Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing
Edorium Journals is dedicated to publishing high quality work and giving exceptional services while adhering to highest ethical principles of scholarly publishing. Edorium Journals follows the "Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing" given jointly by The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE),
the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA), and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME).
Principles of Transparency and Best Practice followed by Edorium Journals:
Website: Every journal has a modern, easy to navigate website. The websites are made ensuring high ethical and professional standards. An 'Aims & Scope' statement is separately included. Criteria for publication followed by the journal is given. ISSN is clearly displayed under Bibliographic Information.
Name of journal: Every journal publish by Edorium Journals has a unique name.
Peer review process: Every article is clearly marked as whether peer reviewed or not. Peer review process and policies are clearly described on the journal's website.
Ownership and management: Information about the ownership and/or management of the journals is clearly indicated on the journal's/publisher's website.
Governing body: Journals Editorial Board members are recognized experts in the subject areas included within the journal's scope. The full names and affiliations of the journal’s editorial board are provided on the journal’s website.
Editorial team/contact information: The full names and affiliations of the journal’s editors are given on the journal website. The contact information for the editorial office is also given.
Copyright and Licensing: The policy for copyright is stated in the author guidelines and also separately. The name of the copyright holder is given in all published articles. Licensing information is also clearly described on the website. The licensing terms are indicated on all published articles.
Author fees: All processing charges required for manuscript processing in the journal are clearly stated in such a way that it is easy for potential authors to find this information prior to submitting their manuscripts for review. Every authors is also told clearly about the processing charges while assigning manuscript ID immediately after manuscript submission.
Process for identification of and dealing with allegations of research misconduct: The journals, publishers and editors are vigilant to identify and prevent the publication of papers where research misconduct has occurred, including plagiarism, citation manipulation, and data falsification / fabrication, among others. The journal has a clearly stated policy for research misconduct and its investigation. The publisher and editor follow COPE guidelines in dealing with allegations of research misconduct.
Publication Ethics: Journals have clear policies on publication ethics which are described in details on the journal website.
Publishing schedule: The periodicity of publication of the journal is clearly indicated on 'About the Journal' page.
Access: The way(s) in which the journal and individual articles are available to readers is stated on the journal website.
Archiving: A journal’s plan for electronic backup and preservation of access to the journal content is clearly indicated in Ethics and Policies.
Revenue sources: Business models and revenue sources are clearly stated on the journal’s website. The ability to pay the processing charges or waiver status does not influence editorial decision making.
Advertising: Journals advertising policy is sated on the journal website.
Direct marketing: The direct marketing activities, if undertaken by the journal are appropriate, well targeted, and unobtrusive.
Terms of submission
Authors are strongly encouraged to review the entire 'Guidelines for Authors' before submitting a manuscript to International Journal of Case Reports and Images, to ensure that the manuscript is properly prepared and formatted. If the manuscript is not prepared according to the Guidelines for Authors, it will be returned to the authors for revision before being sent for editorial review.
All manuscripts submitted for publication must be prepared in accordance with the latest update of Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals given by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).
Manuscripts are considered for publication with the understanding that they have not been published previously, they have not been accepted for publication and are not currently under consideration for publication by another publisher in print or electronic medium (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture, review or thesis).
All submissions must be made by the corresponding author only.
Multiple submissions from single author, submission with plagiarism and reduntant/overlapping publications will not be considered for review and publication.
Different terminologies important for authors include
Pre-publication: It is the preliminary version of the publication produced before the final publication.
Plagarism: "PLAGIARISM" can occur in two forms: 1) author(s) intentionally copy someone elses work and claim it as their own, or 2) author(s) copy her or his own previously published material either in full or in part, without providing appropriate references - also called as "self-plagiarism" or "duplicate publication".
Reduntant/overlapping publications: Publications whose content substantially overlaps with an already published article.
Inquiries about status of submitted manuscripts or queries about the accepted manuscripts may be sent to the Editorial Office using the "Contact Editorial Office" page. All queries will get a response at the earliest.
Ethical Expectations
Editor-in-Chief
To perform all editorial duties in a fair, impartial and balanced way, without discrimination on grounds of race, gender, ethnicity, religious beliefs, political affiliations or geographical origin of the authors.
To provide a constructive, fair, and informative critique of the author's work indicating weakness in content and language and comments for improvement.
To be alert for instances of ethical violations in author's work, like plagiarism and duplicate submission.
To investigate all complaints of ethical violations and conflicts of interests, in a fair and objective way, without regards to date of incident.
To protect and maintain confidentiality of information, ideas and author's work and not use it for personal advantages or gains.
To take all possible steps to protect and maintain integrity of the journal.
Member of Editorial Board
To perform all editorial duties in a fair, impartial and balanced way, without discrimination on grounds of race, gender, ethnicity, religious beliefs, political affiliations or geographical origin of the authors.
To provide a constructive, fair, and informative critique of the author's work and based on the peer reviews give decision about the suitability of work for publication in the journal.
To be alert for instances of ethical violations in author's work, like plagiarism and duplicate submission.
To protect and maintain confidentiality of information, ideas and author's work and not use it for personal advantages or gains.
To take all possible steps to protect and maintain integrity of the journal.
Peer Reviewers
To provide a constructive, fair, and informative critique of the author's work indicating weakness in scientific content and language and comments for improvement.
To maintaining the confidentiality of the peer review process by not disclosing or discussing the contents of the manuscript with persons not directly involved with peer review of the manuscript.
To be alert for instances of ethical violations in author's work, like plagiarism and duplicate submission, and inform the editors immediately if such instances are noticed.
Authors Responsibilities
To submit a manuscript for publication only if it is not published previously, is not accepted for publication and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.
To maintain accurate records of data associated with the submitted manuscript and to make it available on request by the Editorial Office.
To acknowledge and cite sources if any content is taken from author's own or someone else's previously published articles or articles currently under review in any journals.
