Ethical Code
JBP: Journal of Biomedical Practitioners complies with the best publication criteria. Prevention of negligent publication practices is one of the most critical responsibilities of the Directors and the Editorial Board. The Code describes the policies aimed at ensuring the ethical treatment of all those who participate in the review and publication processes. JBP Directors and Editors, Curators, Reviewers, and Authors are advised to follow these guidelines and to address any questions or concerns to the management and editorial team.
Guidelines apply to any manuscripts submitted to JBP, which can be reviewed at any time by the Chief Editor and the Editorial Managers. The following duties, indicated for editors and editors, authors, and reviewers, are based on the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors (latest version 2011).
Duties of the Editorial Board
The Director(s) and the Editorial Board are responsible for the content of the Journal, and for guarantying the integrity of published manuscripts.
-Decisions for Publication: The Directors / Editors have the ultimate decision regarding acceptance or rejection of submitted manuscripts. This decision is based on relevance, originality, and clarity of the manuscript, as well as its pertinence to the Journal.
- Manuscript Review: JBP practices a double-blind review process, in which the Authors do not know the Reviewers and vice versa. It is the responsibility of the Directors / Curators to ensure timely, independent, and anonymous revisions by qualified auditors who do not have conflicts of interest for any manuscript submitted to the Journal. It is responsibility of the Directors / Curators to ensure an adequate number of competent reviewers. Their contribution will be acknowledged in the Journal at the end of each year. The list of reviewers will be public and traceable on the magazine's website.
- Unbiased review: The Directors / Curators and the Editorial Board must ensure that every manuscript received by JBP is examined for intellectual content, without consideration of gender, gender, race, religion, citizenship, etc. of the authors.
- Confidentiality: The Directors / Curators and the Editorial Committee must ensure that every effort is made to guarantee the confidentiality and protection of the submitted material, as well as the identity of the authors and reviewers.
-Disclosure: The Directors / Curators must ensure that submitted manuscripts are maintained confidential and that their contents are not disclosed to anyone other than the author and the reviewers.
-Conflicts of interest: The Directors / Curators must refuse to consider a manuscript for which they have a potential conflict of interest resulting from a relationship or financial connection, competition, collaboration, or others, with any of the authors, companies or institutions associated with the manuscript.
-Authority: The Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Directors have the final authority and responsibility for the Journal. The Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Directors must respect the constituent parts of the Journal (Readers, Authors, Reviewers, Curators, Editorial Committee) and work to secure the honesty and integrity of the contents of the Journal, as well as continuously improve its quality.
Duties of the Reviewers
- Unbiased reviews: Reviewers must evaluate manuscripts objectively, impartially, and professionally. Reviewers should avoid any personal biases in commenting or judging the submitted manuscripts. They will have to express their opinions with clarity and provide justified and impartial reviews. They must avoid personal attacks and must not include any derogatory, inaccurate, libelous, misleading, obscene, outrageous, illegal, or objectionable statement that violates the copyright, privacy or any other right of any other person.
Confidentiality: Every information related to the manuscripts presented by the authors must be confidential. Reviewers should not discuss the manuscript with anyone other than the Directors / Editors, nor should they discuss any information from the manuscript without permission.
-Recognition of sources: Manuscript Reviewers must ensure that authors acknowledge all of the data sources used in their research. Any similarities or overlap with other published data of which the reviewer has personal knowledge must be immediately communicated to the Directors / Editors.
-Punctuality: In the event that a reviewer realizes that it is not possible for him/her to complete the revision of the manuscript within the deadline, he/she must inform the Directors / Editors, so that the manuscript can be sent to another reviewer.
-Right of renunciation: Reviewers must refuse to review manuscripts:
a) if they have already provided the Author with comments on the same manuscript in a previous iteration;
b) if they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, financial, institutional, personal, or other relationships or connections with any company, institution, or person connected to the manuscripts.
- Complaints: Any complaint regarding the Journal must, in the first instance, be directed to the Director and Editorial Directors of JBP.
Duties of the Author(s)
-Originality and Policies to contrast plagiarism: JBP condemns any forms of plagiarism. Authors must state that their work is not copied, in any part, by any other manuscript, neither of their production nor others, that their work is original and that it has not been published elsewhere in whole or as a part. The author must not submit manuscripts (or manuscripts that describe the same content) to multiple Journals simultaneously. JBP will use Turnitin, a software that allows verification of the authenticity and classification of manuscripts submitted for publication.
-Author of the article: Those who made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the study. Those who have made a significant contribution must be listed as coauthors. The author should obtain approval of the final version of the article from all coauthors, who should grant their consent to the final publication.
- Plagiarism and self-plagiarism: Submitted manuscripts must be free of plagiarism, falsification, fakes, or omissions of significant material. Plagiarism and self-plagiarism constitute unethical editorial behaviors that are unacceptable. JBP Directors and Editorial Board reserve the right to evaluate cases of plagiarism and redundancy from time to time.
-Recognition of sources and conflicts of interest: Authors must explicitly indicate all the sources that contributed to the research and also declare any conflicts of interest.
-Access to data and storage: The author must provide the dataset used for preparation of the manuscript for editorial review.
-Punctuality: Authors must be prompt in their revisions. If an Author fails to meet the deadline, he/she must contact the Directors / Curators, who will decide whether to extend the deadline or to withdraw the article from the review process.
- Fundamental errors in published articles: The Author must promptly inform the Directors / Curators of any obvious error in the published article and cooperate with the Directors in withdrawing or correcting the article. If the responsible Director has noticed from others that are not the author, that the published material contains an obvious error, the author will have to write a retraction or make the correction based on the media of the publication.
The Code of Ethics is largely based on the following online source, which is recommended reading for ethical guidelines:
- COPE – Committe on Publication Ethics, 2011. The Code of Conduct and best practice guidelines for magazine editors: