RESEARCH AND PUBLICATION ETHICS POLICY

HCAIMEC promotes research integrity and adherence to the core values of research and follows the core practices of COPE

  1. HCAIMEC publishes responsible and ethical research. The journal expects its contributors to adhere to international and national guidelines for the safety and protection of the research participants. All research involving human subjects, human material, or human data must be in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (https://www.who.int/bulletin/archives/79(4)373.pdf) and ICMJE Recommendations on Protection of Research Participants, and Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences (CIOMS) guidelines (https://cioms.ch/).
  2. All research work must be approved by an appropriate IRB.
  3. It is mandatory to submit an IRB approval letterwith all articles as per ethical standards set by ICMJE.
  4. A statement detailing the name of the IRBand the reference number, where appropriate, must appear in all manuscripts reporting such research.
  5. All Randomized Trialsmust be according to CONSORT guidelines.
  6. All Clinical Trialsmust be registered at gov
  7. Review articlesmust contain information regarding databases for literature search and the period for selection of articles.
  8. Systematic reviews should be according to PRISMA
  9. Observational studies should be according to STROBE
  10. Qualitative research should be according to SRQRguidelines
  11. The Editor reserves the right to reject a manuscript if the editor considers that the research has not been carried out within an appropriate ethical framework.
  12. For any Retrospective IRB the editor reserves the right to approve or reject the manuscript.
  13. If any tables, illustrations, or photographs are reproduced, letter of permission from the original author has to be submitted.
  14. If the author wishes to publish a paper from his/her FCPS dissertation, besides synopsis approval from IRB approval is also mandatory.
  15. Patient confidentiality must be the top priority for the author and a written consent form must be obtained from the subject.
  16. Authors must declare the time and place of the study.
  17. In the case ofRetrospective Studies, Informed consent is not required. However, they must submit an IRB approval letter with the manuscript.
  18. HCAIMEC also publishes research conducted on animals. Authors should follow the national and international guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals in research. Authors can take guidance on animal research ethics  from  WMA statement on animal use in biomedical research , and the International Association of Veterinary Editors’ Consensus Author Guidelines on Animal Ethics and Welfare.
  19. An "author" is generally considered to be someone who has made substantive intellectual contributions to a study. All persons designated as authors should qualify for authorship criteria as recommended by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). 
  20. All articles submitted to HCAIMEC are screened through Turnitin softwarefor similarity index.
  21. HCAIMEC follows the standard definition and description of It follows the COPE, ICMJE, & Higher Education Commission (HEC) Pakistan policies regarding plagiarism.
  22. HCAIMEC follows COPE Any SCIENTIFIC MISCONDUCTbefore or after publication will be dealt with as per COPE guidelines. 
  23. The authors will retain the copyrights of their submitted manuscripts for all purposes. The readers may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
  24. If the author wishes to withdraw the manuscript during its processing, an official email needs to be sent to the editor for withdrawal. No manuscript is considered “withdrawn” without an official email sent to the editor. A manuscript cannot be withdrawn after its acceptance by the journal.