Publication Ethics

Following the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), SQUMJ defines scientific misconduct as:

- Falsifying data: inventing data, selective reporting, or omission, suppression or distortion of data.

- Authorship issues: exclusion of involved researchers, or inclusion of researchers who have not contributed to the work, or publication without permission from all authors.

- Disregard for generally accepted research practice: including manipulating experiments/statistics to get biased results, or improper reporting of results.

- Failure to follow legal requirements: violating local regulations and laws involving the use of funds, copyright, care of animals, human subjects, investigational drugs, recombinant products, new devices, or radioactive, biological, or chemical materials.

- Inappropriate behaviour in cases of misconduct: including false accusations of misconduct; failure to report misconduct; not providing information relevant to a misconduct claim, and retaliation against people claiming or investigating misconduct.

- Plagiarism: using the published or unpublished language, ideas, or thoughts of another writer without reference or permission, and presenting them as one’s own. (more about our plagiarism policy HERE)

SQUMJ takes all these forms of misconduct extremely seriously. It follows the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) & International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) guidelines. The final decision on the action is taken by the Editor-in-Chief.

Clinical Trials Registration and Ethical Approval

In accordance with international research ethics guidelines, all clinical trials involving human participants must be registered in a publicly accessible database, such as ClinicalTrials.gov, before enrolling participants. This aligns with the ICMJE and World Health Organization (WHO) standards to ensure transparency and accountability in clinical research. Ethical approval from a recognized Institutional Review Board (IRB) or Ethics Committee is required, ensuring that the trial design respects participants’ rights, safety, and informed consent. Researchers must also comply with local regulations and institutional policies.

At SQUMJ, we require that all clinical trials involving human subjects are registered in a publicly accessible database. However, to maintain a blinded review process, the registration number should not be included in the manuscript upon submission. Additionally, ethical approval and informed consent statements must be clearly provided at the end of the Methods section.

Conflict of Interest

SQUMJ is committed to upholding the highest ethical standards and transparency. To maintain the integrity of the publication process, the following conflict of interest policies are in place for editors, authors, and reviewers:

  • Editors: Editors must disclose any potential conflicts of interest, including personal, academic, or financial interests that could affect their decisions. If a conflict exists, the editor must recuse themselves from handling the manuscript. Editorial decisions are based solely on the manuscript's scientific merit and relevance to the journal’s scope.

  • Authors: Authors are required to disclose any financial or personal relationships that could be perceived to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of funding for the research must be disclosed. Authors should ensure that any conflicts of interest are detailed in the manuscript's conflict of interest statement as well as in the required standard cover letter.

  • Reviewers: Reviewers must disclose any potential conflicts of interest before accepting a review assignment. This includes any personal, academic, or financial interests that could affect their impartiality. If a conflict is present, the reviewer should decline the review invitation.

Adherence to these policies ensures the integrity and credibility of the peer review and publication processes. All disclosed conflicts of interest will be managed in accordance with COPE and ICMJE guidelines to ensure a fair and unbiased review process.

 

Appeals and Complaints

For appeals or complaints, please click HERE. Authors are encouraged to provide detailed information to clarify their position or issue to assist the Editor-in-Chief in reaching a decision.

 

For post-publication correction(s):

- An Erratum Notice will be published as soon as possible with details regarding the discovered error(s) as long as they do not change the direction or significance of the results, interpretations and conclusions of the article. The Erratum Notice will be published with a new version of the article after correction, highlighting the corrected section(s), and will have a unique DOI for indexing purposes. 

- A Retraction Notice will be published if any errors serious enough to invalidate a paper's results and conclusions were discovered. However, retraction with republication can be considered in cases where honest error (e.g. a misclassification or miscalculation) leads to a major change in the direction or significance of the results, interpretations and conclusions. The published retraction notice will provide details regarding the cause for the retraction and will have a unique DOI for indexing purposes.

For more information about post-publication corrections please click HERE.

 

For any complaints please contact the SQUMJ Editorial Team at mjournal@squ.edu.om. All complaints will be discussed by the Editorial Team and appropriate actions will be taken.

For more information about ethical misconduct please refer to the following articles:

- Al Lamki L. Ethics in Scientific Publication: Plagiarism and other Scientific Misconduct. Oman Med J 2013; 28(6):379-81. VIEW ARTICLE

- Al-Adawi S, Ali BH, Al-Zakwani I. Research Misconduct: The Peril of Publish or Perish. Oman Med J 2016; 31(1):5-11. VIEW ARTICLE