Journal Policies

Journal Policies

Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine & Surgery regularly obtains recommendations on individual manuscripts from reviewers who are not a part of our journal’s editorial staff.

The journal follows an open peer-review model aimed to improve precision, transparency, and comprehensiveness of published manuscripts and to give assistance to editors in making decisions which manuscripts to publish.

The selection of Peer-reviewers is made based on their expertise, capability in providing their excellency and fair reviews. Peer-reviewers are encouraged to advise editors on what base manuscript must improve its current quality and its priority for publication.

Journal obtains reviews for a manuscript from peers around the world, who are experts in the manuscripts content area and research methods concerning the field of study. Journal allots manuscripts to two external (not suggested by the authors) reviewers to maintain its high-quality review process. For their efforts in a fair review, reviewers are given credit in the form of points and are redeemable by their publications in our journal.

Journal strictly follows publications which come under the scope of the concerned specialization and if not will be returned to the authors without any further review to save the valuable time of our editors and peer-reviewers.

Research involving humans

Ethical approval

All studies involving humans (individuals, human data or material) must have been conducted according to the principles expressed in the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval must have been obtained for all protocols from the authors’ institutions or other relevant ethics committees (Institutional Review Board, IRB) to ensure that they meet national and international guidelines. Details of this approval must be provided when submitting an article, including the institution, review board name, and permit number(s).

Human studies categorized by race/ethnicity, age, disease/disabilities, religion, sex/gender, sexual orientation, or other socially constructed groupings, should include a justification of the choice of definitions and categories, including whether any rules of human categorization were required by the relevant funding agencies. Appropriate non-stigmatizing language should be used when describing different groups.

Ethics approval must be obtained before the research is conducted; retrospective approval can usually not be obtained and it may not be possible to publish the study.

Patient privacy and informed consent for publication

As stated in the Uniform Requirements of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors: “Patients have a right to privacy that should not be infringed without informed consent. Identifying information should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) give written informed consent for publication. Informed consent for this purpose requires that the patient be shown the manuscript to be published. When informed consent has been obtained it should be indicated in the published article.”

Consent to participate: For all studies involving human participants, including personal genomics studies, case reports, clinical trials, questionnaires, observations, etc, informed written consent to take part in the research must have been obtained, and this should be stated in the article in a section entitled ‘Consent’. You can use our consent form or your own institution’s form as you prefer. If only oral consent was obtained (rather than written), the reasons need to be explained, confirmation of IRB approval that oral consent was adequate must be provided, and a statement of how it was documented included in the Consent section.

Consent for publication of identifiable data: For any articles that include information that could potentially identify an individual, please ensure that you have obtained written, informed consent from all patients or healthy participants (or their legal guardians for minors, or next of kin if the participant is deceased), confirming that the results can be published. This includes large clinical datasets with direct or indirect identifiers (see this article for information), specific details about individuals, images and so on. If this applies to your article, you also need to include an explicit statement, under a separate heading of the ‘Consent’ section (we suggest: ‘Written informed consent for publication of their clinical details and/or clinical images was obtained from the patient/parent/guardian/relative of the patient.’).

Alternatively, if no consent for publication was required (e.g. The data have been anonymized), then this should be clearly stated and a note should be added, confirming that such alterations have not distorted scientific meaning.

Signed consent forms should be made available to the Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine & Surgery editorial office if requested.

Research involving animals

Studies involving animals must have been conducted in line with the Animal Research: Reporting In-Vivo Experiments’ (ARRIVE) guidelines, developed by NC3Rs to improve standards of reporting, ensuring that the data from animal experiments can be fully scrutinized and utilized. The relevant information outlined in these guidelines should be included in the appropriate section of the article.

Experiments involving vertebrates or regulated invertebrates must be carried out within the ethical guidelines provided by the authors’ institution and national or international regulations. Where applicable, a statement of ethics permission granted or animal licenses should be included. If animals were used, but ethical approval was not required, a clear statement should be included stating why this approval was unnecessary.

