Khyber Medical University Journal (KMUJ) promotes research integrity and adherence to the core values of research like objectivity, honesty, openness, fairness, accountability, and stewardship. We expect that researchers who want to submit their manuscripts to KMUJ believe in the culture of responsible research.

KMUJ being a member of COPE endorses the core practices of COPE and deal any suspected misconduct as per COPE guidelines. KMUJ is also following the policies of WAME regarding research ethics and professionalism and Council of Science Editors.

Research ethical committees’ approval

• Authors must provide approval or exemption from an institutional ethical review board/committee for all research articles at the time of submission.
• Where applicable, authors must also submit written approval from the relevant authority or institution where the research was conducted.
• When reporting experiments involving human participants, authors must state whether the procedures were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible institutional or regional ethics committee and complied with the latest version of the Declaration of Helsinki. Authors must avoid using patients’ names, initials, or hospital numbers, especially in illustrative material.
• When reporting experiments involving animals, authors must confirm adherence to the institution’s guidelines, a national research council’s guide, or applicable national/international laws governing the care and use of laboratory animals.

PROTECTION OF RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS: HUMAN AND ANIMAL RIGHTS POLICY

• KMUJ aims to publish ethical and responsible research and expects its contributors to adhere to national and international guidelines for the safety and protection of the research participants.
• KMUJ requires all authors to declare any issues related to human and animal rights that may be inherent in their submissions.
• All articles under consideration that experiment on human subjects and animals in research are required to have institutional review board approval in accordance with ethical standards set forth in the ICMJE- Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals.
• On rare occasions, if there is suspicion that the research was not conducted within an appropriate ethical framework, the editor will initiate appropriate procedures as outlined by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). The KMUJ editorial board may reject the manuscript—even if ethics committee approval has been obtained - and/or contact the author(s)’ ethics committee to address the concern.

       

HUMAN RIGHTS POLICY 

• KMUJ follows ICMJE Recommendations on Protection of Research Participants,  and World Medical Association  (WMA) Declaration of Helsinki – ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects 
• Authors reporting studies involving human participants must provide an undertaking that the procedures adhered to applicable national and international ethical standards, including the Helsinki Declaration.
• If there is any uncertainty regarding full compliance with the Helsinki Declaration, authors must present a clear rationale for their approach and submit evidence that the institutional review board explicitly approved any aspects of the study that deviate from these principles.

Informed consent & maintaining the confidentiality of research participants

• Authors of manuscripts presenting research on human subjects should provide a copy of ethical approval certificate along an undertaking that “informed consent to participate” was taken from adult participants and/or from parents/guardians of participants under 18 years of age. This should also be documented in methods section of the manuscript.
• Informed consent must be obtained for all Case Reports, Clinical Pictures, and Adverse Drug Reactions.
• Authors should avoid identifying patient information, including patients' names, initials, or hospital numbers, in written descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent/ guardian) gives written, informed consent for publication.
• If the research involves vulnerable populations such as children, prisoners, or individuals with cognitive impairments, additional safeguards and consent processes may be required to protect their rights and well-being.
• Consents might be required by the editor on images from participants in the study. Consent form must be made available to Editors on request, and will be treated confidentially.
• Informed consent should be obtained if there is any doubt that anonymity can be maintained, e.g. masking the eye region in photographs of patients is inadequate protection of anonymity.”
• Masked Study Participants – If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic malformations, authors should provide written assurance to the editors that alterations do not distort scientific meaning.
• Retrospective Studies: In cases where obtaining individual informed consent is impractical, KMUJ may allow for a waiver of consent for retrospective studies that use de-identified data. However, strict ethical considerations and institutional review board approval are still necessary.
• Authors are advised to follow the CARE guidelines for case reports.

 

ANIMALS RIGHTS POLICY

• KMUJ publishes research conducted on animals and would like its contributors to strictly follow the national and international guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals in research.
• Authors are encouraged to consult and follow:
• WMA statement on animal use in biomedical research
• International Association of Veterinary Editors’ Consensus Author Guidelines on Animal Ethics and Welfare
• Guide for the care and use of laboratory animals
•  ARRIVE (Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments) Guidelines To ensure transparent and comprehensive reporting of animal research.
• In addition to ICMJE recommendations, KMUJ also support 3Rs principals (Replacement, Reduction and Refinement) for humans and animals’ usage in research. Briefly 3Rs are mentioned below:
• Replacement: approaches, which avoid or replace the use of animals
• Reduction: approaches, which minimize the number of animals used per experiment
• Refinement: approaches which minimize animal suffering and improve welfare

• Prior to acceptance of a manuscript, to verify compliance with the above policies, the authors must:
• Provide ethical review committee approval certificate indicating that the study protocol was in accordance with international, national, and/or institutional guidelines.
• Declare that the experiments on animals were conducted in accordance with local Ethical Committee laws and regulations as regards care and use of laboratory animals.
• Sign a letter certifying that legal and ethical requirements have been met with regarding the humane treatment of animals described in the study.
• Indicate in the Methods (experimental procedures) section that appropriate measures were taken to minimize pain or discomfort, and details of animal care should be provided.

INFORMED CONSENT: Authors should submit the undertaking that informed consent was taken from the client if they involved the client-owned animals.

 

AUTHORSHIP

• All persons designated as authors should qualify for authorship. An author is generally considered to be someone who has made substantive intellectual contributions to a published study.
• To qualify as an author one should meet all the 4 criteria for authorship as recommended by The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.
  1) have made substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data [must have contributed for at least ONE of these] AND
  2) have been involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
  3) have given final approval of the version to be published, AND
  4) agree 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.
• Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content. Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group, alone, does not justify authorship.
• Any issue related to authorship/contributership including Ghosts, Guests and other Distortions of Authorship etc. will be dealt with as per COPE Guidelines.
• Authors are advised to consult COPE guidelines to avoid and handle disputes regarding authorship 

 

PLAGIARISM

• All articles submitted to KMUJ are screened through Turnitin software for similarity index.
• KMUJ follows the standard definition and description of plagiarism and we endorse The COPE, ICMJE, & Higher Education Commission (HEC) Pakistan policies regarding plagiarism.
• Intellectual contribution and originality of every article is to be defined by the authors and this is the responsibility of authors to be aware of various forms of plagiarism like plagiarism of ideas, text, paraphrasing, self-plagiarism including redundant/duplicate publication, salami slicing (data fragmentation) and text recycling etc. ignorance regarding plagiarism and its various forms will not be considered as an excuse.
• Any manuscript submitted for publication or a manuscript accepted for publication or even an article that has already been published in the journal is found to be plagiarized, the matter will be dealt with according to COPE guidelines.
• Editorial Board will immediately stop the processing/ publication of the article and will ask for an explanation from the authors. The corresponding author will be required to respond with an explanation within 30 days of receiving the letter/email from the editor.
• In case an acceptable explanation is provided by the author(s), the KMUJ editorial board may recommend appropriate changes after which the review process for the submitted manuscript may commence.
• In cases of non-response within the stipulated time or an unsatisfactory explanation, the KMUJ editorial board will determine the appropriate course of action, which may include:
• REJECTION of the manuscript
• RETRACTION of an already published article (if applicable)
• Debarment of the author(s) from future publication in KMUJ for a period of one year or permanently, depending on the severity of the offence
• Placing the author(s) under watch for future submission
• HEC, PM&DC, PAME and authors ‘institute will also be notified for information and possible action.
• The author(s) will have to provide documentary proof of retraction from publication, if such a defense is pleaded.
• Those claiming intellectual/idea or data theft of an article must provide documentary proof in their claim.