The Biomedica obeys and follows the guidelines provided by “Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)” for the best practice of publication standards in open access model. Therefore, The Biomedica urges its authors, reviewers, editors and readers to adhere the ethical standards as issued on this page.

Guidelines for Authors:

  • The Biomedica strictly rejects the articles which are compiled with plagiarized content, thus authors are advised not to submit any plagiarized articles.
  • The Biomedica never encourages authors to make redundant submissions and any article such that will be rejected and removed immediately at any stage of the publication process from all the databases and any Indexing Services that are associated with The Biomedica. And also a legal note will be issued to the corresponding author.
  • Authorship should be given to those who involved in the design and development of the concept, collection and analysis of the data, draft and revision of the article, final approval of the submitting version of the article. Authors should be listed based on the work done by. Authors are here by noted that, the copyright will be issued in the first author’s name only.
  • Correspondence address should be mentioned with the name of the author who will take the responsibility of communication with the editorial office, editors, reviewers & readers and to respond the requests/queries if any. It is suggested that the provided details should not have any changes for a longer time.
  • “Acknowledgement” section must be added to the document if any credit(s) should be given to the people other than the authors.
  • “Author Contributions” and “Conflict of Interests” can be mentioned upon necessity.
  • Funding details should be mentioned if the work was funded by any agency.
  • Ethical committee certificates and patient approvals are required in case of mentioning any Human Clinical Trials and discloser of patient details’.

Guidelines for Reviewers:

Peer review is the backbone of the publication process to ensure the integrity of scholarly work. Thus, reviewers are instructed to follow the ethical standards to maintain the trust of the authors in open access publications by behaving professionally. All the reviewers of The Biomedica are expected to be responsible for the recommendations they make and suggestions they give.

The following are the few basic guidelines for peer reviewers to maintain the smooth work flow:

  • A reviewer has to agree to review the manuscript only when the scope falls into their area of expertise and can assess the manuscript in the given timelines.
  • Confidentiality of the manuscript, author details and review details should not be revealed during or after the peer-review process without journal editorial office consent.
  • The provided details of the manuscript or its concept and data should not be used for personal or organizational requirements.
  • One of the basic ethical practices in peer review process is not to get influenced by the origins of a manuscript, by the nationality, religious or political beliefs, gender or other characteristics of the authors, or by any commercial considerations.
  • The review recommendations should be constructive and object oriented. The recommendations are expected not to have any kind of measures to defame the work of the authors in any manner.
  • Reviewers are advised to provide the personal and professional information to journal office which is accurate and a true representation of their expertise.
  • Be aware that impersonation during the review process is considered as a serious misconduct.

Guidelines for Editors:

An editor is not only the head of peer review process but also a guide for the quality and standards to be maintained by a journal. It is important to have a fruitful alliance between the editor of a journal and the publisher to make it possible the publication in a philosophical direction and should be anxious to have the journals recognized for their excellence.

The following are few fundamental guidelines about the editorial board member’s responsibilities:

  • The editor should encourage potential authors to submit quality material for publication.
  • An editor is expected to meet the standards of peer-review process and the needs of readers & authors by seeking the opinions from authors, readers, reviewers and fellow editorial board members regarding the ways of journal’s improvement in publication processes and to maintain the integrity of the academic record.
  • An editor is required to suggest qualified people as editorial board members and potential reviewers to contribute in the development of the journal.
  • An editor needs to review author instructions, peer-review practices and submission procedures periodically to check if any improvement is possible and persuade the publisher to provide appropriate resources, guidance from experts in the light of new findings.
  • An editor is required to act as and ambassador to support, promote and participate in the development of the journal and also to seek out the best authors and best work by attending the editorial board meetings and other external conferences in the scope of the journal.
  • An editor should check if the concept of the manuscript meets the journal scope and evaluate the article for falsified and plagiarized data to ensure the quality of publications.
  • An editor needs to write editorials, reviews and commentaries on papers in their specialist area which will greatly enhance the visibility of the journal.
  • An editor should ensure that the peer review process by the journal is fair, unbiased & timely and best suited peer review methods are adopted to meet the community requirements. Often, an editor may need to cease certain reviewers who are discourteous and provide unconstructive or late reviews.
  • An editor needs to develop, update and maintain a database of qualified reviewers and ensure that appropriate reviewers are selected for submissions and monitor to perform a quality peer review.
  • An editor can encourage reviewers to comment on the originality/plagiarism, redundancy of submissions, ethical standards and publication misconduct raised by any submission.
  • An editor should make a decision based on the quality and suitability of the articles and reviewer recommendations to publish in the journal.

Withdrawal Policy:

Sometimes the authors may want to withdraw their submissions due to several reasons and “Article Withdraw Policy” of The Biomedica fully supports the authors with their decision. The articles can be withdrawn at any time from the date of submission to initiation of peer review process without any delay. However, it may take some time and need the authors to pay the withdrawal charges to compensate the efforts of editorial staff and reviewers, if the article is ongoing/completed with review process and/or ready to publish.