Publication Ethics

Editorial Credentials and Duties of Contributors at the Central Asian Journal of Medical Hypotheses and Ethics

The Central Asian Journal of Medical Hypotheses and Ethics (CAJMHE) publishes scholarly articles of interest to the regional community. The editors take full responsibility for the quality of the published items and their relevance to the scope and aims of the Journal. All scientific facts and proposed new ideas in the articles are carefully checked to offer the audience ethically sound and potentially valuable materials positively influencing the healthcare development in the Central Asia and elsewhere in the world. The editors value high input of local and regional editorial board members who are supported by professional guidance of experts from many other countries. The editorial board members are chosen based on their professional credentials and adherence to the globally acceptable research and publication ethics standards. The editors will try their best to solicit quality articles of seasoned authors with experience in research, clinical practice, and publishing. All other authors deliberately choosing this Journal as the trusted target for their best research, hypotheses, and reviews will be offered editorial guidance and expedient peer review to facilitate publication of truly valuable articles.          

The following main recommendations of the global editorial associations are regularly consulted by the Journal responsible editors to ensure the quality and ethical soundness of the publication:

The Journal editors also endorse the following editorial documents to ensure wide visibility of the publication and prevent violations of publication ethics:

Responsibilities of the Editor-in-Chief

The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for maintaining high publication standards by upgrading his/her own editorial credentials and adhering to the recommendations of the global editorial associations and locally/regionally publicized documents related to the quality and ethical standards of the periodicals. An extra effort should be taken by the Editor-in-Chief to ensure the relevance of the Journal to the interests of healthcare providers in Central Asian countries. The Editor-in-Chief is also responsible for offering editorial board membership to the best local, regional, and international scholars with strong professional interest in their field and experience in peer reviewing and editing.

Processing the Journal’s submissions is managed by the Editor-in-Chief, who is the main authority to reject, return the manuscripts to the authors for revision, or accept them after thorough evaluation of reviewer comments and recommendations of responsible section editors, including research integrity and statistical editors. Occasionally the Editor-in-Chief may submit his/her own editorials and full papers for possible publication by the Journal. In that case, internal and external peer review should be arranged by other editors/editorial board members who are free of any conflict of interest.        

Duties of Editorial Board Members

All members of the Editorial Board are chosen for the initial three-year term that can be extended further based on the evaluation of their contributions. They are responsible for:

  • Regularly acting as reviewers of the submissions in their field of expertise;
  • Attending online and face-to-face editorial meetings of the Journal to revise editorial strategies and discuss matters arising;
  • Submitting editorials commenting on the submissions;
  • Submitting full research papers and reviews of interest to the audience of the Journal;
  • Acting as ambassadors of the Journal at relevant local and international congresses and other meetings to attract the best submissions;
  • Regularly upgrading their editorial skills by attending science editing meetings;
  • Acting responsibly in line with the Core Practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics;
  • Ethically promoting the Journal’s published contents using popular social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.     

Reviewer Duties

The reviewers are experts in their professional field who are picked by the Editor-in-Chief to fairly and objectively evaluate the submissions. They are responsible for the quality and confidentiality of their evaluations. While reviewing, they have to consult relevant standards of the EQUATOR Network and adhere to the statements of the global editorial associations, including those by the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME). To increase the Journal’s transparency and get deserved reviewer credits, the reviewers will be acknowledged by publicizing their names annually. They may also choose to list their contributions on their ORCID iDs and forward the Journal’s official acknowledgements for their reviewer accomplishments to Publons. The reviewers are responsible for:

  • Providing timely, courteous, and evidence-based evaluations of the assigned submissions;
  • Declaring financial and nonfinancial conflicts of interests that may question their objectivity during the peer evaluations;
  • Reporting to the Editor-in-Chief any suspicion of duplication and plagiarism in the evaluated submissions;
  • Avoiding any unethical act such as copying and re-using the submissions under evaluation for their own interests;
  • Comprehensively evaluating the submissions and suggesting the amendments that may improve the quality and ethical soundness;
  • Suggesting highly relevant references missed by the authors of the submissions, but avoiding references that may be judged as unethical self-citations;
  • Providing fair recommendations on whether or not the submissions to accept/revise/reject, with clear understanding that the final decisions lie with the Editor-in-Chief.  

Author Duties

By submitting their precious articles, the Journal authors should aim to enrich the archive by ethically sound, well argued, and potentially testable hypotheses. They may also submit letters, reviews, expert opinion pieces, and original research articles with implications for the advancement of healthcare in Central Asia and elsewhere in the world. Submitting articles that contain unethically copied ideas, texts, and graphics is unacceptable. The authors are responsible for:  

  • Submitting manuscripts with well checked and properly referenced scientific facts and ideas;
  • Adhering to relevant research reporting standards of the EQUATOR Network;
  • Fully disclosing Author Contributions and any external editing support, including that by commercial editing agencies;
  • Stating about any previously published congress abstract(s) overlapping with the materials in the current submission;
  • Ensuring that the current submission is not simultaneously under consideration for publication elsewhere;
  • Providing full information about approval of their original research by local ethics committee(s);
  • Declaring adherence to established ethical norms of experimental and clinical research, including mandatory statements on written informed contents of all the participants of their research;
  • Providing full information on funding and sponsorship;
  • Disclosing relevant financial or nonfinancial conflicts of interest;
  • Actively promoting their published articles by sharing on social media platforms and repositing on scholarly networking sites and institutional repositories.