Editorial Policies Adopted by Scholarly Journals Published by Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences
Outline
Epidemiology and Health System Journal (Epidemiol. health system j., EHSJ, eISSN: 2980-7891, https://ehsj.skums.ac.ir) expects the highest ethical standards from its authors, reviewers, and editors when conducting research, submitting papers, and throughout the peer-review process.
EHSJ adheres to the policies of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), and International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommendations. Thus, the EHSJ expects all authors, reviewers, and editors to consider COPE, ICMJE, and Equator Network’s reporting guidelines in scientific writing.
Human and Animal Ethics
Authors reporting experimental studies on human subjects must include an ethical approval statement on the Title page indicating (a) informed consent was taken from all patients enrolled in the study and (b) the study protocol conforms to the ethical guidelines of the 1975 Declaration of Helsinki as reflected in a priori approval by the institution's human research committee. To protect the safety of individuals participating in the study, an institutional review board (IRB) or ethics review committee must approve any study with human participants. All criteria highlighted in the "Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals" in animal experimentation studies should be addressed.
Patient Consent
The observance of participants’ rights must be strictly adhered to in scientific publications. Any manuscript containing unique content on an identifiable living individual needs the patient’s consent before publication. Thus, all participants must sign a consent form after being informed of the study’s protocol. Before signing the consent form, all procedures and associated potential harms must be explained to all participants. Participants must volunteer to participate in the study. Informed consent forms should be sent online before the review process begins.
If consent cannot be procured for any reason, the potentially identifying information must be satisfactorily anonymized. Anonymization must be done so that neither the individual involved nor others can identify the individual.
If the patient is dead, the authors must proceed to obtain permission from his/her relative(s). If the relatives cannot be contacted, the journal will balance the possibility of identification, the worthwhileness of the case, and the possibility of an unlawful action throughout the decision to publish the manuscript.
Images—such as ultrasound images, x-rays, laparoscopic images, pathology slides, or images of undistinctive parts of the body—can appear in the publication without the participant’s providing consent if they are anonymized by deletion of all identifying signs and without accompanying them by text that may identify the participant.
Competing Interest Statement
In medical publications, a conflict of interest (COI) happens when an author has financial or other relationships influencing the author’s decisions, work, or manuscript. COI may occur in various forms, such as financial ties, academic commitments, personal relationships, political or religious beliefs, and institutional affiliations. In managing COI, the EHSJ abides by the policy statement of the WAME. All authors should declare their COI, if any, during the manuscript submission. Additionally, reviewers and editors are requested to announce their COI when they agree to take a manuscript for reviewing and handling. Reviewers and Editors with COI will be excepted from the manuscript process. All authors must declare all competing interests on their title page. Further information can be found at the following links:
http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/
https://publicationethics.org/competinginterests and the World Association of Medical
http://wame.org/wame-editorial-on-conflict-of-interest