Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

Ethical Standards

The Hyrcanian Journal of Clinical Medicine (HJCM) is committed to maintaining high standards of publication ethics, research integrity, transparency, and responsible scholarly publishing. The journal follows the principles and recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), together with applicable national and international ethical requirements.

These principles apply to authors, editors, reviewers, and the publisher throughout the submission, peer-review, publication, and post-publication processes.

Ethics Approval

All studies involving human participants, human biological materials, identifiable personal data, or human-derived clinical information must comply with the applicable ethical requirements and the Declaration of Helsinki.

Manuscripts must clearly state whether ethical approval was obtained, including the name of the ethics committee or institutional review board and the approval/reference number, where applicable.

If a study did not require formal ethics approval, authors should provide an appropriate explanation and, where applicable, identify the institutional authority responsible for the determination.

The journal may request documentation of ethical approval or exemption during editorial assessment or peer review.

Consent to Participate

Where applicable, authors must obtain informed consent from research participants before participation in the study, in accordance with the study design, applicable ethical requirements, and institutional regulations.

The manuscript should state that informed consent was obtained when required.

Data Publication Consent

Authors are responsible for ensuring that data presented or shared with the manuscript are handled in accordance with applicable ethical, legal, privacy, and institutional requirements.

Where publication or sharing of individual-level or identifiable data requires specific consent, appropriate consent must be obtained.

Authors must not disclose personally identifiable or confidential information without appropriate authorization.

Clinical Trial Registration

Clinical trials submitted to HJCM must be registered in a publicly accessible clinical trial registry in accordance with applicable requirements and current ICMJE recommendations.

The trial registration number and registry name should be included in the manuscript and, where appropriate, in the abstract.

Randomized controlled trials should follow the CONSORT reporting guideline.

The current ICMJE policy recommends registration of clinical trials at or before the time of first participant enrollment, with limited exceptions considered by editors.

New Clinical Tools and Procedures

Manuscripts reporting new clinical procedures, diagnostic tools, devices, technologies, or other clinical interventions must provide sufficient information to evaluate their clinical rationale, safety, methodology, and potential benefits or risks.

Experimental or novel clinical procedures must comply with applicable ethical and regulatory requirements and, where required, receive prior ethics approval and appropriate patient consent.

Authors should clearly distinguish established clinical practice from experimental or investigational applications.

Research Involving Human Embryos, Gametes, and Stem Cells

Research involving human embryos, gametes, embryonic stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells, or related human biological materials must comply with applicable ethical, legal, institutional, and national requirements.

Manuscripts must provide relevant ethics approval information and, where applicable, information regarding informed consent for the collection and use of biological materials.

The journal may request documentation of ethics approval, regulatory authorization, or consent.

Research Involving Animals

Research involving animals must comply with applicable institutional, national, and international standards for animal welfare and ethical conduct.

Authors must provide information regarding ethical approval or the applicable regulatory framework.

Manuscripts reporting animal research should follow the ARRIVE 2.0 guidelines where applicable.

Plant Research Ethics

HJCM primarily focuses on clinical medicine. Manuscripts involving plant research will therefore be considered only when the work has a clear and substantial clinical or medically relevant component and falls within the journal's scope.

Where applicable, authors must comply with institutional, national, and international requirements governing the collection, identification, use, and preservation of plant materials.

Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) Research Ethics

Research involving complementary or alternative medicine will be considered only when it has clear clinical relevance and falls within the aims and scope of HJCM.

Such studies must meet the same standards of scientific rigor, research ethics, informed consent, appropriate study design, and statistical methodology expected of other clinical research.

Clinical trials involving complementary or alternative interventions must comply with applicable clinical trial registration and reporting requirements.

Informed Consent for Publication

Written informed consent for publication should be obtained when a manuscript contains identifiable patient information, photographs, videos, clinical images, case details, or other material that could reasonably identify an individual.

For individuals who cannot provide consent, consent should be obtained from an appropriate parent, legal guardian, or other authorized representative, as applicable.

The consent process should be consistent with applicable ethical and legal requirements.

Systematic Review Registration

Prospective registration of systematic review protocols in an appropriate registry, such as PROSPERO, is encouraged where applicable.

If a systematic review or meta-analysis has been registered, the registration number and registry should be reported in the manuscript.

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses should follow the PRISMA reporting guideline where applicable.

Availability of Data and Materials

Authors should provide a clear Data Availability Statement describing whether and how the data supporting the findings can be accessed.

