Publication Ethics

The American Journal of Medical Sciences and Pharmaceutical Research
ISSN: 2689-1026

The American Journal of Medical Sciences and Pharmaceutical Research is committed to integrity, transparency, and accountability in scholarly publishing. Authors, editors, reviewers, and the publisher share responsibility for maintaining ethical standards throughout submission, peer review, and publication.

Responsibilities of Authors

Originality and Proper Attribution

Authors must submit original work and acknowledge all sources appropriately. Plagiarism, including unattributed copying of text, ideas, images, or data, is unacceptable. Reuse of an author’s previously published material must be cited and disclosed.

Manuscripts must not contain fabricated data, falsified results, manipulated images, or misleading statements.

Exclusive Submission and Duplicate Publication

A manuscript must not be submitted to another journal while under consideration by this journal. Previously published research must not be presented as new work.

Authors must disclose related manuscripts, preprints, conference publications, and any substantial overlap with earlier work. Legitimate secondary publication requires transparent disclosure and appropriate permissions.

Authorship and Contributions

Authorship should reflect substantial intellectual contributions to the research and manuscript. All listed authors must approve the final manuscript, agree to its submission, and accept accountability for their contributions.

Individuals whose contributions do not qualify for authorship should be acknowledged with their permission. Gift, guest, and ghost authorship are unacceptable.

Requests to add, remove, or reorder authors must include an explanation and written agreement from all affected authors.

Data Accuracy and Availability

Authors must describe their methods and results accurately and retain supporting research records. The journal may request underlying data or documentation during assessment or investigation.

Manuscripts should include a data availability statement explaining how supporting data can be accessed or why access is restricted. Patient privacy, consent conditions, and legitimate confidentiality requirements must be respected.

Funding and Conflicts of Interest

Authors must disclose all funding sources and relevant financial or non-financial interests that could influence the research or its interpretation. The role of the funder in study design, data collection, analysis, writing, and publication decisions must be stated.

Where no relevant conflicts exist, authors should include a declaration to that effect.

Ethics in Medical and Pharmaceutical Research

Research Involving Human Participants

Research involving human participants, identifiable human material, or identifiable personal data must receive approval from an appropriate ethics committee before the research begins, where required.

The manuscript must identify the approving committee and provide the approval reference where available. If approval was waived or the research was exempt, authors must explain the basis and identify the body that made that determination.

Research must respect the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki and applicable requirements in the jurisdiction where it was conducted.

Informed Consent and Patient Privacy

Authors must obtain informed consent for participation where required. Consent for participation does not automatically constitute consent for publication.

Case reports, clinical photographs, and other material that could identify a patient require explicit consent for publication from the patient or an authorized representative. Unnecessary identifying details must be removed. Removing a name or obscuring part of an image may not adequately protect identity.

Authors must confirm consent in the manuscript and retain the relevant documentation securely.

Clinical Trials

Clinical trials must be registered in a publicly accessible clinical trial registry before enrolment of the first participant. Authors must provide the registry name, registration number, and registration date.

Any retrospective registration must be clearly disclosed and explained for editorial assessment. Trial outcomes and changes to the registered protocol must be reported transparently.

Research Involving Animals

Animal research must receive approval from the appropriate institutional or regulatory body where required. Authors must describe measures taken to minimize pain, distress, and suffering and provide the relevant approval details.

Reporting Standards

Authors should follow reporting guidelines appropriate to their study design, such as CONSORT for randomized trials, PRISMA for systematic reviews, STROBE for observational studies, CARE for case reports, and ARRIVE for animal research.

Responsibilities of Editors

Editors must assess manuscripts on their scientific quality, relevance, originality, methodological soundness, and ethical integrity.

Editors must:

• Make decisions fairly, without discrimination based on authors’ nationality, gender, religion, institutional affiliation, or personal characteristics.

• Protect the confidentiality of manuscripts and associated correspondence.

• Select reviewers with appropriate expertise and manage relevant conflicts of interest.

• Recuse themselves from decisions involving their own work or other significant conflicts.

• Investigate credible ethical concerns and take appropriate action.

• Keep editorial decisions independent of publication charges, advertising, and commercial interests.

Acceptance must not be guaranteed in exchange for payment.

Responsibilities of Reviewers

Reviewers must provide objective, constructive, and timely assessments. They must disclose relevant conflicts of interest and decline assignments when they lack suitable expertise or cannot complete the review.

Manuscripts are confidential. Reviewers must not share them without authorization, use unpublished findings for personal advantage, or contact authors directly about the review unless authorized by the journal.

Reviewers should report suspected plagiarism, data irregularities, substantial overlap, or other ethical concerns to the editor. Requests for citations must have a scholarly justification and must not serve primarily to increase personal or journal citation counts.

Use of Artificial Intelligence

Authors must disclose substantive use of generative artificial intelligence in manuscript preparation, analysis, or the creation of research content. The disclosure should identify the tool and explain its purpose.

AI tools cannot be listed as authors. Human authors remain responsible for the accuracy, originality, references, and integrity of all submitted content.

Editors and reviewers must not upload confidential manuscripts, patient information, or unpublished research data to external AI services without appropriate authorization and confidentiality protections.

Unacceptable Publishing Practices

The journal does not accept:

• Plagiarism, fabricated or falsified data, or deceptive image manipulation.

• Duplicate publication or undisclosed substantial overlap.

• Purchased manuscripts, fraudulent authorship, or paper-mill submissions.

• Fabricated reviewer identities or manipulation of peer review.

• Coercive citations or coordinated citation manipulation.

• False statements about ethics approval, consent, funding, or conflicts of interest.

• Deliberate misrepresentation of submission, acceptance, or publication dates.

Complaints and Investigations

Suspected misconduct should be reported to the editorial office with relevant evidence, such as article details, affected passages, or supporting documentation.

The journal will assess concerns fairly, seek explanations from the individuals involved, and review the available evidence. Where appropriate, it may contact institutions, ethics committees, funders, or other responsible bodies.

Possible actions include requesting clarification or revision, rejecting a manuscript, publishing a correction or expression of concern, or retracting an article. Decisions will reflect the nature and seriousness of the findings.

Corrections, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions

A correction may be published when an error affects part of an article but does not invalidate its overall findings.

An expression of concern may be issued when a serious concern remains unresolved or an investigation is ongoing.

A retraction may be issued when findings are unreliable or publication involved serious ethical breaches. Notices will explain the reason and link to the affected article. Retracted articles will normally remain accessible and clearly marked to preserve the scholarly record.

Authors must promptly notify the journal if they discover a significant error in their published work and cooperate in correcting the record.

Appeals

Authors may appeal an editorial decision by contacting the editorial office and providing a reasoned explanation with supporting evidence. Appeals will be assessed fairly, with independent editorial input where appropriate.

Contact

Questions, complaints, appeals, and reports of suspected misconduct should be submitted through the journal’s official Contact page.