To ensure that any studies involving human or animal subjects conform to national, local and institutional laws and requirements and confirm that necessary approval has been obtained.
To take written informed consent from human subjects and respect their privacy.
To take written informed consent from human subjects if any identifying information like photographs or names of subjects is included in the study.
To declare any potential conflicts of interest for all authors of a submitted work at the time of manuscript submission.
To assign authorship according to international norms and acknowledge anyone else who provided support for the study but do not quality for authorship.
To take all possible precautions to avoid occurrences of ethical violations and unethical behavior in the submitted manuscript like duplicate submissions, plagiarism, citation manipulation, data falsification, improper author contributions and redundant publications. (Note about citation manipulation: Citation Manipulation is said to occur if a manuscript submitted for publication includes citations whose primary aim is to increase number of citations of a specific journal or of any specific author's work. Publication policy of Edorium Journals does not allow more than 10% citations in a manuscript submitted to any journal to be from the same author (as first author or co-author) or from the same journal, unless it is absolutely necessary to include more than 10% citations from the same author or the same journal.)
To promptly notify the journal editor or publisher if a significant error is identified in the author's work during review or after publication of the article.
To cooperate with the editor and the publisher in investigation of ethical violations and unethical behavior.
Authorship
An "author" is generally considered to be someone who has made substantive intellectual contributions to a published study. Authorship of scientific literature continues to have important academic, social, and financial implications.
The authorship is assigned according to the criteria given in “Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Ethical Considerations in the Conduct and Reporting of Research: Authorship and Contributorship”.
Authorship credit should be based on 1) substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; 2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; 3) final approval of the version to be published; and 4) agreed 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. Authors should meet at least one criterion from conditions 1, 2, 3, and 4.
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an acknowledgments section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, or a department chairperson who provided only general support.
Submission of a manuscript to Edorium Journals is taken to mean that all the listed authors have agreed to all of the contents, including the author list and author contributions statements. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to ensure that i) all authors agree to the content of the manuscript, ii) all authors agree to the author list and order of authors in the list, iii) all authors approved the manuscript submission to the journal. Corresponding author is also responsible for managing all communication between the journal and all co-authors, before and after publication.
Change in Authorship
The change in authorship can be:
Addition of extra author before publication
Removal of author before publication
Addition of extra author after publication
Removal of author after publication
Change in order of authors
In line with COPE guidelines, Edorium Journals requires that any changes to the author list after submission, such as addition or deletion of authors or change in the order of the authors, needs to be approved in writing by every author of the manuscript. Such written confirmation must be submitted to the editorial office before changes in authorship for a manuscript can be made.
Change in authorship can only be made till the final decision about acceptance has been communicated to the author. If final decision has been sent, no change in authorship will be allowed after that.
All the requests for change in authorship will be processed according to COPE guidelines
Editorial Review
Editorial Process
Manuscript Submission
All manuscripts submitted for publication are received by the Editorial Office. The Managing Editor examines all files including cover letter, text files, graphs, charts and figures. If the files meet the technical and formatting requirements of the journal, authors are sent an acknowledgement of the manuscript along with a Manuscript ID number. Authors are requested to quote the manuscript ID number in all correspondences with the journal.
Technical Revisions
If the manuscript files do not meet the technical requirements of the journal, authors are sent detailed instructions about the changes required in the manuscript and asked to resubmit the files to the Editorial Office.
First Editorial Review
After the files pass the technical and formatting requirements, the manuscript is assigned to a Section Editor or a member of the Editorial Board. The editor reviews the manuscript and returns the manuscript along with the editorial comments. The editorial process gives the editors the authority to reject any manuscript if it does not meet the scientific publishing standards or is out of scope of the journal.
Peer Review
Based on the comments of the editor the manuscript is sent for external double-blind peer review. The manuscript is usually sent to two to four expert peer reviewers. The peer review process followed by the journal is double-blind. In this process the peer reviewer's identities are kept confidential and not revealed to the authors. In the same manner the author's identities are not revealed to the peer reviewers. This ensures a fair and unbiased review of every manuscript.
Second Editorial Review
After the peer reviewers return the manuscript with their comments, the manuscript with reviewers’ comments is sent to the editor. The editor reviews the manuscript and the comments and recommends suitability of the manuscript for publication in the journal. Based on the editor's comments the first decision on acceptance, minor revision, major revision or rejection of the manuscript is taken.
Manuscript Revision
The authors are promptly informed of the editorial decision for the manuscript. The editor's and reviewers’ comments are also sent to the authors with the decision email. If the manuscript is accepted for publication, the authors are sent instructions about how to respond to the editorial and reviewer comments and make changes in the manuscript. At this stage, based on the comments, the manuscript may need changes to text, figures, tables etc.
Author Appeal Against Decision
If the authors feel that they are not satisfied with the editorial decision about publication of the manuscript, authors may appeal the decision. The instructions for the appeal procedure are given on Ethics & Policy page. The average submission to first decision time is about six weeks.
Third Editorial Review
After author's response to editor's and reviewer's comments are received, the manuscript is reviewed by the assigned editor and if required the manuscript is again sent to the reviewers for their comments. After the editor has reviewed the manuscript and the responses, final decision about publication of the manuscript is taken. The authors are promptly informed of the decision.
Page Proof
After acceptance of the manuscript, it may be edited for grammar, punctuation, style and accuracy. An edited, pre-print proof of the manuscript with all figures, table and charts included, is sent to the corresponding author for approval. The proof is sent as a PDF file. The authors are also sent a proof corrections form, which the authors can use to submit any changes required in the manuscript. Please note that at this stage it will not be possible to make any significant changes to the text or add or delete figures. The proof need to be returned to the Editorial Office within three days (72 hours).
Manuscript Publication
After the corrected proof are received by the Editorial Office, the final version of the manuscript is prepared for publication. During preparation for publication, HTML, PDF, XML and other formats of the manuscript are prepared. After receiving page proof, the average time to publication is approximately four weeks. All manuscripts are published in multiple formats.
