Ethical Policy of Journal of Medicinal Herbs" (Formerly known as Journal of Herbal Drugs or J. Herb Drug)
The following guidelines should be read in line with the journal’s guide for authors. The statements confirm that confidentiality and fairness should be considered in all the JMH procedures and interactions. Readers, authors, reviewers and editors should follow these ethical policies once working with JMH.
Authorship Criteria
Any author should have participated significantly and sufficiently in the work to take responsibility for the whole content. All contributing authors must complete and submit an Authorship Statement Form once submitting a manuscript to the JMH. In addition, corresponding author is required to identify all authors’ contribution to the work described in the manuscript.
- Everyone who has made substantial intellectual contributions to the study on which the article is based (for example, to the research question, design, analysis, interpretation, and written description) should be an author.
- It is dishonest to omit mention of someone who has participated in writing the manuscript (“ghost authorship”) and unfair to omit investigator who have had important engagement with other aspects of the work.
- One author (a “guarantor”) should take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole. Often this is the corresponding author, the one who sends in the manuscript and receives reviews, but other authors can have this role. All authors should approve the final version of the manuscript.
- The authors themselves should decide the order in which authors are listed in an article.
- All authors should comply with the journals’ policies on conflict of interest.
- Editors should not arbitrarily limit the number of authors.
- Changes in authorship at any stage of manuscript review, revision, or acceptance should be accompanied by a written request and explanation from all of the original authors.
Conflict of Interest
All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.
Submission Declaration
Submission of an article implies that:
- The work described is authentic and valid and that neither this manuscript nor one with considerably similar content under this authorship has been published or is being considered for publication elsewhere including electronically in the same form, in English or in other language, without the written consent the copy right holder.
- All authors have agreed to allow the corresponding author to serve as the primary correspondent with the editorial office, to review the edited manuscript and proof.
Further information and an example of a submission declaration statement can be found at http://jhd.iaushk.ac.ir/journal/authors.note
Duties of Editors
• Publication decisions
- The editor of the Journal of Herbal Drugs is responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published.
- The editors may be guided by the policies of the journal’s editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The editor may confer with other editors or reviewers in making this decision.
• Fair play
- An editor at any time evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.
• Confidentiality
- The editor and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.
Duties of Reviewers
• Contribution to Editorial Decisions
- Peer review assists the editor in making editorial decisions and through the editorial communications with the author may also assist the author in improving the paper.
• Promptness
- Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse himself from the review process.
• Confidentiality
- Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor.
• Standards of Objectivity
- Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.
• Acknowledgement of Sources
- Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer should also call to the editor’s attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.
Duties of Authors
• Reporting standards
- Authors of reports of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.
• Plagiarism
- The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others that this has been appropriately cited or quoted. . JMH uses CrossCheck (powered by iThenticate) to detect instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts. If plagiarism is detected, either by the editors, peer reviewers or editorial staff at any stage before publication of a manuscript, we will alert the author(s), asking her or him to either rewrite the text or quote the text exactly and to cite the original source
• Multiple, Redundant or Concurrent Publication
- An author should not in general publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.
• Fundamental errors in published works: when an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.