Publication Ethics & Editorial Policy

Publication Ethics & Editorial Policy

Editorial Policy and Process

The JBUMDC strictly follows the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

JBUMDC is included in the list of journal following ICMJE recommendations.

Submission of a manuscript to the JBUMDC implies that all authors have read and agreed to its content and that the manuscript conforms to the journal’s policies.

Open Access Policy

The JBUMDC is an open-access journal. All the articles and material published in the Journal of Bahria University Medical and Dental College will be freely available for everyone at the journal’s website. The full text of all the articles can be freely accessed and downloaded by the readers of the journal. There is no need to pay any subscription or pay-per-view charges to read articles published by JBUMDC. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) definition of open access.

Copyright statement

Authors who publish in Journal of Bahria University Medical and Dental College, (JBUMDC) retain copyright to their work. Submission of a manuscript to the journal implies that all authors have read and agreed to the content of the undertaking form or the Terms and Conditions. It is a condition of publication that manuscripts submitted to a journal have not been published and will not be simultaneously submitted or published elsewhere.

Articles published in the Journal of Bahria University Medical and Dental College are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0 This license permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium; provided the original work is properly cited. 

Repository Policy

As Journal of Bahria University Medical and Dental College is an Open Access journal authors are entitled to make their article publicly available according to the terms of the CC BY license:

Authors who have published under a  CC BY-NC 4.0 license may share and distribute their article on non-original place of publication and correct citation details should be given. Authors should also deposit the URL/DOI of their published article in any repository, in addition to the Version of Record.

When making their article available according to the terms of their Open Access license, we strongly encourage authors to deposit the Version of Record. This will guarantee that the definitive version is readily available to those accessing your article from such repositories and means that your article is more likely to be cited correctly.

Bahria University has its own Repository (Bahria University D-Space Repository).

 

Authorship and Contribution Policy

Authorship Criteria

JBUMDC follows the four authorship criteria outlined by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE):

  1. Substantial contribution to conception or design of the work, or to data collection and interpretation.
  2. Drafting or critically revising the manuscript for important intellectual content.
  3. Final approval of the version to be published.
  4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work, ensuring accuracy and integrity in all parts of the manuscript.

Only those meeting all four criteria should be listed as authors. Contributors who do not meet all criteria should be acknowledged appropriately in the Acknowledgment section.

Author Roles

  • First Author: Leads the research concept, data analysis, and manuscript writing.
  • Corresponding Author: Responsible for all correspondence during submission, review, and post-publication; ensures ethical and administrative compliance.
  • Co-Authors: Support research execution, data interpretation, or critical revision of the manuscript.

Contribution Declaration

Each author must submit a CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) statement describing their specific roles, such as Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal Analysis, Writing – Original Draft, Supervision, and Funding Acquisition.

Authorship Changes

Requests for addition, removal, or rearrangement of authors after submission must be accompanied by written consent from all listed authors and approval from the Editor-in-Chief.

AI and Authorship

Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools cannot qualify for authorship. Any AI assistance (e.g., in language editing, figure formatting, or grammar checking) must be disclosed transparently in the Acknowledgment or Methods section. Failure to disclose AI use may result in rejection or retraction.

Deceased Authors

Deceased authors may be included with a dagger symbol (†) next to their name, accompanied by a footnote noting their passing and date of death.

Peer Review Policy

Review Model

  • JBUMDC uses a Double-Blind Peer Review System:
  • Two reviewers per manuscript.
  • Identities of authors and reviewers remain confidential.

Process

  • Initial Screening – plagiarism, ethics, and formatting check.
  • Review Assignment – sent to two experts.
  • Review Duration – normally 4–6 weeks.
  • Decisions: Accept, Minor Revision, Major Revision, or Reject.
  • Appeal: Authors may appeal within 30 days with justification.

Reviewer Conduct

  • Maintain confidentiality.
  • Declare conflicts of interest.
  • Provide objective, constructive comments.
  • Avoid plagiarism or bias.

Reviewer Recognition

High-quality and timely reviewers may receive a Certificate of Appreciation or acknowledgment on the journal website.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Usage Policy

Purpose

  • To ensure responsible, transparent, and ethical use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in research and manuscript preparation in line with HEC (2024), COPE, and ICMJE recommendations.