Editor Manual
All members of the Editorial Board are sent an Editor Manual to be used as a reference for manuscript review process.
Editor manual was written to help make the Editor and members of the Editorial Board more comfortable with their roles and familiarize them with the editorial and peer review processes. Please note that the Editor Manual is a confidential document.
Editorial and Peer Review in Special Cases
For fair and unbiased evaluation of submissions from editors, reviewers and members of editorial staff the process given below is followed.
If a manuscript is submitted for publication by the Editor-in-Chief (author of the manuscript), the Editor-in-Chief will assign the manuscript to an editor (Dr. ABC) who will, without informing the Editor-in-Chief will transfer the manuscript to another editor (Dr. XYZ). The second editor (Dr. XYZ) will make all decisions about the manuscript and communicate the decision to the Editor-in-Chief (author of the manuscript) through the first editor (Dr. ABC). The first editor will keep the identity of the second editor anonymous from the Editor-in-Chief.
If a manuscript is submitted for publication by a mamber of the Editorial Board, the name of the handling editor will not be disclosed to either the editor (author of the manuscript) or the co-authors. Only the Editor-in-Chief and the Journal editorial staff will be privy to this information.
If a manuscript is submitted for publication by a current or past reviwer for the journal, the name of the handling editor will not be disclosed to either the reviewer (author of the manuscript) or the co-authors. Only the Editor-in-Chief and the Journal editorial staff will be privy to this information.
If a manuscript is submitted by an author who is at the same institution as one of the editors, the manuscript will be handled by another editor who is not at that institution.
If a manuscript is submitted by an author who is a family member of the editor or personally or professionally related to the editor (e.g. friend, colleague or student) the manuscript will be handled by another editor.
Peer Review
Double-Blind External Peer Review
All manuscripts submitted for publication undergo double-blind, external peer review. The journal is committed to providing its authors a rapid review process with "submission to first decision" time being less than six weeks and "submission to publication" time being about three months.
Peer Review Process
After a manuscript is submitted, it is reviewed by a member of the Editorial Board. If the manuscript passes the editorial review, the editor suggests the names of the reviewers to whom the manuscript can be sent for double-blind peer review. In the double-blind peer review process neither the reviewers nor the authors know the identity of each other. This enables an unbiased and accurate review of the manuscript.
Reviewer Selection
The reviewers are selected on the basis of their area of expertise and interests, their reputation and our past experience with the reviewers. The reviewers are sent an invitation to review the manuscript. If the reviewers accepts the offer to review the manuscript, they are sent the complete manuscript and a Manuscript Review Form.
Reviewer’s Conflict of Interest
In all cases, reviewers are asked to declare any conflict of interest based on the contents of the manuscript. If a conflict of interest exists, the reviewers are requested to decline to review the manuscript.
Peer Review Time
We strive to provide authors with an efficient review process with "submission to first decision" time being less than six weeks. We request the reviewers to help us in reducing the decision time as much as possible by providing the reviews on time. It is very frustrating for authors to wait for months or years to receive reviewers' comments for their manuscript. We request the reviewers to respond promptly to messages from Editorial Office and inform us if they are unavailable for any length of time.
Manuscript Review Form
When a manuscript is sent to the reviewers for evaluation it will be accompanied by a Manuscript Review Form. The reviewers are requested to use the form for reviewing the manuscript. Using a form will save time to review the manuscript and ensure a more structured and accurate review.
The Manuscript Review Form has two sections - 'Comments for authors' and 'Confidential comments for Editors'. Anything written in the "Comments for authors" will be sent to the authors. The reviewers can use the section "Confidential comments for Editors" to send any confidential comments to the editors, which will not be transmitted to the authors.
Reviewers can submit the completed Manuscript Review Form using 'Submit Peer Review' option on the journal website under 'Submit' tab in the menu. The reviewer can also send the completed Manuscript Review Form as email attachments to the following email address:
Peer Review Expectations
Reviewers are expected to provide an objective critical assessment of the manuscript about the concept of the study, relevance in relation to current scientific knowledge, scientific content, language and grammar. Reviewers will asked to make a recommendation for publishing the manuscript. Please provide reasons for the recommendations.
If the manuscript needs changes for improvement before it is accepted for publication, please make the suggestions on how to improve it. If the comments are negative please help the authors in improving their manuscript by explaining weaknesses in scientific content or language. We do not tolerate any offensive language in the comments. We may edit the reviewer's comments for any errors in facts or language or to remove confidential information.
Peer Review Confidential
The review process is a confidential communication between the Reviewers, Editors, Editorial Staff and the Corresponding author. Please do not discuss any manuscript received for review, with anyone not directly involved in the review process.
Decision on Manuscript
Based on the reviewer's comments the assigned editor will give a decision about the acceptance or rejection of the manuscript. The Editor may decide to: 1) accept the manuscript without revisions, 2) invite authors to resubmit the manuscript after minor or major revisions while the final decision is kept pending, or 3) reject the manuscript.
When the manuscript review process is complete, reviewers' and editor's comments are sent back to the author with the editorial decision. If the authors are asked to resubmit the manuscript with changes and response to comments, we may send the revised manuscript and author's responses to the reviewers for further review.
Privileges for Peer Reviewers
We realize that reviewing the manuscripts poses an extra burden on the reviewer's precious time. As an appreciation for the valuable services and taking out time to review the manuscripts, for every peer review completed within the stipulated time, we will offer the reviewers a 20% discount on the Article Publication Charges, for one manuscript, if they submit their manuscript to this journal for publication. As a further token of encouragements to the reviewers, we will acknowledge the reviewer's contribution in the annual statement.
Editorial and Peer Review in Special Cases
Edorium Journals follows a policy of double-blind, external peer review. In the double-blind peer review process neither the reviewers nor the authors know the identity of each other. In all cases, reviewers will be asked to declare any conflict of interest based on the contents of the manuscript.
