The publication of an article in the peer-reviewed journal SJUOZ supports the standard and respected knowledge transfer network. Our publication ethics and publication malpractice statement is mainly based on the Code of Conduct and Best-Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors (Committee on Publication Ethics, 2011), which includes the following:

1. General duties and responsibilities of editors.

2. Relationship with readers.

3. Relationship with authors.

4. Relationship with editors.

5. Relationship with editorial board members.

6. Relationship with journal owners and publishers.

7. Editorial and peer review processes.

8. Protecting individual data.

9. Compliance with ethical standards (for example, research involving humans or animals).

10.  Dealing with potential misconduct.

11. Ensuring the integrity of academic records.

12.  Intellectual property.

13.  Fostering debate.

14.  Complaints.

15.  Conflicts of interest.

Professional peer reviewers conduct rigorous peer reviews in the field under question. In addition, strict ethical standards and policies are enforced to ensure high-quality scientific papers are added to the field of interest. Before peer reviewing the manuscript, a manuscript is checked for plagiarism, authorship, and data falsification. The similarity rate is checked with Turnitin. Manuscripts may be passed to the peer review process only when the similarity rate is less than 20%.

 

1.1.   Author's responsibilities.

·         Author warrant that the research is their original work.

·         The submission must be done online.

·         National authors must pay article processing fees following paper acceptance (Only applicable for Iraqis). 

·         The manuscript must not be under consideration for publication elsewhere.

·         Parallel submission to another journal is not allowed.

·         The manuscript must not contain any unlawful statement that violates a third party.

·         The author should accurately present the findings and include an objective discussion for his/her findings.

·         Authors must include all authors who have made a significant contribution to the research. Authors are expected to follow the procedures and recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.

·         Present materials and methods in detail to ensure that if another researcher wants to do the same experiment, nearly the same results can be obtained.

·         Authors must obtain permission from the copyright holder for any previously published image, figure, etc.

·         Any changes in the list of authors must be during the editorial process before the acceptance of the paper for publication.

·         Authors must follow the international guidelines for research involving humans, animals and plants such as Declaration of Helsinki 1975, Code of Practice for the Housing and Care of Animals Used in Scientific Procedures and Convention on Biological Diversity.

·         Authors must give citations for all images, figures etc. which are already published.

·         Authors must provide an ethical statement as part of their Methods section detailing full information as to their approval (including the name of the granting organization, and the approval reference numbers). If an approval reference number is not provided, written approval must be provided as a confidential supplemental information file.

·         For research conducted on regulated animals (including all live vertebrates and/or higher invertebrates), appropriate approval must have been obtained according to either international or local laws and regulations. Prior to conducting the research, approval must have been obtained from the relevant body (in most cases an Institutional Review Board, or Ethics Committee). Research on non-human primates is subject to specific guidelines from the Weatherall (2006) report (The Use of Non-Human Primates in Research).

·         Experimental animals should have been handled according to the highest standards dictated by the author’s institution.

·         Revision process is expected to be completed within two weeks.

·         Any changes made for revision must be highlighted in yellow color.

·         Due to the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), the journal only accepts using AI tools for language checking and proofreading to enhance the readability of the manuscripts. Using AI for writing or data analysis instead of human writing is not acceptable and it will be checked with Turnitin.

·         Authors may appeal to the editor-in-chief if they have any concerns regarding the review process and they are expected to provide detailed justification for the appeal.

 

1.2.   Reviewer’s responsibilities

·         Reviewers must alert the editor for any violations of ethical standards.

·         Reviewers and editors must not have any conflict of interest with the research work.

·         Personal criticism of the author by reviewers is deemed inappropriate; their arguments should be evidence-based.

·         Reviewers must consider all the documents as confidential.

·         Evaluation of the research works must be free from any religious, gender, sexual, racial, political, and ethnic biases.

·         Reviewers must ensure whether the research work is compliant with ethical standards for research involving humans, animals, and plants.

·         Reviewers are highly encouraged to provide written competent feedback in a timely manner.

·         Reviewers must disclose any conflict of interest to the editors that could affect their opinions on the manuscripts.

·         Reviewer are not allowed to use any information, result or idea in the reviewed paper for personal use.

 

1.3.   Editor's responsibilities;

·         Editors and reviewers must consider all the documents as confidential.

·         Editors must check the research work for ethical approval for research involving humans, animals, and plants.

·         The editor must choose reviewers who are experts in the field.

·         The editor makes recommendations to the editor-in-chief to either accept or reject manuscripts.

·         If the editor wants to publish a paper in the journal, another section editor will handle the paper. In addition, the editor will not be involved in the peer review process.

·         The editor is not allowed to use any information, results, or ideas in the reviewed paper for personal purposes.

 

1.4.   Editor-in-Chief's responsibilities

·         Editor-in-chief has the final decision for accepting or rejecting manuscripts.

·         He/she nominates the editorial board.

·         He/she passes the research which fits the scope of the journal.

·         He/she checks review process on a regular basis.

·         He/she must mediate any conflict of interest between editor, reviewers, and researchers. 

 

1.5.   Manuscript retraction:

Editor-in-chief and section editor must consider retraction in the following cases:

·         There is clear evidence for a major error or mistake.

·         The paper or part of the results has been published elsewhere without adequate reference by the authors.

·         The manuscript contains some materials that the author is not authorized to use.

·         The author did not disclose conflict of interest, and the editor believes that this would affect the decision of the reviewers and editors.

·         SJUOZ follows the guidelines of COPE for dealing with paper retraction