In all cases, a statement should be made to confirm that all efforts were made to ameliorate any suffering of animals and details of how this was achieved should be provided.

Authors should comply with the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

Research involving plants

Studies on plants must be carried out within the guidelines provided by the authors’ institution and national or international regulations. Where applicable, a statement of permissions granted or licenses should be included. Authors should comply with the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

Reporting Standards

Standards of reporting guidelines help authors to ensure that they have provided a comprehensive description of their research, making it easier for others to assess and reproduce the work; for more detail and a comprehensive overview, see the sharing initiative. Comprehensive lists of available reporting guidelines can be found on the EQUATOR network website for health research, and the MIBBI website for biological research.

Specifically, articles in Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine & Surgery that report clinical trials must adhere to the CONSORT reporting guidelines. We ask authors to include a copy of the original trial protocol and a completed CONSORT checklist and flow diagram as supporting files, which will be published alongside your article. Any deviation from the original trial protocol must be explained in the article.

Permanency of content

All articles published in Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine & Surgery receive a DOI and are permanently published. This applies regardless of the outcome of the peer review that follows after publication.

Authors can revise, change and update their articles by publishing new versions, which add to the article’s history; however, the individual versions, once published, cannot be altered or withdrawn and are permanently available on the Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine & Surgery website. Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine & Surgery participates in the CrossMark scheme, a multi-publisher initiative that has developed a standard way for readers to locate the current version of an article. By applying the CrossMark policies, Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine & Surgery is committed to maintaining the content it publishes and to alert readers to changes if and when they occur.

Clicking on the CrossMark logo (at the top of each Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine & Surgery article) will give you the current status of an article and direct you to the latest published version; it may also give you additional information such as new referee reports.

To maintain the integrity and completeness of the scholarly record, the following policies will be applied when published content needs to be corrected; these policies take into account current best practice in the scholarly publishing and library communities:

Correction to an Article

In traditional journals, where articles are peer-reviewed before publication, Corrections (or Errata) are published to alert readers to errors in the article that became apparent following the publication of the final article.

By contrast, articles in Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine & Surgery undergo peer review post-publication and publication is not ‘final’ as new versions can be added at any stage. Possible mistakes that come to light during the peer review process may be highlighted in the published refereed reports, which are part of the article. Authors can publish revised versions, and any errors that become apparent during peer review or later can be corrected through the publication of new versions. Corrections and changes relative to the previous version are always summarized in the ‘Amendments’ section at the start of a new version.

Retraction

This action is reserved for articles that are seriously flawed and so the findings or conclusions cannot be relied upon.

Articles may be retracted for several reasons, including:

• Honest errors reported by the authors (for example, errors due to the mixing up of samples or use of a scientific tool or equipment that is found subsequently to be faulty)
• Research misconduct (data fabrication)
• Duplicate or overlapping publication
• Fraudulent use of data
• Clear plagiarism
• Unethical research

For any retracted article, the reason for the retraction and who is instigating the retraction will be clearly stated in the Retraction notice. The retraction notice will be linked to the retracted article (which usually remains on the site) and the article will be marked as retracted (including the PDF).

An article is usually only retracted at the authors’ request or by the publisher in response to an institutional investigation. It is important to note in the context of Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine & Surgery publication model, that ‐ as in traditional journals ‐ a retracted article is not ‘unpublished’ or ‘withdrawn’ for it to be published elsewhere. The reasons for retraction are usually so serious that the whole studies, or large parts of it, are not appropriate for inclusion in the scientific literature anywhere.

The content of a retracted article would only be removed where legal limitations have been placed upon the publisher, copyright holder or author(s), for example, if the article is defamatory or infringes others’ legal rights, or if the article is the subject of a court order. In such cases, the bibliographic information for the article will be retained on the site along with information regarding the circumstances that led to the removal of the content.

Under rare circumstances, for example, if false or inaccurate data have been published that, if acted upon, pose a serious health risk, the original incorrect version(s) may be removed and a corrected version published. The reason for this partial removal would be clearly stated in the latest version.