If a manuscript is submitted for publication by the Editor-in-Chief (author of the manuscript), the Editor-in-Chief will assign the manuscript to an editor (Dr. ABC) who will, without informing the Editor-in-Chief will transfer the manuscript to another editor (Dr. XYZ). The second editor (Dr. XYZ) will make all decisions about the manuscript and communicate the decision to the Editor-in-Chief (author of the manuscript) through the first editor (Dr. ABC). The first editor will keep the identity of the second editor anonymous from the Editor-in-Chief.
If a manuscript is submitted for publication by a mamber of the Editorial Board, the name of the handling editor will not be disclosed to either the editor (author of the manuscript) or the co-authors. Only the Editor-in-Chief and the Journal editorial staff will be privy to this information.
If a manuscript is submitted for publication by a current or past reviwer for the journal, the name of the handling editor will not be disclosed to either the reviewer (author of the manuscript) or the co-authors. Only the Editor-in-Chief and the Journal editorial staff will be privy to this information.
If a manuscript is submitted by an author who is at the same institution as one of the editors, the manuscript will be handled by another editor who is not at that institution.
If a manuscript is submitted by an author who is a family member of the editor or personally or professionally related to the editor (e.g. friend, colleague or student) the manuscript will be handled by another editor.
Copyright Policy
International Journal of Case Reports and Images follows an open-access publishing policy. All articles are published and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution International License.
All work submitted to International Journal of Case Reports and Images implies that it presents original, unpublished work of authors, which has not been published previously, has not been accepted for publication elsewhere and is not under consideration for publication by any publisher in any print or electronic media. Corresponding Author on behalf of all authors of the manuscript will be required to sign and submit a completed Author Agreement Form after the manuscript is accepted for publication.
International Journal of Case Reports and Images Open Access Copyright and License Agreement
Copyright notice
All articles published in International Journal of Case Reports and Images are open-access articles, published and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits reproduction, distribution, derives and commercial use, provided the original work is properly cited and authors and publisher are properly identified.
Brief summary of the license agreement
By submitting your research article(s) to International Journal of Case Reports and Images, you agree that:
Anyone is free:
to copy, distribute, and display the work.
to make derivative works.
to make commercial use of the work.
Under the following conditions: Attribution
the original author and publisher are clearly and fully given credit (but not in any way that suggests that author and publisher endorse the user or user's use of the work.
for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are.
any of these conditions can be waived if the copyright holder gives explicit permission.
To read the full text of the open-acess licence agreement, click here.
Copyrighted Material
If authors wish to reproduce text, figures, tables, graphs or charts, that are already been published or will be published elsewhere, they must acknowledge the source of such material and obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) to reproduce the material in their manuscript. It is the author's responsibility to secure all permissions prior to publication. This includes author's own previously published material, if author's are not the copyright holder. It is the author's responsibility to pay any fees associated with publishing data from another source.
Author's will be required to sign a statement in the Author Agreement Form, stating that such permission was obtained by the corresponding author. Please submit a copy of the permission letter or other evidence that such permission has been granted along with the Author Agreement Form.
Research Ethics
Research on Human Subjects
For research involving human participants, written informed consent is mandatory, and all experiments and clinical investigations must be conducted according to the ethical standards given in the Declaration of Helsinki of 1975, as from time to time.
All research involving human subjects must be approved by the authors' institutional review board or appropriate committee(s). The name of the board must be given in the manuscript.
The manuscript should contain a statement in the Methods/Experimental section of the manuscript that:
"All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008." and
"Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study."
If informed consent was not taken, give an explanation why this is so. State whether the informed consent was written or oral. If oral informed consent was taken, it must be stated in the manuscript: i) why written consent could not be obtained, ii) that the institutional review board or appropriate research committee(s) approved the use of oral consent, and iii) how oral consent was documented. Must state whether informed consent was written or oral.
Authors may be required to submit, on request, a statement from the institutional review board or research ethics committee indicating approval of the research. If a form was used to take written, informed consent from the patient included in the study, submit a sample of the patient consent form.
If no human experiments were performed, omit the above statement and include the statement:
"This article does not contain any studies with human subjects performed by any of the authors."
Animals Studies and Ethical Treatment
Studies involving experiments with animals must state that their care was in accordance with institution's or national research council's guidelines for, or any national law on the care and use of laboratory animals. All animal work must have been conducted according to relevant national and international guidelines. Animal experimental procedures should be as humane as possible and the details of anesthetics and analgesics used should be clearly stated.
Evidence for approval by a local Ethics Committee (for both human as well as animal studies) must be supplied by the authors on demand.
The manuscript should contain a statement in the Methods/Experimental section of the manuscript that:
"All institutional and national guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals were followed."
"This article does not contain any studies with animal subjects performed by any of the authors."
NOTE: For both human and animal research
"This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors."
If ethical approval was not required or if the research was not conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration, the authors must: i) give an explanation why this was so, ii) explain the rationale for their approach, and iii) provide evidence that the institutional review body explicitly approved the doubtful aspects of the study.
Research Misconduct
To ensure fair and un-biased investigations, guidelines given by The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) to handle cases of suspected misconduct are followed.To see COPE flowcharts for investigations of Research misconduct, click here.
Complaint
Any ethical misconduct or unethical behavior may be identified and brought to the attention of the editor or the publisher at any time, by anyone.
If an individual informs ethical misconduct or unethical behavior, they should provide sufficient information and evidence in order for an investigation to be initiated.
The identity of the complainant will be kept confidential, unless requested otherwise.
Complaint Investigation
Every effort will be made to ensure that the investigation process is fair and just for the accused and the complainant. The complaint will be acknowledged and the investigation started promptly. The rights of the accused and of the individual(s) making the allegation will be respected.
