Ethical Principles and Editorial Policy

The Journal of Surgery and Medicine (JOSAM) is dedicated to upholding the highest standards of scientific integrity, transparency, and publication ethics. Authors, reviewers, editors, and the publisher share mutual accountability for ethical conduct across all stages of the publishing workflow. JOSAM strictly adheres to the core guidelines established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME).

1. Responsibilities of Authors

Authors bear full responsibility for the authenticity, originality, and transparency of their submitted work. Manuscripts must describe research truthfully and must not contain fabricated, falsified, or manipulated data, plagiarized text, or misleading digital image alterations. Authors must cite primary literature accurately, adhere to study-specific reporting guidelines (EQUATOR Network), and provide raw datasets or source documentation upon editorial request.

Simultaneous submission of the same manuscript to more than one journal is strictly prohibited. Authors must immediately inform the editorial office if any material error, data inconsistency, or ethical breach is detected before or after publication.

2. Authorship Criteria & Contributorship (CRediT)

Authorship must strictly satisfy all four ICMJE criteria:

  1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data;
  2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content;
  3. Final approval of the version to be published;
  4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to data accuracy or integrity are investigated and resolved.

Financial funding acquisition, case collection alone, or holding administrative/departmental leadership does not warrant authorship. Non-author contributors must be recognized in the Acknowledgments section with their written permission. JOSAM mandates individual author contribution disclosures structured via the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy), which must be declared exclusively on the separate Title Page file.

The corresponding author serves as the sole liaison for all editorial correspondence and guarantees that all co-authors have approved the submitted and revised drafts. Authorship additions, deletions, or rearrangements requested after initial submission require a written justification signed by all listed authors, subject to formal Editor-in-Chief approval.

3. Research Ethics: Human Subjects & Declaration of Helsinki

All investigations involving human subjects, identifiable medical records, or human biological materials must comply with relevant institutional, national, and international standards, including the principles of the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki.

  • Institutional Review Board (IRB) Approval: Authors must state the formal name of the approving ethics committee, along with the protocol approval number and approval date, on the separate Title Page file. If an official exemption or waiver was granted, the formal reasoning and competent oversight body must be explicitly cited.
  • Informed Consent: Authors must verify that documented informed consent was obtained from all participants (or their legally authorized representatives) prior to study initiation.

4. Patient Anonymity, Case Reports, and Consent for Publication

Protecting patient confidentiality is paramount. In case reports, clinical photographs, imaging scans, and genealogical pedigrees, all direct or indirect identifying attributes (e.g., patient names, hospital record numbers, dates of birth, geographic details) must be removed.

Masking the eye region on facial photographs does not guarantee anonymity; written informed consent for publication must be obtained from the patient or legal guardian using an institutional consent form. The fact that written consent for publication was secured must be explicitly affirmed in the manuscript.

5. Animal Welfare & Humane Care

Experimental research involving vertebrate animals must adhere strictly to international humane care standards, including the ARRIVE 2.0 Guidelines and the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. Authors must state the approving institutional animal care and use committee (IACUC/Ethics Committee), protocol reference number, and approval date on the Title Page. The Declaration of Helsinki applies solely to human research and cannot be substituted for animal welfare approvals.

6. Prospective Clinical Trial Registration

In accordance with ICMJE mandates, all clinical intervention trials must be prospectively registered in a publicly accessible registry approved by the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) or ClinicalTrials.gov prior to participant enrollment. The registry name, unique registration number, and registration date must be declared on the Title Page and in the Methods section. Retrospective registrations do not satisfy journal criteria.

7. Data Availability, Integrity & Sharing

Original research manuscripts must include an explicit Data Availability Statement detailing how and where primary data supporting the findings can be accessed (e.g., public data repository, institutional repository, or upon reasonable academic request to the corresponding author). Authors are strongly encouraged to deposit anonymized datasets in open repositories (such as Zenodo, Figshare, or Dryad). JOSAM reserves the right to request raw data, statistical scripts, or laboratory records during peer review.