Editorial Note

If there is a potential, not yet resolved, the problem with an article, it may be appropriate to alert readers with an Editorial Note. Such an Editorial Note may be added, for example, if Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine & Surgery receives information that research or publication misconduct might have taken place, or that there is a serious dispute between authors or between the authors and third parties. The Editorial Note will usually be posted while further investigations take place and until a more permanent solution has been found (e.g. The publication of a revised ‘corrected’ version, or a Retraction).

Policy for Review/User Comments

While peer reviewers are formally invited, we encourage unsolicited open scientific discussion on all articles. Such contributions are published through our Comment system. To ensure that comments contribute to, and focus on, the scientific debate, we only allow comments from readers who have a formal affiliation with a research institution, or other life science-related organization. Consistent with our commitment to full transparency, the reader’s full name and affiliation appear on their public comment.

Comments should focus on the scientific content presented in the articles with which they are associated.

Comments that appear to be advertising, are potentially libelous or legally problematic (including comments revealing patient information) will not be published. We will not accept comments that are offensive, indecent or contain negative comments of a personal, racial, ethnic, sexual orientation, or religious character.

All Comments must be written in good English; a Comment may be rejected if it is deemed unintelligible.

Readers who wish to comment on an article are asked to declare any competing interests. Competing interests can be financial (e.g. Holding a patent or receiving fees from a company that may lose or gain financially from the publication of the Comment), or they can be personal, religious, political or other non-financial interests. When completing your declaration, please consider the issues summarized in the Declaration of Competing Interests.

Post-publication peer review

All articles undergo formal peer review by inviting experts who meet our criteria for referees; these criteria are aimed at ensuring that referees have sufficient expertise and qualifications to judge the content of the article and that they have no conflicts of interest.

Except for Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine & Surgery Reviews, peer review takes place after publication and is driven by the authors who must suggest the referees and who decide when and how to address any criticisms raised by the referees. Communication with the referees is done by the editorial team, on behalf of the authors.

The peer-review process is completely transparent: the referee names and their reports are published alongside the article, and the authors’ responses to the referees (or to reader comments) are also posted for readers to see.

Revisions and updates are published as new versions, with clear explanations (in an “Amendments” section) of the changes the authors made.

Stopping Peer Review

Peer review may be discontinued on some articles that have not received sufficient referee reports over a long period. As a general rule, authors may choose to stop peer review if their article, has not received any reports after 6 months, or if only 1 report has been received after 9 months. In some cases, where the authors have not actively pursued peer review, the Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine & Surgery team may add an explanation in the article to alert readers that the peer review of the article is not active.

Articles with 0 or 1 report have not passed peer review and are not indexed in PubMed and other bibliographic databases; if peer review is stopped in consultation with the Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine & Surgery team, the article (which is permanently published with a DOI and cannot be removed) can be considered equivalent to a preprint and the authors may choose to submit the manuscript to a journal for peer review and publication elsewhere (it is at the discretion of the journal editors the authors are submitting to how they consider the history of the article at Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine & Surgery).

A peer review of these articles can be reactivated at a later stage at the authors’ request, provided the article has not been peer-reviewed and published elsewhere in the meantime.

Originality & Publication Priority

We encourage our contributors to follow “constructing your Manuscript” for a better contribution keeping in mind ethical principles as stated, before submission of a manuscript to the journal. Contributors are requested to avoid redundant (similar) publications.

Republication of a manuscript from other languages or various journals with different types of publications and audiences with effective social networking is accepted here, provided wide information, disclosure of all conflicts and a consent letter from all authors and co-authors for a re-publication initiative in the journals listed in our website.

Conflicts of Interest

A Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine & Surgery, neither expects nor receives any financial gains which would affect the process of a specific publication. No company or manufacturing industry is made flexible in drawing their attention towards possible misconduct in maintaining publications of their interest.

No payment by industries and third parties (like companies which sell drugs and finished products) for research or patents, no possible public announcements by medical educators & non-publishing companies, are encouraged in a publication process.

