Publication Ethics
- Jharkhand Surgical Chronicles is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics, rigor, and integrity. The following statement outlines the expectations and responsibilities for authors, reviewers, and editors, adhering to the guidelines set by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).
- Editor Responsibilities
- Publication Decisions: Editors evaluate submitted manuscripts based solely on scientific merit, original contribution, surgical relevance, and ethical compliance,
- Confidentiality: Editors and editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, potential reviewers, actual reviewers, and other editorial advisers.
- Conflicts of Interest: Editors recuse themselves from considering manuscripts in which they have competing interests, financial or otherwise, resulting from relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions tied to the paper.
- Addressing Malpractice: Editors actively investigate suspected cases of misconduct (plagiarism, data fabrication, redundant publication) and issue corrections, retractions, or expressions of concern when warranted.
- Reviewer Responsibilities
- Contribution to Decisions: Peer reviewers assist the editors in making editorial decisions and help authors improve their paper through objective, constructive feedback.
- Promptness: Invited reviewers who feel unqualified or know they cannot meet the review deadline must notify the editor immediately to decline the invitation.
- Confidentiality & Usage: Manuscripts received for review are confidential documents and must not be shared or used for personal research advantage without explicit authorization.
- Surgical Rigor & Safety: Reviewers must specifically evaluate surgical methodology, patient safety protocols, statistical validity, and whether clinical conclusions are appropriately supported by the reported outcomes.
- Author Responsibilities & Surgical Ethics
- Originality & Plagiarism: Authors must submit entirely original work. Any work, data, or words of others must be appropriately cited or quoted. Duplicate submission or simultaneous submission to multiple journals is strictly prohibited.
- Patient Consent & Ethics Approval: Manuscripts reporting research involving human participants, tissues, or medical data must state that the study received approval from an institutional review board (IRB) or ethics committee. Authors must explicitly state that written informed consent was obtained from all patients (or guardians) for both participation and the publication of identifiable clinical images/details.
- Authorship Criteria: All listed authors must meet the ICMJE criteria: substantial contributions to the study's design/data acquisition, drafting or revising the intellectual content, final approval of the published version, and agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work.
- Disclosure & Funding: Authors must disclose all financial or non-financial conflicts of interest that might bias their work and explicitly state all sources of funding.
- Errors in Published Works: Authors are obligated to notify the journal immediately if they discover a significant error or inaccuracy in their published work to coordinate a correction or retraction.
- Handling Unethical Behavior & Retractions
- Reports of research or publication misconduct (plagiarism, falsified data, duplicate submission, unapproved patient trials) are thoroughly investigated using official COPE flowcharts. Confirmed misconduct will result in sanctions, including manuscript rejection, formal retraction of published articles, notification of author institutions, and temporary or permanent bans on future submissions.
