Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

Section A: Publication and authorship

  1. All submitted papers are subject to peer-review by international reviewers that are experts in the area of the particular paper.
  2. The factors that the reviewers take into account in review are relevance, soundness, significance, originality, readability and language.
  3. The possible decisions include: accept, revision required, resubmit for review or decline.
  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. Double submissions will be sanctioned with immediate rejection.
  8. IMIENS will screen submitted content for originality before publication. Authors will be contacted if needed following the screening process.

Section B: Authors' responsibilities

  1. Authors must certify that their manuscripts are their original work.
  2. Authors must certify that the manuscript has not previously been published elsewhere.
  3. Authors must certify that the manuscript is not currently being considered for publication elsewhere.
  4. Authors are expected to be aware of, and comply with, best practice in publication ethics specifically with regard to authorship (for example avoidance of ghost or guest authorship), dual submission, plagiarism, manipulation of figures, competing interests and compliance with policies on research ethics.
  5. Authors are obliged to provide retractions or corrections of mistakes.
  6. All authors mentioned in the paper must have significantly contributed to the research. 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. Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors. The corresponding author should ensure that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.
  7. All authors must be inserted in the metadata section when submitting an article.
  8. If the article is already in review, authors’ names cannot be changed unless approved by the EIC.
  9. Authors must provide a patient' consent form if patients' personal data are submitted.
  10. Authors must provide Ethical Committee Approval by an Institutional Review Board (IRB) when patient trials are considered.
  11. Authors must notify the Editors and the Editorial Office of any conflicts of interest.
  12. Authors must identify all sources used in the creation of their manuscript citing the publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work.

Section C: Reviewers' responsibilities

  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.
  3. Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.
  4. Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors.
  5. Reviewers should also call to the EIC'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: Editors' responsibilities

  1. Editors have complete responsibility and authority to reject/accept an article.
  2. Editors are responsible for the overall content quality of the publication.
  3. Editors should guarantee the quality of the papers and the integrity of the academic record.
  4. Editors should publish errata pages or make corrections when needed.
  5. Editors must obtain disclosure of conflicts of interests including research funding societies.
  6. Editors should base their decisions solely one the papers' importance, originality, clarity and relevance to the Journal's scope.
  7. Editors should not reverse their decisions nor overturn the ones of previous editors without serious reason.
  8. Editors should preserve the anonymity of reviewers.
  9. Editors should ensure that all research material they publish conforms to internationally accepted ethical guidelines.
  10. 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.
  11. Editors should not reject papers based on suspicions, they should have proof of misconduct.
  12. Editors should not allow any conflicts of interest between staff, authors, reviewers and board members.
  13. Authors' conflicts of interests are published as disclosed by the authors.