Publication Ethics

 

Publication and authorship
  • References should be complied numerically according to the order of citation in the text in the Vancouver style. The numbers of references should not preferably exceed 40 for original articles, 15 for brief, and 8 for case reports. For the references credited to more than 6 authors please provide the name of the first six authors and represent the remaining authors by the phrase “et al.”
  • A statement should be included in the title page indicating any financial support the authors had received.
  • The authors are not allowed to utilize verbatim text of previously published papers or manuscripts submitted elsewhere.
  • Authors should sign a copyright form stating that the article is an original work, has not been published before and is not being considered. for publication elsewhere in its final form either in printed or electronic form. The same research must not be published in more than one journal.
 

Author's responsibilities
  • Authors should actively participate in the peer review process and provide suitable responses to the comments raised by peer reviewers on time.
  • All authors must have significantly contributed to the research.
  • Authors must state that all data in the article are real and authentic.
  • All authors are obliged to provide retractions or corrections of mistakes.
  • Copyright: If a manuscript contains any previous published image or text, it is the responsibility of the author to obtain authorization from copyright holders. The author is required to obtain and submit the written original permission letters for all copyrighted material used in his/her manuscripts.
 

Peer review/responsibility for the reviewers
  • Judgments should be objective;
  • Reviewers should have no conflict of interest with respect to the research, the authors and/or the research funders;
  • Reviewers should point out relevant published work which is not yet cited;
  • Reviewed articles should be treated confidentially;
  • Reviewers should advise editors and the final decision on an article is made by the Editors-in-Chief;
  • Reviewers should provide constructive comments to improve the quality of the article. 
 

Editorial responsibilities
  •  Editors should have no conflict of interest with respect to articles they reject/accept.
  • When errors are found in a manuscript, the editors promote publication of correction or retraction.
  • The anonymity of reviewers is preserved.
 

Publishing ethics issues
  • The journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). COPE’s flowcharts and guidelines are approached upon confronting any ethical misbehavior.
  • The RHM uses the COPE flowchart for retraction of a published article (http://publicationethics.org//resources/guidelines).
  • All patients and participants of the research should be thoroughly informed about the aims of the study and any possible side effects of the drugs and intervention. Written informed consent from the participants or their legal guardians is necessary for any such studies. The Journal reserves the right to request the related documents.
  • The RHM precludes business needs from compromising intellectual and ethical standards.
  • The Editor-in-Chief are always willing to publish corrections, clarifications.
  • Plagiarism: Use of verbatim texts from other sources without acknowledgement is prohibited. The content of all articles must be the original work of authors and must not be plagiarized from other articles.
  • Data falsification/fabrication: Falsification is the practice of omitting or altering research materials, data, or processes so that the results of the research are no longer accurately reflected. Fabrication is the practice of inventing data or results and reporting them in the research. Both of these misconducts are fraudulent and seriously alter the integrity of research. Therefore, articles must be written based on original data and use of falsified or fabricated data is strongly prohibited.
  •  Image manipulation: The RHM encourages authors to send their original images. All digital images in manuscripts accepted for publication will be checked for inappropriate manipulation. No specific feature within an image may be enhanced, obscured, moved, removed, or introduced. Adjustments of brightness, contrast, or color balance are acceptable as long as they are applied to the entire image and do not misrepresent any information present in the original, including the background. The editors will request the original data from the authors to compare the manipulated figures in cases suspected of inappropriate manipulation.
 

Allegations of Misconduct
 

Complaints and Appeals
  • This journal follows COPE Guidelines for handling complaints against the journal, its staff, editorial board, or publisher. Find out more: publicationethics.org/appeals
 

Informed Consent
  • All patients and participants in a research project should be thoroughly informed about the aims of the study and any possible side effects of the drugs and their interventions. Written informed consent should be obtained from the participants or their legal guardians for any such studies. The journal reserves the right to request the related documents. Articles that require informed consent should contain related statements in the “Methods” section.
 
Conflicts of Interest/Competing Interest
  • All authors and reviewers are required to disclose to the journal any “conflicts of interest” (such as financial, personal, political, or academic) that would potentially affect their judgment. Authors are preferably asked to fill out the uniform disclosure form available through: (http://www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf). Find out more: publicationethics.org/competinginterests
 

Data and Reproducibility
  • This journal has policies on data availability and encourages the use of reporting guidelines and registration of clinical trials and other study designs according to standard practice in their discipline. Find out more:  https://publicationethics.org/data
 

Ethical Oversight
  • RHM is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). The journal strictly observes COPE's flowcharts and guidelines to confront ethical misbehavior. In addition, the journal follows the guidelines provided by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) in the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals. Find out more: publicationethics.org/oversight
 

Human and Animal Rights
  • Research involving human subjects, material, or data must comply with the Declaration of Helsinki. A detailed description of such compliance must be approved by an independent local, regional, or national review body (e.g., ethics committee, institutional review board).
 

Intellectual Property
  • All policies on intellectual property, including copyright and publishing licenses, are fully described. In addition, the journal's charge policy is evident to authors and readers. The journal also specifies what constitutes plagiarism and redundant/overlapping publication. Find out more:  publicationethics.org/intellectualproperty
 

Journal management 
 

Post-Publication Discussion and Corrections