Where ethically, legally, and practically possible, authors are encouraged to make relevant datasets, protocols, analytical code, or other supporting materials available through appropriate repositories.

Personal, confidential, or identifiable information must not be publicly shared unless appropriate authorization and ethical requirements have been satisfied.

The journal may request relevant underlying data or materials when necessary to evaluate the integrity of the research.

Conflict of Interest

Authors must disclose all financial and non-financial relationships or activities that could influence, or could reasonably be perceived to influence, the submitted work.

Editors and reviewers must also disclose relevant conflicts of interest and should not participate in editorial assessment or peer review when a conflict could compromise impartiality.

Where no conflicts exist, authors should state:

“The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.”

Author Contributions

Authorship carries both credit and responsibility for the published work.

HJCM follows the current ICMJE authorship criteria. Each author should meet all four 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 reviewing 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 and to ensure that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Contributors who do not meet all authorship criteria should be appropriately acknowledged rather than listed as authors.

Changes to Authorship

The author list and order of authors should be finalized before submission.

Any request to add, remove, or reorder authors after submission must be submitted by the corresponding author with a clear explanation and written agreement from all authors.

The editorial process may be suspended while an authorship issue is being reviewed.

If an authorship problem is identified after publication, the journal may publish an appropriate correction or other post-publication notice.

Withdrawal of Manuscripts

Authors may request withdrawal of a manuscript before acceptance by submitting a written request to the editorial office through the corresponding author.

Withdrawal requests should include the reason for withdrawal and confirmation that all authors agree with the request.

Once a manuscript has been accepted or published, withdrawal will generally not be permitted except in exceptional circumstances determined by the Editor-in-Chief.

Contributorship Statement

HJCM may require a contributorship statement specifying the individual contributions of each author to the study and manuscript.

Where applicable, authors may use the CRediT taxonomy to describe contributions such as conceptualization, methodology, investigation, data curation, formal analysis, writing, supervision, and project administration.

All listed authors must satisfy the journal's authorship requirements.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools

HJCM recognizes the increasing use of artificial intelligence and AI-assisted technologies in research and scholarly publishing.

AI tools, including large language models, chatbots, and image-generation or editing systems, must not be listed as authors. Human authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, integrity, originality, and ethical compliance of the submitted work.

Authors must disclose the use of AI-assisted technologies at submission when such technologies have been used in preparing the manuscript or conducting the reported research. The disclosure should identify the tool and explain how it was used.

AI-assisted tools may be used for appropriate purposes such as language improvement or editing, provided that the authors carefully review and verify the resulting content.

When AI is used as part of the research methodology, analysis, generation of data, or other substantive research activity, its use must be described in the relevant section of the manuscript with sufficient detail for transparency and reproducibility.

Authors remain responsible for checking AI-generated information, references, quotations, images, and other content for accuracy, originality, attribution, and potential plagiarism.

AI-generated material should not be cited as a primary scientific source when the underlying original source is available.

HJCM's policy is aligned with the current ICMJE guidance on AI-assisted technologies.

Retraction Policy

HJCM may retract a published article when there is clear evidence that the article contains unreliable findings or serious violations of research or publication ethics.

Reasons for retraction may include:

• Fabrication or falsification of data
• Plagiarism
• Major errors that invalidate the findings or conclusions
• Unethical research or absence of required ethical approval
• Serious undisclosed conflicts of interest
• Duplicate or redundant publication
• Authorship or peer-review manipulation
• Other serious forms of research or publication misconduct

Retraction decisions and notices will follow recognized publication-ethics principles, including applicable COPE guidance.

A retraction notice will be clearly linked to the original article, freely accessible, and will state the reason for the retraction and identify who is retracting the article. The original article will remain part of the scholarly record and will be clearly marked as retracted.

Corrections

HJCM is committed to maintaining the accuracy and integrity of the published scholarly record.

When an error is identified after publication, the journal will assess its nature and significance and may publish a correction notice where appropriate.

Corrections may include:

Erratum: A correction of an error introduced during the publication or production process.

Corrigendum: A correction of an error originating from the authors that affects the published record but does not invalidate the article as a whole.

Correction notices will be clearly linked to the original article and will describe the nature of the correction.

For substantive errors that affect the validity or reliability of the article, the journal may consider an Expression of Concern or Retraction, in accordance with applicable publication-ethics guidance.

The journal will use the current Declaration of Helsinki (2024 revision) for research involving human participants; the 2024 version is the current official WMA version.