An initial decision whether alleged ethical misconduct or unethical behavior requires investigation will be taken by the Editor in consultation with the publisher.
All evidence related to ethical misconduct or unethical behavior will be collected. It is paramount to involve only those persons who can contribute to the investigation or resolution of the misconduct. All communication must be on a need-to-know basis.
Strict confidentiality will be maintained during the investigation and even after the investigation is complete. Information regarding the investigation and its findings may be released in cases in which misconduct has been determined to have occurred or when the existence of an investigation has become generally known.
In all cases the author or other involved parties will be given an opportunity to respond to any allegations. Authors or other relevant parties are expected to cooperate fully with the investigation.
Serious misconduct may require involvement of the one or more individual's supervisor, institute or employer. The Editor, in consultation with the publisher should decide whether or not to involve supervisor, institute or employer. This is based on the available evidence, expected outcome and advice of the experts.
Investigation Outcomes
Informing the individual(s) that a misconduct or unethical behavior occurred and educating them about how to avoid it in future.
A warning letter covering the misconduct and future expectations.
Publication of a formal notice in the journal detailing the misconduct.
A formal letter to the individual's supervisor, institute or employer detailing the misconduct.
A formal retraction or withdrawal of the paper from the journal.
An embargo on the individual for future contributions, for a pre-specified time.
Data sharing and reproducibility
Authors are responsible for making materials, code, data and associated protocols available to readers. The preferred way to share data is by publicly depositing it in specialized depositories given below:
FORCE11: For reporting in the life sciences for Sequence Molecule Identification, Reporting of Antibodies, Reporting of Model Organisms, Reporting of Cell Lines, Constructs, and Reporting of Knockdown Reagents.
Dryad, Dataverse, Open Science Framework: If suitable domain-specific repositories do not exist
GenBank, INSDC, Protein Data Bank, UK Stem Cell Bank, Addgene, RIKEN Bioresource Centre: For Large domain-specific datasets
RIKEN Bioresource Centre; the Jackson Laboratory; the European Mouse Mutant Archive; the European Conditional Mouse Mutagenesis Program; the American Type Culture Collection; the Knockout Mouse Project; Addgene; the Mutant Mouse Regional Resource Centers: For physical materials such as cell lines or mutant strains
Data must be provided in a machine readable format
Any potential restrictions on data, code or materials must be disclosed at the time of submission
Conflicts of Interest
A conflict of interest exists when professional judgment concerning validity of research may be influenced by external factors like financial gain, material benefits or personal interests. It may arise for the editors, reviewers or authors of a manuscript submitted for publication to Edorium Journals when external factors may influence the conduct and interpretation of research.
It is important to know about the conflicts of interest of the editors, reviewers and authors in order to make the best decision for handling of the article during editorial and peer review process. It is also important for the readers of the article to know about any conflict of interest.
Author's Conflict of Interest
All authors are required to disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest including any financial, personal or other relationships that could inappropriately influence, or be perceived to influence, their work. Authors are required to declare any conflict of interest at the time of manuscript submission.
For Research Papers
Authors of a research paper are required to submit the revised version of ICMJE form for disclosure of potential conflicts of interest. All journals published by Edorium Journals along with other journals that are members of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors ask authors of research papers to submit the ICMJE's unified disclosure form at the time of manuscript submission.
For other papers
For papers, other than research papers, include the conflicts of interest statement in the manuscript at the time of submission as shown in the examples below:
No conflicts of interests
"We certify that we have no affiliation with or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a direct financial or any other interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript."
"We declare no conflicts of interest."
Declaration of conflicts of interest
"We declare the following conflicts of interests: Author ABC is a part-time paid consultant for XYZ Corporation. Author PQR is on the advisory board of RST Company and has received fees as an advisory board member."
Editor's Conflicts of Interest
Editors of all journal published by Edorium Journals group (Editor-in-Chief, Section Editors, Editors) are obliged to disclose any and all potential conflicts of interest to Edorium Journals. This disclosure should be made at the time of enrolling as editor, as soon as a conflict of interest develops any time after enrolling as editor and separately for each manuscript sent for editorial review.
Peer reviewer's Conflicts of Interest
All peer reviewers of a manuscript will be required to declare the conflict of interest in the manuscript review form, as the first step of manuscript evaluation process. If a material potential conflict of interest, financial or otherwise exists, the reviewers are requested to excuse themselves from the review process
Some examples of conflicts of interest
Financial interest in or arrangements with any company
Direct or indirect sources of funding
Direct or indirect sources of material benefits
Paper submitted by editor of the journal
Paper submitted by family member
Paper submitted by student
Paper submitted by colleague
Paper submitted from own institution
Reviewer knows with certainty the identity of the authors
Reviewer can guess fairly accurately the identity of the authors
Confidentiality
Edorium Journals, journal editors and editorial staff treats all submitted manuscripts and communication between the journals, journal editors, peer reviewers and authors as confidential information.
Authors must also treat all communication with editors, reviewers and editorial staff and all material and documents received from editorial office as confidential and must not be posted on any website or otherwise publicized in any form or medium, without prior permission from the editors/publisher, before or after publication and even if the submission is not published.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism before publication
If plagiarism is detected, either by the editors, peer reviewers or editorial staff at any stage before publication of a manuscript, we will alert the author(s) for making revisions to the manuscript. If the plagiarism is extensive the article may be rejected and the author's institution/employer notified.
When is plagiarism check done?
Every manuscript submitted for publication to any journal published by Edorium Journals is checked for plagiarism after submission and before being sent to an editor for editorial review.
How is plagiarism check done?
Edorium Journals uses CrossCheck (powered by iThenticate) to detect instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts. CrossCheck is a multi-publisher initiative to screen published and submitted content for originality.
How are manuscripts with plagiarism handled?
The manuscripts in which plagiarism is detected are handled based on the extent of plagiarism present in the manuscript.
