Publication Ethics

The journal guidelines from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) have been used in facing all aspects of publication ethics and, particularly, how to handle cases of research and publication misconduct. All articles in this journal involving human subjects and animals should respect principles of research ethics as described in the Declaration of Helsinki and obey the International Guiding Principles for Biomedical Research as developed by the Council for International Organization of Medical Sciences (CIOMS). All articles dealing with original human or animal data must include a statement on ethics approval at the Methods section's beginning.

Also, and as stated above, the authors must state clearly about written informed consent obtained from the study participants for studies conducted on human participants. The protection of a patient's right to privacy is essential. The authors need to state how to collect and keep copies of patients’ consent forms. Patients or other subjects of the experiments clearly grant permission to publish photographs or other material that might identify them. If the consent form of research did not specifically include this, please obtain it or remove the identifying material.

Similarly, for experiments involving animals, the authors must state the care of animals and licensing guidelines. The study was performed and reported following the ARRIVE (Animals in Research: Reporting In Vivo Experiments) statement. If ethics clearance was not necessary or any deviation from these standard ethical requests, please state why it was not required.

Based on the aforementioned, Bali Medical Journal (BaliMedJ) adapts COPE to meet a high-quality standard of ethics for publishers, editors, authors, and reviewers. As an essential issue, publication ethics needs to be explained clearly and well defined in improving the research quality worldwide. In this part, we explain the standard for editors, authors, and reviewers. Also, the publisher doesn’t have the right to interfere with the integrity of the contents and only supports publishing articles in a timely manner. Several guides need to be followed, as mentioned below.

For Editors
Several issues need to be followed by editors such as 1) Every article published in Bali Medical Journal are Editor’s responsibility; 2) The authors need to follow the instruction for the author that we adapt from ICMJE and guide by Editor; 3) The editors have a pivotal role in communicating to other editors or reviewers in making the final decision; 4) The evaluation of the manuscript objectively for publication, judging each on its quality without looking to nationality, ethnicity, political beliefs, race, religion, gender, seniority, or institutional affiliation of the authors have conducted by editors. Declining his/her assignment is necessarily needed if the potential of conflict of interest was found; 5) Information regarding authors and their affiliation must be ensured are not included in the manuscript sent to the reviewer, vice versa; 6) The authors need to be informed regarding editor’s decision according to the commentary report from reviewers unless they contain offensive or libelous remarks; 7) The author’s request need to be respected by the editors whereas an individual should not review the submission as long as well-reasoned and practicable; 8) editorial board member and staffs guarantee the confidentiality of manuscript submission; 9) COPE flowchart was used as a guide for editors if suspected misconducted or disputed authorship found.

For Reviewers
Several issues need to be followed by reviewer such as 1)
Ethical issues and possible research/publication misconduct need to be noticed; 2) If the reviewers could not complete the work promptly, they should notify the journal editors; 3) The confidentiality of manuscript need to be kept by reviewers; 4) A potential conflict of interest or possible research misconduct in the manuscript need to be declined by the reviewers.

For Authors
Several issues need to be followed by authors such as 1)
Author(s) confirm that the manuscript has not been previously published and trans­ferred elsewhere any rights to the article; 2) Originality of the study, as well as a proper citation under the format of the references, need to be ensured by Author(s); 3) Plagiarism nor self-plagiarism is prohibited in Bali Medical Journal; 4) ‘Salami’ publication is also strictly prohibited in Bali Medical Journal; 5) The authorship criteria from ICMJE need to be followed by Author(s) as explained from author’s guidelines in Bali Medical Journal; 6) Any personal information should be blinded by Author(s) such as from forms of description part, photograph or pedigree. However, a clear informed consent received from the subject of participants could be used only for scientific purpose if the photographs of the patient were essential and indispensable; 7) In the case of experimenting on human, the authors have certified that the process of the research is under ethical standards of Helsinki declaration, domestic and foreign committees that preside over human experi­ment. If any doubts are raised about whether the research proceeded under the declaration, the authors should explain it. In case of experimenting on animals, the authors have certified that the authors had followed the domestic and foreign guideline related to experiment of animals in a laboratory; 8) Author(s) should give the editor the data and details of the work if there are suspicions of data falsification or fabrication; 9) Authors of the journal should clarify everything that may cause a conflict of interests such as work, research expenses, consul­tant expenses, and intellectual property on the document of ICMJE form disclosure; 10) At the point of submission, the policy requires that each author reveal any financial interests or connections, direct or indirect, or other situations that might raise the question of bias in work reported or the conclusions, implications, or opinions stated - including pertinent commercial or other sources of funding for the individual author(s) or the associated department(s) or organization(s), personal relationships, or direct academic competition.

