Journal Ethics and Permissions

Medical Journal of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences adheres to the "ethical standards for publication" to ensure upon the "high-quality scientific publications", which grants the public trust for the scientific findings as the proof-of-concept and the proof-of-transformative technology.
It follows Helsinki Declarations.

Plagiarism, Duplicated Publication, Data Fabrication and Falsification

Medical Journal of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences is committed to publish the original studies and recent reviews that have not already been submitted to other journals and is not under review elsewhere. All submitted manuscripts to the journal are scrutinized for plagiarism. The plagiarized materials will incur the “Plagiarism Sanctions”. Such cases as redundant publication, translation to other languages and other journals without permission are subjected to research misconduct.
Submitted manuscripts, which are found to be published or under review elsewhere, will be sustained and experience the “Duplicated Publication Sanctions”.
Submitted manuscripts, which are found to include either fabricated or falsified data including the manipulation of images, will confront with the “Data Fabrication/Falsification Sanctions”. (Plagiarism Policy)

Redundant Publications

All the redundant publications, which are involved in an inappropriate dividing of study outcomes into several articles, will face with the “Redundant Publication Sanctions”.

Citation Manipulation

All the submitted manuscripts found to have manipulated citations primarily for just increasing the number of citations to a given author(s) or article(s) will incur the “Citation Manipulation Sanctions”.

Gift Authorship

All listed authors are required to have significant scientific contributions to the research of the submitted manuscript and approve the claimed findings. Gift Authorship, an author without any significant scientific contribution, will meet with the “Gift Authorship Sanctions”.
According to the ICMJE, the authorship should be based on the following criteria:

• Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work, or the acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data
• Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content
• Final approval of the version published
• Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved

Retraction

Based on theCOPE guidelines, the journal will consider retracting a publication if:

• It has clear evidence that the findings are unreliable, either as a result of misconduct (e.g. data fabrication) or honest error (e.g. miscalculation or experimental error).
• The findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper cross-referencing, permission or justification (i.e. cases of redundant publication).
• It constitutes plagiarism.
• It reports unethical research.

Sanctions

In the case of any aforementioned violations occur, it is the journal’s right to apply the following sanctions:

• Medical Journal of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences keeps all the rights to retract the infringing published works at any time found based on the COPE guideline for retracting articles.
• Immediate rejection of the infringing manuscript and sanction of the infringed author(s).
• Prohibition against all the authors for any new submissions to the journal for a minimum of 24 months.
• Prohibition against all the infringed authors from serving as a reviewer of acting as a member of the Editorial Board of Medical Journal of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences for a minimum of 36 months.
• In cases of violations found to be particularly ostensible, the journal reserves the right to apply additional sanctions beyond the aforementioned actions.

Academic dishonesty

• Suspected redundancy or duplication 
• Suspected plagiarism 
• Suspected fabrication and falsification

Authorship

• Request for addition of extra author or after publication 
• Request for removal of author before publication
• Request for removal of author Suspected as guest, ghost or gift authorship
• Request for being advised on how to spot authorship problems

Competing Interests

• If the reviewer suspects undisclosed conflict of interest in a submitted manuscript
• If the reader suspects undisclosed conflict of interest in a published article

Other considerations

• If we suspect an ethical problem with a submitted manuscript
• If we suspect a reviewer has appropriated an author’s idea or data
• How COPE handles complaints against editors

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