<5% plagiarism - The manuscript is assigned a manuscript ID and it is immediately sent back to the authors for content revision.
5–25% plagiarism - The manuscript is NOT assigned a manuscript ID and it is immediately sent back to the authors for content revision.
>25% plagiarism - The manuscript is rejected without editorial review. The authors are advised to revise the plagiarized parts of the manuscript and resubmit it as a fresh manuscript.
What to do in cases of plagiarism?
If you come across a case of plagiarism in any journal from any publisher, please do inform the editorial office(s) of all the involved journals, giving them the journal names, title of manuscripts, name of authors, volume number, issue number, year of publication and any other information you may have. The editorial offices will handle the cases as per their policy.
Plagiarism after publication
If plagiarism is detected after publication, the Edorium Journals will conduct an investigation. If plagiarism is found, the journal editorial office will contact the author's institute and funding agencies. The paper containing the plagiarism will be marked on each page of the PDF. Depending on the extent of the plagiarism, the paper may also be formally retracted.
Corrections/Retractions
Article Withdrawal
Articles can be withdrawn by either by the authors or the publishers. The article can withdraw anytime before it is formally published online in its final form. If the authors request withdrawal of an article, a signed statement from the authors will be required to be submitted to the Editorial Office before an article can be withdrawn. If an article is found to violate the ethical publishing guidelines of the journal such as duplicate publication, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data, multiple submission or bogus claims of authorship, the article will be withdrawn by the publisher.
Article Corrections
If any error is discovered in a paper after publication, corrections (Erratum, Corrigendum, Addendum) will be published in the next issue or as soon as the publisher and author, both agree to the proposed changes. The corrections will be published only if a significant error is found in the paper like factually inaccurate published information. Minor corrections which do not significantly affect the content and understanding of the paper like spelling mistakes and grammatical errors will not be published.
Errata is published when mistakes are introduced or not recognized in the article during editing or production, like significant typographical errors, errors in figure or table numbers or their legends, proof corrections submitted but not included in the article during editing, wrong details in the address or email of the author.
Corrigenda is published when errors are detected by the authors after publication of the paper which compromises the validity of the scientific content, its accuracy and reproducibility.
Addenda are published if the authors inadvertently omitted any significant information at the time of submitting the manuscript and want to add this content to the article after it has been published. All information submitted as addendum will be peer reviewed before editorial acceptance.
Article Retractions
Retractions are published in circumstances like, if the conclusion of a paper is found to be based on faulty logic or computation by new information made available after the paper has been published; if the paper is based on falsified or fabricated data, if plagiarized data has been published or if duplicate publications exist. A signed statement from the authors will be required to be submitted to the Editorial Office before an article can be retracted. In cases of partial retractions, the retraction notice will be labeled as 'Partial Retraction' or 'Retraction in Part'.
Article Removal
In exceptional circumstances an article may be removed from the journal. This may happen if any legal issues arise or are expected to arise in context of the article, the distribution of the article is stopped by an court order, the contents of the article may pose a serious health risk if acted upon by others, the article violates copyright of others, or if the article is found to be defamatory or infringing on other's legal rights.
Article Replacement
If an article is found to contain false or inaccurate data which may pose a serious health risk if acted upon by others, the authors of the original article may wish to retract the article and replace it with a corrected version.
Manuscript Withdrawal
Some authors request withdrawal of manuscript from the publication process after submission. Withdrawing manuscripts from publication wastes the valuable resources and tremendous amount of effort made in processing the manuscripts by the editors, reviewers and the editorial staff.
To discourage unwarranted withdrawal of manuscripts, Edorium Journals has formulated a manuscript withdrawal policy as given below.
Manuscript Withdrawal Policy
To avoid withdrawal of a manuscript we sincerely request the authors especially the corresponding author, first author and guarantor of submission, to address the following issues before submitting the manuscript for publication:
Check multiple times that the facts and data included in the manuscript are authors' own work; facts and data presented in the manuscripts are accurate and error-free, and if data and facts from any other person or sources are used, appropriate written permissions have been obtained.
Confirm that all authors agree to the presentation and interpretation of the facts and data given in the manuscript. In case of any differences of opinion, address the concerns of all the authors before submitting the manuscript for publication.
Decide on the number of authors, order of authors and authorship contributions of a paper before submitting the manuscript. Ideally these should be decided even before beginning to write the manuscript.
Before submitting the manuscript for publication, inform all the authors, the name of the journal to which the manuscript is being submitted and give them a copy of the final manuscript.
Confirm that all the authors agree on the specific journal to submit the manuscript for publication. If there are any disagreements about selection of the journal, find a solution which is agreeable to all authors before submitting the manuscript for publication.
Submit the manuscript to only one journal for publication. Do not simultaneously submit the manuscript to more than one journal.
If the manuscript has been submitted to a journal for publication in the past, do not re-submit it to another journal before receiving a confirmation from the first journal that the manuscript has been withdrawn from the publication process.
Manuscripts may be withdrawn at any stage of review and publication process by submitting a request to the editorial office. Manuscript withdrawal will be permitted after submission only for the most compelling and unavoidable reasons.
If the author wants to withdraw a manuscript, the author needs to submit a completed "Article Change Form", signed by all authors of the manuscript stating the reasons for manuscript withdrawal. The form is available from the editorial office of the journal.
If the author withdraws a manuscript after submission to before submitting the Author Agreement Form, the manuscript will be withdrawn within 48 hours of receiving the "Article Change Form". If the author withdraws a manuscript after submitting the Author Agreement Form, the manuscript will be withdrawn within 48 hours of receiving the "Article Change Form", however, the article processing charges, if paid by the authors, will not be refunded. This has been done so that authors submit to us only those manuscripts which they really want to publish.
Digital Preservation
Digital Preservation Policy
The journals published by Edorium Journals are in electronic format. We have formulated a policy for digital content preservation. The policy will be reviewed and adapted to available technologies at regular intervals.
