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Publication Ethics & COPE

HM Publishers is a COPE member and upholds the highest standards of research and publication ethics across all our journals.

COPE Member Publisher

Committee on Publication Ethics

HM Publishers is a member of COPE and all journals fully comply with COPE's Core Practices. We are committed to transparent, ethical, and responsible academic publishing at every stage of the editorial process.

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17/17 COPE Core
Practices Met
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Active COPE
Member 2024
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Formal Appeals
Process in Place
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Plagiarism Screened
All Submissions
Ethical Standards

Responsibilities of All Parties

Responsibilities of Authors

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Submit only original work not published elsewhere or under concurrent review at another journal
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Accurately and completely report research methods and data so that results can be independently verified and reproduced
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Properly cite and attribute the work of others; avoid all forms of plagiarism including self-plagiarism
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Disclose all conflicts of interest, funding sources, and institutional affiliations in the submitted manuscript
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Ensure compliance with all applicable research ethics regulations, including IRB/IEC approval for human subjects research and IACUC approval for animal research
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Include data availability statement, ethics declarations, and consent statements in all research manuscripts
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Promptly notify the journal of any significant errors discovered in a published article
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Disclose all use of generative AI tools in manuscript preparation in the Methods or Acknowledgements section

Responsibilities of Reviewers

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Review manuscripts in a timely manner and decline invitations immediately when a conflict of interest exists
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Maintain strict confidentiality; do not share, discuss, cite, or use unpublished manuscript content in any way
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Provide objective, constructive, and evidence-based review comments without personal bias or hostility
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Identify relevant unpublished work and significant studies that authors may have missed in their literature review
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Alert the editor to any suspected ethical violations, data integrity concerns, or possible duplicate submission
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Not use AI tools in ways that compromise the confidentiality of the manuscript under review
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Disclose any AI assistance used in the preparation of their review report

Responsibilities of Editors

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Make fair and impartial editorial decisions based solely on scientific merit, originality, and relevance to journal scope
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Maintain the integrity of the double-blind peer review process and protect the anonymity of all parties
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Investigate all allegations of misconduct thoroughly, objectively, and following COPE guidelines and flowcharts
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Publish corrections, retractions, or expressions of concern promptly when warranted by evidence
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Recuse themselves from editorial decisions in which they have any form of competing interest
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Not use submitted manuscripts for any personal research purposes prior to publication

Clinical Research Ethics Requirements

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All research involving human subjects must have received ethics committee or Institutional Review Board (IRB/IEC) approval; the approval number and institution must be stated
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Written informed consent must have been obtained from all human research participants; this must be explicitly stated in the Methods section
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Clinical trials must be registered with a WHO-approved trial registry before enrolment of the first participant; registration number required
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Reporting must follow applicable EQUATOR Network guidelines: CONSORT for RCTs, STROBE for observational studies, PRISMA 2020 for systematic reviews, CARE for case reports
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Animal research must comply with the ARRIVE 2.0 guidelines and all relevant national and institutional regulations on animal welfare
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Patient privacy must be fully protected; patient identifiers must be removed or consent obtained for identifiable information

Reporting Concerns

If you have concerns about research or publication ethics related to an article published in an HM Publishers journal, or if you wish to report suspected misconduct, please contact the Editor-in-Chief of the relevant journal directly by email. All concerns are treated in strict confidence and investigated following COPE guidelines.

For guidance on handling ethics cases, editors may consult the COPE Flowcharts available at publicationethics.org.