Acceptable Uses

  • Grammar, spelling, and language editing (e.g., Grammarly, ChatGPT for proofreading).
  • Data visualization, formatting, or basic statistical assistance when results are human verified.
  • Reference formatting or literature screening support.

Unacceptable Uses

  • Generating original text, hypotheses, interpretations, or conclusions.
  • Fabricating data, results, or references.
  • Submitting AI-generated manuscripts or figures without human oversight.
  • Listing AI as an author.

Disclosure

  • Authors must declare all AI tool usage in the Acknowledgment or Methods section.
    Failure to disclose may result in rejection or retraction.

ETHICAL GUIDELINES FOR REVIEWERS:

JBUMDC follows ICJME guidelines for peer review process. Manuscripts submitted to journals are privileged communications that are authors’ private, confidential property, and authors may be harmed by premature disclosure of any or all of a manuscript’s details.

  • Reviewers therefore should keep manuscripts and the information they contain strictly confidential.
  • Reviewers must not publicly discuss authors’ work and must not appropriate authors’ ideas before the manuscript is published.
  • Reviewers must not retain the manuscript for their personal use and should destroy copies of manuscripts after submitting their reviews.
  • Reviewers who seek assistance from a trainee or colleague in the performance of a review should acknowledge these individuals’ contributions in the written comments submitted to the editor. These individuals must maintain the confidentiality of the manuscript as outlined above.
  • Reviewers are expected to respond promptly to requests to review and to submit reviews within the time agreed. Reviewers’ comments should be constructive, honest, and polite.
  • Reviewers should declare their relationships and activities that might bias their evaluation of a manuscript and recuse themselves from the peer-review process if a conflict exists.

ETHICAL GUIDELINES FOR EDITORS:

The editors take responsibility for overseeing the integrity of the editorial process. The following provides details on specific ethical aspects of their role.

  • Editors should defend the confidentiality of authors and peer-reviewers (names and reviewer comments) in accordance with ICMJE policy.
  • Editors should take all reasonable steps to check the facts in journal content, and should ensure that staff working for the journal adhere to best journalistic practices including contemporaneous note-taking and seeking a response from all parties when possible before publication.

To support the Editor checks are made by Managing Editor, Associate Editors and Assistant Editors. However, editors should still report any concerns on any aspect. Checks include:

  • Ethical approval and permissions for research involving human subjects, animals.
  • Plagiarism, duplicate publication, and that necessary permission from the copyright holder to include already-published figures or images.
  • An international clinical trial register for pre-register clinical trials or and to cite a reference to the registration in the Methods Section.
  • Author background and qualification.

If the assistant editor has ethical concerns about a manuscript sent for review or decision, or receives information about a possible ethical breach after publication, they must contact the editor as soon as possible. Our Editorial Office will then conduct an investigation according to COPE guidelines.

When making a final acceptance decision on a manuscript, academic editors should consider the following:

  • Any facts that might be perceived as a possible conflict of interest of the author(s) must be disclosed in the paper prior to submission.
  • Authors must accurately present their research findings and include an objective discussion of the significance of their findings.
  • Data and methods used in the research need to be presented in sufficient detail in the paper, so that other researchers can replicate the work.

Editorial freedom

The JBUMDC adopts ICMJE guidelines for editorial freedom, which adopts the World Association of Medical Editors’ definition of editorial freedom, which holds that editors-in-chief have full authority over the entire editorial content of their journal and the timing of publication of that content.

Editors should base editorial decisions on the validity of the work and its importance to the journal’s readers, not on the commercial implications for the journal, and editors should be free to express critical but responsible views about all aspects of medicine without fear of retribution, even if these views conflict with the commercial goals of the publisher.

Quality Assurance and Audit Policy

Objective

  • To maintain editorial integrity, ethical compliance, and continuous improvement.

Internal Audit

Conducted annually by the editorial board to review:

  • Plagiarism and ethics screening procedures.
  • Reviewer selection and performance.
  • Editorial timelines and transparency.
  • COPE/ICMJE/HEC compliance.

External Audit

  • Every two years, external experts evaluate:
  • Indexing and visibility compliance (HEC, PMDC).
  • Data security, DOI assignment, and archiving.

Audit Report

  • A formal Quality Audit Report is submitted to the Editor-in-Chief and shared with the parent institution.