How is the digital content preserved
All our electronic content (websites, journals, manuscripts etc.) is stored on multiple servers. In case of failure of one server, any one of the other servers can be made online and all websites and journals will be live within less than 24-36 hours.
If a journal stops publishing
With your support, we will continue to publish all our journals for a very long time. If due to some rare, unfortunate circumstances we are forced to stop publishing a journal, the manuscripts published in that journal will be perpetually kept online and accessible to the readers.
Digital Preservation Organizations
All the content published in Edorium Journals is preserved with Portico. Portico is a digital preservation service provided by ITHAKA. ITHAKA is a not-for-profit organization. Portico works with publishers and libraries to preserve content of e-journals through their E-Journal Preservation Service. Portico was created in 2002 to build a sustainable digital archive to serve the academic community and to enable publishers and libraries to feel secure thet their content will be preserved for scholars. Today, Portico is among the leading digital preservation services in the world.
Appeals
Appeal against editorial decisions
If a manuscript is rejected and authors are not satisfied about the outcome of their manuscript, they can appeal a decision if they feel that their article has been rejected unfairly.
In such cases please email the Editor-in-Chief with an appeal letter. In the appeal letter state why the authors feel that the rejection of their letter was unfair and address all specific points of the reviewers' and editor's comments.
Appeals must be submitted within 30 days of the rejection decision.
Processing Charges Waiver
For Author
Edorium Journals aims to encourage and enable authors from all countries to share their scientific knowledge with others and learn from the scientific knowledge of others. To remove financial constraints as a barrier to sharing and learning especially for authors from low and lower-middle income economies, Edorium Journals has formulated a waiver policy.
Authors from the two groups of countries listed below receive waivers in Article Processing Charges for all journals published by Edorium Journals group. The two groups of countries were identified based on the classification of countries by World Bank (Gross national income and Gross national income per capita figures), United Nations (United Nations least developed country list and Human Development Index) and Health Inter Network Access to Research Initiative (HINARI).*
List of countries in Group 1
List of countries in Group 2
Individual Waiver
Individual waiver requests from authors will be considered on a case-by-case basis. The amount of discount will depend on factors such as country of origin, position of the author in the institute and quality and originality of the work.
For Reviewers
For every manuscript reviewed by the reviewer within the stipulated time, a 20% waiver will be given for one manuscript submitted by the reviewer as first author or corresponding author, for publication to any journal published by Edorium Journals. The waiver will applicable on the final invoice amount. To join the Reviewer Panel with Edorium Journals please see here.
For Editors
Editors and Members of the Editorial Board of all journals published by Edorium Journals group can publish any number of articles free of charge.
Read more about processing charges waiver here
Embargo
Responsibilities of the Journals
All manuscripts are under the media embargo period from the time a manuscript is submitted for publication to a journal published by Edorium Journals group to the day it is published online (or the journal rejects the manuscript from publication).
Edorium Journals considers the manuscripts submitted for publication to any of its journals as privileged documents and will not release it to the press or public before it is published.
Edorium Journals may refuse to publish any manuscript, even after it has been accepted for publication in the journal, if the information in the manuscript has been released to the media before publication.
Edorium Journals may choose to write a press release regarding papers to be published in the journals. In the event that a paper is chosen for a release, authors will be notified and informed of all embargo and publication dates. Authors will also be informed of any other publicity efforts being undertaken regarding their papers.
Responsibilities of the authors
The author will keep the manuscript as a privileged document and will not release any part of the paper to the press or the public before publication.
Authors are not permitted to post the work on any website/blog/forum/board or at any other place, by any means, from the time such work is submitted to Edorium Journals, until Edorium Journals has published the article.
Authors may talk with the press about their work, but should coordinate with Edorium Journals, so that the reporters understand that papers are embargoed until after publication in the journal.
If the authors or any other interested party release key findings of the manuscript or full content of the manuscript to the media before its publication in the journal (or rejection of the manuscript), unless in coordination with Edorium Journals, will be in violation of the embargo policy.
Responsibilities of media and public
Do not publish, broadcast, post online, or placed in the public domain any report on articles or other media to be published in the journal before the embargo date and time.
Advance material sent to the journalists is for background research only. Embargo dates and times will be clearly marked on all advance materials.
You may share embargoed materials only with experts in the field to seek their comments, but such materials must be clearly identified as embargoed and must include the embargo date and time.
Complaints
The procedures to investigate and resolve complaints followed by Edorium Journals aims to be fair and balanced for those making complaints and for those being complained about.
Section I
For Appeal against editorial decisions
If the authors disagree with the editorial decision on their manuscripts they have a right to appeal.
Authors who wish to appeal an editorial decision should contact the Editor-in-Chief of the specific journal. In such cases the Editor-in-Chief will review the manuscript, editorial and peer reviewers' comments and give his/her decision for accepting or rejecting a manuscript. Editor-in-Chief may, if so required, send the manuscript to a new handling editor for a fresh editorial review and to new referees for peer review. Decision of the Editor-in-Chief in such case will be final.
Section II
Editorial Matters: For complaints related to policies, procedures, editorial content and actions of the editorial staff
How to make a complaint
The procedure to make a complaint is easy. The complaint can be made by writing an email. Ideally the complaint should be made to the person with whom the complainant is in regular contact for the matter being complained about. If due to any reason it is not appropriate or possible to complain to the contact person, please email to:
All complaints will be acknowledged within three working days.
Complaints Handling Policy (Escalation Procedures)
First Contact: Person to whom complaint is made
The complaints will be resolved by the person to whom they are made. If the person to whom the complaint is made is not able to deal with the complaint he or she will refer it to the Section Editor.
Second Contact: Section Editor
The Section Editor will resolve the complaint. If the complaint cannot be resolved by the Section Editor, it will be referred to the Editor-in-Chief.