Clinicians having competing interests financially in editing research that in turn provide them income, political & non-profit organizations, consultancies are made explicit and put a far from their influence in a particular publication.

Academic Honesty

Authors are encouraged to disclose any particular explanation or method suggested by a reviewer or editor for a correction is being biased in research conduct or having strong beliefs in their harsh judgments after their successful revision.

Unbiased conduct

Reviewers & editors in the same field should take efforts in finding faults with articles from competing individuals, which delay in publication and further makes authors submit their work to false or lesser journals.

Confidentiality

Manuscripts submitted to journals are privileged communications that are authors’ private, confidential property, and authors may be harmed by premature disclosure of any or all of a manuscript’s details.

Peer-review: Editors are suggested to seek the opinion of a constructive reviewer for most of the research articles. Editors should decide under which context, the manuscript has been accepted for publication, supported by the reviewer’s advice.

The International Society for Medical Publication Professionals provides good practice guidelines, which are aimed at ensuring that “clinical trials sponsored by pharmaceutical companies are published responsibly and ethically”.

Reviewers and editors are also required to declare any competing interests in their reports, as our readers who contribute comments on the site.

Editors Competing Interests

Editorial leaders and editors those who make final recommendations for manuscripts should recuse themselves from editorial decisions if they have relationships that pose potential conflicts of interest related to articles under consideration towards publication

Other editorial staff members participating in editorial decisions should provide editors with a present statement of their conflicts of interest or other financial interest and recuse themselves from decisions towards manuscript in which a conflict of interest exists.

Editorial Staff members should not use the information obtained through manuscript editing, through stakeholders or other staff members for their gain.

Editors should publish regular disclosure statements about potential conflicts of interest related to the commitments of journal staff, board members. (ICMJE)

What conflicts are and effects whom and when?

Conflicts of interests are the major drawback for an ethical publication of one’s (Individual and group) own research which intern affects each individual with risk in research integrity and can motivate one’s private interest and their duties to scientific, academic and publishing activities. Conflicts of interest exist in every stakeholder (author, reviewer, editor) in scientific publishing and hence it is made explicitly public mentioning everyone’s competing interest fair and transparent. Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine & Surgery express no conflicts of interest with any academic institutions, funding agencies, research labs, government, media, and public.

Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine & Surgery outlines different types of competing interests of their stakeholders and provides the customers with the best possibilities to notice and try to get rid of these personal interests before making a reliable connection and for a better possible relationship.

Financial Conflicts

The financial tie-ups are the major risk proven conflicts that affect his/her responsibilities to publication process with expectations in receiving money, services or gifts. Every individual (author, reviewer, and editor) has been asked to state any such allegations before editing or submitting a manuscript.

We do not encourage an individual (Industry, advisory boards, medical companies who sell their education for a financial reason and companies who sell drugs) in competing unethical practices towards a research, patents, and other scientific expertise that effect publication process and is made explicit and public until and unless the authors expect no competing interest.

Financial conflicts may appear to include (but are not bound to)

Receiving allowances, funds, salary, or incentives from an organization that may anyhow affect financial gain or lose from the publication either now or then.

Having shares, patents, stock options, payments towards editing services of a manuscript which may anyhow affect financial gain or lose from the publication either now or then

Other competing Interest

Competing interest with government, clinical and civic agencies which may for their reputation and funding from organizations lead to disruptions in research activities and these are handled cautiously without any influence towards financial gain.

Manuscripts received towards the journal are made edited and reviewed by the individuals who are not a part of their family, or a colleague of the same academic institution past 10 years, or a friend of his/her, or a competitor having same research challenge which has changed his/her present paradigm. Contributors are asked for his/her concern for any religious beliefs or political issues if any, for any upcoming submission of manuscripts towards the journal.

If anyone is unsure and not know about their competing interests whom and when they fall into may e-mail us for further clarifications regarding conflicts at editor@aimedsurgery.org