the reporting of data or results that do not exist.

Images must not be manipulated in a way that could misrepresent the original data. Adjustments to brightness, contrast, or color must be applied to the whole image and must not obscure, remove, or introduce any feature. Any processing should be described in the figure legend or the Methods.

The journal may ask authors to provide the original data or images for verification. Failure to provide them may lead to rejection of the manuscript or retraction of a published article.

Research involving human participants, human material, or human data must be conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by an appropriate research ethics committee before the study begins. The Methods must give the name of the committee, the approval reference number, and the date of approval. Where a study was exempt from approval, the body that granted the exemption and the reason must be stated. Retrospective ethics approval is not accepted.

Informed consent to participate must be obtained from all participants, or from a parent or legal guardian for minors and others unable to consent, and the form of consent must be stated in the manuscript. Written informed consent to publication is also required for case reports and for any article containing identifiable patient information or images; see Consent to Publication in the Guide for Authors.

Manuscripts involving vulnerable groups, or raising concerns about coercion or the adequacy of consent, are examined carefully, and authors may be asked to provide supporting documents before the manuscript is considered further.

Authors should state the source of all cell lines in the Methods, citing the original publication or commercial supplier for established lines. Authors should check their cell lines against the ICLAC Register of Misidentified Cell Lines and are encouraged to report how the cell lines were authenticated, for example by short tandem repeat (STR) profiling. For newly established cell lines, ethics approval is required, and for cell lines of human origin, written informed consent from the donor must also be obtained.

Experimental research on plants, including the collection of plant material, must comply with institutional, national, and international guidelines and legislation, and any permissions required for collection must be obtained. The Methods should give the source and identity of the plant material used. Voucher specimens should be deposited in a publicly accessible herbarium or museum, with details of the populations sampled, collection date, and plant parts used.

Authors must also comply with:

the IUCN Policy Statement on Research Involving Species at Risk of Extinction;

the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

Research involving animals must comply with relevant institutional, national, and international guidelines and must be approved by an appropriate animal ethics committee before the study begins. The Methods must give the name of the committee, the approval reference number, and the guidelines followed. Where a study was exempt from approval, the body that granted the exemption and the reason must be stated. Studies should follow the principles of replacement, reduction, and refinement (the 3Rs) and be reported in accordance with the ARRIVE guidelines.

For studies involving client-owned animals, informed consent must be obtained from the owners, and the animals must receive the best standard of veterinary care.

Field studies and other non-experimental research on animals must also comply with relevant guidelines and receive appropriate approval, which must be stated in the manuscript.

Authors should follow:

the Basel Declaration;

the Ethical Guidelines of the International Council for Laboratory Animal Science (ICLAS);

the IUCN Policy Statement on Research Involving Species at Risk of Extinction;

the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

Further resources include the principles of the 3Rs; the Code of Practice for the Housing and Care of Animals Bred, Supplied or Used for Scientific Purposes; the Scientific Basis for Regulation of Animal Care and Use; and EU Directive 2010/63/EU on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes.

In line with the ICMJE Recommendations, clinical trials must be registered in a public registry before the first participant is enrolled. A clinical trial is any research study that prospectively assigns human participants or groups to one or more health-related interventions to evaluate the effects on health outcomes. Acceptable registries are the primary registries of the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform and ClinicalTrials.gov.

The registry name, registration number, and date of registration must be stated in the Methods and in the abstract. Trials registered after enrollment of the first participant will not be considered. Reports of clinical trials must include a data sharing statement; see Data Sharing.

Authors should follow the reporting guideline appropriate to their study design, state in the Methods which guideline was followed, and upload the completed checklist as a supplementary file. Further guidelines are available from the EQUATOR Network:

Authors should use the term "sex" for biological attributes and "gender" for socially and culturally shaped characteristics. The sex and, where relevant, the gender of participants should be reported. Where only one sex or gender is included, the reason should be given, and where data permit, results should be presented by sex. Authors should follow the Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER) guidelines.

JBCMS uses double-anonymized peer review: the authors and the reviewers do not know each other's identities, which helps reduce bias in assessment.

Each submission is first checked by the Editorial Office for completeness and compliance with the Guide for Authors and screened for similarity, then assessed by the Editor-in-Chief for suitability. Manuscripts that pass this stage are reviewed by at least two independent reviewers with relevant expertise, who assess scientific accuracy, methods, interpretation of results, and any ethical or legal issues. Where reviewers disagree, the editor may seek a further review. The final decision rests with the Editor-in-Chief. See Peer Review Process.

Logixs Journals and JBCMS remain neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

All manuscripts must include a data availability statement. Authors are encouraged to deposit their datasets in a public repository or to submit them as supplementary files in a machine-readable format, such as CSV or XLSX. Data must be de-identified so that participants cannot be identified. Supplementary files are published with the article under the same CC BY 4.0 license, unless otherwise stated. Authors who cannot share their data must explain why in the data availability statement.

JBCMS corrects the published record in accordance with COPE guidance:

• Corrigendum: published to correct a significant error introduced by the authors;
• Erratum: published to correct a significant error introduced by the journal or publisher;
• Expression of concern: published where there are serious concerns about an article while an investigation is under way;
• Retraction: published where the findings are unreliable, because of major error or research misconduct, or where the article involves plagiarism, redundant publication, or a serious ethical breach.

Each notice is linked to the original article. Retracted articles remain available online, clearly marked as retracted.

All journals published by Logixs Journals participate in Crossmark, a Crossref service that shows readers the current status of an article. The Crossmark button, on both the HTML and PDF versions of each article, links to the article's publication record, including any corrections or retractions published since.

JBCMS encourages authors to deposit any version of their work in institutional or other repositories of their choice, without embargo:

• Submitted version (preprint): may be deposited at any time;
• Accepted version: the manuscript after peer review, but before copyediting and typesetting, may be deposited immediately on acceptance;
• Published version (Version of Record): the final PDF as it appears on the journal's website may be deposited on publication.

Deposited versions should link to the published article using its DOI.

All content published in JBCMS is archived with the Internet Archive. Each article is deposited with full metadata and is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license.