Third Contact: Editor-in-Chief
For all matters related to the policies, procedures, editorial content and actions of the editorial staff, the decision of the Editor-in-Chief will be final. If the Editor-in-Chief is unavailable for any reason, the complaint will be referred to the Managing Editor of Edorium Journals.
Complaint Resolution
All efforts will be made to resolve the complaint as quickly as possible. In some cases, delay in complaint resolution may occur if a response from any third person or organization is required. Until the complaint is resolved, a complaint resolution update will be provided to the complainant, every two weeks, until the complaint is finally resolved.
Section III
Editorial Matters: For complaints related to the conduct of the Editor-in-Chief
Non-Editorial Matters: For complaints related to Edorium Journals except as given in section I and II above
How to make a complaint
The complaint can be made by writing an email. Complaints about matters related to Edorium Journals but which are not related to policies, procedures, actions of the editorial staff and editorial content can be made to:
All complaints will be acknowledged within three working days.
Complaint Resolution
All efforts will be made to resolve the complaint as quickly as possible. In some cases, delay in complaint resolution may occur if a response from any third person or organization is required. Until the complaint is resolved, a complaint resolution update will be provided to the complainant, every two weeks, until the complaint is finally resolved.
If any complaint about editorial matters is sent to the above it be referred to the Editor-in-Chief of the respective journal or to the Managing Editor in the absence of the Editor-in-Chief.
Advertising
Advertisements
Website of Edorium Journals and websites of all the journals are advertisement free websites. It is the policy of Edorium Journals not to display any advertisements on its websites.
Ethical Oversight
Statements of Compliance with Ethics Guidelines
Authors should add a separate section of "Compliance with Ethics Guidelines". This section should be added before the reference list. This section should cover the following information:
Conflicts of interest
Experimental ethics (Humans)
Experimental ethics (Animals)
Informed consent to include in the study
Consent to publish patient identifying information
1. Conflicts of Interest.
Give here conflicts of interest for all authors.
Examples:
Single author - no conflicts of interest: Author ABC declares that he has no conflict of interest.
Multiple authors - no conflicts of interest: Author ABC, Author PQR, Author XYZ declare that they have no conflict of interest
Single author - conflicts of interest present: Author Name ABC has received a grant from.....
2. Experimental Ethics (Humans)
Add a statement that: "All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008."
3. Experimental Ethics (Animals)
Add a statement that: "All institutional and national guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals were followed."
Note for points 2 and 3: If ethical approval was not required or if the research was not conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration, the authors must: i) give an explanation why this was so, ii) explain the rationale for their approach, and iii) provide evidence that the institutional review body explicitly approved the doubtful aspects of the study.
Note for statements 2 and 3: If no human or animals experiments were performed, omit statements 2 and 3 above and include the statement:
"This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors."
4. Informed Consent to Include in the Study
Add a statement that: "Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study."
If informed consent was not taken, give an explanation why this is so. Also state whether the informed consent was written or oral. If oral informed consent was taken, it must be stated in the manuscript: i) why written consent could not be obtained, ii) that the institutional review board or appropriate research committee(s) approved the use of oral consent, and iii) how oral consent was documented.
5. Consent for patient identifying information
Add a statement that: "Informed consent to publish was obtained from all patients for which identifying information is included in this article."
If any patient identifying information is included in the manuscript, without obtaining written, informed consent from the patient, give an explanation why this is so. Unless the authors give compelling reasons, in all such cases in which consent for identifying information has not been taken, the manuscript is liable to be rejected.
We strongly urge the authors to use manuscript templates for preparing their manuscripts. The manuscript templates contain heading, subheadings and guidelines to include all essential information in the manuscript. Download manuscript templates here.
Experimental Ethics
When reporting experiments on human subjects, indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards given in the Declaration of Helsinki of 1975, as revised in year 2000.
The manuscript should contain a statement that the work has been approved by the appropriate ethical committees related to the institution(s) in which it was performed and that subjects gave informed consent to the work.
Studies involving experiments with animals must state that their care was in accordance with institution's or national research council's guidelines for, or any national law on the care and use of laboratory animals. Animal experimental procedures should be humane as possible and the details of anesthetics and analgesics used should be clearly stated.
Evidence for approval by a local Ethics Committee (for both human as well as animal studies) must be supplied by the authors on demand.
Consent for Identifying Information
Any information which can identify the patient should not be published in text, photographs, ultrasonograms, CT scans, etc. unless the information is essential for scientific purposes.
If you want to include any information like photograph, name, address, etc., in any part of the manuscript by which the identity of patient can be revealed; you must obtain written, informed consent from the patient and submit a copy of the document to the Editorial Office.
Corresponding author will have to sign a statement to this effect in the Author Agreement Form.
Reproduction of Published Material
If you wish to reproduce text, figures or tables that have already been published elsewhere, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner(s).
A statement stating that such permission was obtained will need to be signed by the corresponding author in the Author Agreement Form. Please submit a copy of the permission letter or other evidence that such permission has been granted along with the Author Agreement Form after the manuscript has been accepted for publication in Edorium Journal of Pain.
It is the author's responsibility to pay any fees associated with publishing data from another source.
Registration of Clinical Trials
Edorium Journal of Pain has adopted the proposal from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) which requires registration of clinical trials in a public trials registry, as a condition of consideration for publication of an article in Edorium Journal of Pain.
Trials must register at or before the onset of patient enrollment. The clinical trial registration number should be included at the end of the abstract of the article.
For this purpose, a clinical trial is defined as any research study that prospectively assigns human participants or groups of humans to one or more health-related interventions to evaluate the effects of health outcomes.
Health-related interventions include any intervention used to modify a biomedical or health-related outcome.
Health outcomes include any biomedical or health-related measures obtained in patients or participants, including pharmacokinetic measures and adverse events.
Purely observational studies (those in which the assignment of the medical intervention is not at the discretion of the investigator) will not require registration. Further information can be found at www.icmje.org.