Bali Medical Journal (BaliMedJ) expects the highest ethical standards from their authors, reviewers, and editors when conducting research, submitting papers, and throughout the peer-review process. Employing a double-blind review process, in which the author's identities are concealed from the reviewers, and vice versa was conducted throughout the review process.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published or currently submitted elsewhere. Duplicate publication is a violation of the APA code of ethics (APA Publication Manual, 2010) and will be grounds for prompt rejection of the submitted manuscript. If the editor was not aware of the violation and the article has been published, a notice of the duplicate submission and the ethical violation will be published.

Reporting Standards & Data Access

The author must report the results of his research accurately and objectively. The data used must be accurately presented. The manuscript must contain sufficient detail and reference so that other researchers can replicate the work. The author may be asked to provide research data for Editorial Review needs.

Originality, Acknowledgment of Source, & Confidentiality

The author must ensure that what is written in the manuscript is original. The author should avoid all forms of plagiarism practice. Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. The authors should cite publications that influence the written report. Information obtained from conversations, correspondence, or discussions with third parties must obtain permission from the source to be reported in the manuscript. The author must ensure that it has written permission to use confidential information.

Multiple, Redundant, or Concurrent Publication

Authors may not publish essentially the same research work in more than one journal. Authors are also prohibited from submitting the same manuscript simultaneously to more than one journal for publication. Authors may not submit published work except in the form of a thesis, lecture material, or electronic preprint.

Authorship of the Paper

Authors should be limited to those who have a significant contribution (determine the concept, design, execution, or interpretation of the manuscript). All such persons should be listed as co-authors. Parties that participate in certain aspects of the script (e.g., language editing) should be recognized in the acknowledgments section. The corresponding author should ensure that all co-authors have been included in the paper, and no inappropriate co-authors are listed. The corresponding author is also responsible for ensuring that all co-authors have approved the manuscript submitted for publication in the journal. Authors take collective responsibility for the work.

Hazards and Human / Animal Subjects

The author should clearly identify in the manuscript if it involves chemicals, procedures, or equipment that have an unusual degree of danger. Relevant laws and institutional guidance should conduct that research involving human or animal subjects. The authors are obliged to write in the manuscript that the procedures performed have been by the rules and the guideline and have received permission to conduct such research. If the author wants to display case details or personal information, the Authors must obtain the patient's written consent or the authorities. All permissions should be presented by the author to the editor if requested.

Fundamental Errors in Published Works

If the author finds significant errors or inaccuracies in his published work, the author shall notify the Journal Editor to retract the manuscript or correct it. If the editor learns the error from a third party, the authors must cooperate with the Journal Editor to clarify, improve, or retract the manuscript.

Image Integrity

It is not acceptable to make image manipulation that can change the meaning of the image. Changing the image to improve clarity is acceptable, but image manipulation can be considered a violation of research ethics for other purposes.

Submission Declaration and Verification

The submission has not been previously published or is under consideration of another journal (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis or as an electronic preprint). Please read more about “Multiple, Redundant, or Concurrent Publication” from our Publication Ethics pages.

Changes to Authorship

The list of authors listed at the time of submission is final and should not be changed. Authors are expected to consider carefully including an order of authors. Any addition, deletion, or rearrangement of author names should be made only before the manuscript has been accepted and only if approved by the journal Editor. Written confirmation (e-mail, letter) from all authors is needed to make such change, includes confirmation from the author being added or removed. Only in exceptional circumstances will the Editor consider the addition, deletion, or rearrangement of authors.

 

Publication Ethics

We are committed to ensuring that advertising, reprint, or other commercial revenue has no impact or influence on editorial decisions. Though this journal has not yet obtained its membership with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), we are committed to adhering to the standards and guidelines set out by COPE.

The following are useful links for our authors, reviewers, and editors.

COPE 

COPE Flow-Charts

International standards for editors and authors

Policies on Conflict of Interest, Human and Animal Rights, and Informed Consent