8. Plagiarism Screening & Text Recycling

JOSAM maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward data fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism. Every manuscript is automatically checked using Crossref Similarity Check (powered by iThenticate). Submissions with an overall similarity index exceeding 15% (excluding bibliographic references) or showing verbatim text recycling from prior publications will be desk-rejected immediately.

9. Preprint Policy & Prior Publication

JOSAM supports open science and permits submissions that have previously been deposited as non-commercial preprints on recognized servers (such as medRxiv, bioRxiv, or institutional repositories).

  • Authors must disclose the preprint repository name, DOI, and server link upon submission.
  • Preprint posting will not compromise double-blind peer review eligibility.
  • Upon formal publication in JOSAM, authors are responsible for updating the preprint record with a bidirectional link and DOI referencing the final version of record.

10. Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Generative Technologies

In accordance with COPE and WAME guidance:

  • Generative AI models and Large Language Models (LLMs, e.g., ChatGPT) cannot be designated as authors, as they cannot take ethical or legal accountability for research integrity.
  • Authors using generative AI or AI-assisted tools in study design, coding, statistical analysis, or drafting must disclose this completely in the Use of AI Statement on the Title Page, detailing the tool name, version, manufacturer, and specific task performed.
  • Basic spell checking and grammatical editing software (e.g., standard word processing tools) do not require disclosure.
  • Reviewers and editors are strictly prohibited from uploading confidential unpublished manuscripts, reviewer reports, or author data into external generative AI platforms to preserve absolute intellectual confidentiality.

11. Conflicts of Interest & Commercial Independence

All authors must disclose any direct, indirect, financial, or personal relationships that could be perceived as biasing their research. All external funding sources, institutional grants, and commercial affiliations must be fully reported on the Title Page. If no conflicts exist, authors must explicitly state: "The authors declare that they have no competing interests."

Editors and reviewers must disclose any conflicting interests and recuse themselves from handling manuscripts where impartiality might be questioned.

12. Submissions from Editors and Editorial Board Members

To ensure absolute impartiality, editorial board members and editors may submit their research to JOSAM under rigorous safeguards:

  • Any submitting editor or board member is completely excluded from the handling, peer review, and editorial decisions regarding their own submission.
  • The submission is assigned to an independent senior editor, and double-blind peer review is conducted through standard workflows.
  • If the Editor-in-Chief is an author, an independent Co-Editor or Senior Associate Editor manages the manuscript and makes the final decision.

13. Editorial Independence & Revenue Governance

All editorial decisions at JOSAM are driven solely by academic merit, methodological quality, originality, and clinical relevance. As a Platinum Open Access journal, JOSAM charges no submission fees and no Article Processing Charges (No APC). All production costs are sponsored by SelSistem Publishing. Advertising, commercial sponsorship, or financial factors have zero influence over manuscript acceptance or rejection.

14. Handling Research Misconduct, Corrections, and Retractions

Allegations of data manipulation, redundant publication, image tampering, or ethical violations are handled in strict adherence to COPE Flowcharts:

  • Corrections (Errata / Corrigenda): Issued for honest typographical, numerical, or labeling errors that do not alter scientific validity, bidirectionally linked to the original publication.
  • Expressions of Concern: Issued when credible doubts arise during an ongoing investigation regarding data integrity or authorship misconduct.
  • Retractions: Executed according to the COPE Retraction Guidelines in cases of pervasive plagiarism, data fabrication, unapproved human/animal research, or duplicate publishing. Retracted papers are watermarked as "RETRACTED" and retained online with a dedicated, open-access Retraction Statement.

15. Complaints and Appeals Procedure

Authors who believe an editorial decision was influenced by a material factual error or procedural irregularity may submit an appeal letter within 14 days of the decision to josam@jsurgmed.com. Appeals must detail the objective factual grounds for reconsideration.

Appeals are evaluated independently by a designated Senior Associate Editor or an independent Ombudsperson not involved in the initial evaluation. Initial receipt is acknowledged within 7 business days, and a final written determination is delivered within 30 business days. The resulting decision is final.

References and Ethical Benchmarks