Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

1. Website

The journal’s web site is available at: https://ddj.hums.ac.ir. All required professional standards and ethical are available at the journal website.

2. Name of Journal and Abbreviation

The journal title is Disease and Diagnosis. The journal abbreviation is Dis Diagn and acronym is ddj.

3. Peer Review Process

A manuscript will be reviewed for possible publication with the understanding that it is being submitted to Disease and Diagnosis alone then and has not been published anywhere, simultaneously submitted, or already accepted for publication elsewhere. The journal expects that authors would authorize one of them to correspond with Disease and Diagnosis for all matters related to the manuscript. On submission, editors review all submitted manuscripts initially for suitability for formal review. Manuscripts with insufficient originality, serious scientific or technical flaws, or lack of a significant message are rejected before proceeding for formal peer-review. Manuscripts that are unlikely to be of interest to the Disease and Diagnosis readers are also liable to be rejected at this stage itself. Manuscripts that are found suitable for publication in Disease and Diagnosis are sent to two or more expert reviewers. During submission, the contributor is requested to provide names of two or three qualified reviewers who have had experience in the subject of the submitted manuscript, but this is not mandatory. The reviewers should not be affiliated with the same institutes as the contributor/s. However, the selection of these reviewers is at the sole discretion of the editor. The journal follows a double-blind review process, wherein the reviewers and authors are unaware of each other’s identity. Every manuscript is also assigned to a member of the editorial team, who based on the comments from the reviewers takes a final decision on the manuscript. The comments and suggestions (acceptance/ rejection/ amendments in manuscript) received from reviewers are conveyed to the corresponding author. If required, the author is requested to provide a point-by-point response to reviewers’ comments and submit a revised version of the manuscript. This process is repeated till reviewers and editors are satisfied with the manuscript. Manuscripts accepted for publication are copyedited for grammar, punctuation, print style, and format.

4. Ownership and Management

Disease and Diagnosis journal owned and supported fully by Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences and published by the Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences Journals Publishing (https://publisher.hums.ac.ir).

5. Governing Body

Journal has Editorial boards whose members are recognized experts in several fields. The full names and affiliations of the members are available at https://ddj.hums.ac.ir/EditorialBoard.

6. Editorial Board

The full names and affiliations of the Journal's Editorial Board and their contact information are available on the journal page menu titled: "Editorial Board"

7. Open Access and Copyright

The Disease and Diagnosis is a Platinum Open Access Journal distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits anyone to copy, redistribute, remix, transmit and adapt the work provided the original work and source is appropriately cited. Upon submitting an article, authors are asked to specify their agreement to abide by an open access Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0). Under the terms of this license, authors retain ownership of the copyright of their articles. The license ensures that the article will be available as widely as possible and that the article can be included in any scientific archive. Abstracts and PDF format of all articles published by the journal are freely available to everyone instantly upon publication.

8. Author fees

This journal is a platinum open access. There is no charges for publication in this journal. The publication of this journal is financially supported by Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences.

9. Process for identification of and dealing with allegations of research misconduct

Editors should act if an allegation of misconduct or if they suspect misconduct is brought to them. This duty extends to both published and unpublished papers.

Editors are ethically obliged to pursue alleged cases and should not simply reject papers that raise concerns about possible misconduct. They should follow the COPE flowcharts where applicable.

Editors should first seek a response from those suspected of research misconduct. If they are not convinced with the response, they should ask the relevant institution, or some appropriate body (a regulatory body or national research integrity organization) to investigate. Editors should make all reasonable efforts to ensure that a proper investigation into alleged misconduct is conducted.

10. Publication Ethics

Details of the journal publication ethics consideration and rules are mentioned at the last part of this page.

11. Publishing Schedule

The Journal is published on a quarterly basis.

12. Access

This Platinum Open Access journal publishes articles totally free of charge for the authors and provides unrestricted access to the published content through its website.

13. Archiving Policy

The journal is now archiving electronically at the international and local repositories as follows:

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)

Islamic World Science Citation Center (ISC)

Magiran

14. Revenue Sources

Methods of finance and revenue sources of this journal are supported by Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences. Publishing fees do not influence editorial decision-making.

15. Advertising

Disease and Diagnosis journal does not publish any advertisement. The journal publishes just scholarly papers and related content.

16. Direct Marketing

Any direct marketing activities, such as solicitation of manuscripts that are conducted on behalf of the journal, are appropriate, and well targeted. Information provided about the journal or publisher is truthful and not misleading for readers or authors.

Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations

Outline

The Disease and Diagnosis approve the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the World Association of Medical Editors policies (WAME), and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals.

Authorship

As stated in the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations, credit for authorship requires:

1. Substantial contributions to the conception and design; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of the data,
2. The drafting of the article or critical revision for important intellectual content;
3. Final approval of the version to be published;
4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the article are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Authorship credit should be based only on substantial contributions to each of the four components mentioned above. Those who do not meet all four criteria should be acknowledged.

Participation solely in the acquisition of funding or the collection of data does not justify authorship. General supervision of the research group is not sufficient for authorship.

The order of naming the contributors should be based on the relative contribution of the contributor towards the study and writing the manuscript. Once submitted the order cannot be changed without written consent of all the contributors. In addition, any changes must be explained to the Editor/Editor-in-Chief. In line with COPE guidelines, our journal requires written confirmation from all authors that they agree with any proposed changes in authorship of submission(s) or published item(s). This approval must be via direct email from each author. It is the corresponding author’s responsibility to ensure that all authors agree with the suggested changes. It is not the journal editor’s responsibility to resolve authorship disputes. A change in authorship of a published article can only be amended via publication of an Erratum or Correction.

Authors should follow "the international standards for authors" recommended by COPE.

The Disease and Diagnosis Authorship Standards

To respect the authorship right of authors and uphold scientific honesty, the authorship of Disease and Diagnosis should be compiled as follows:

1. Author names should not be added, removed, or changed the order after submitted the manuscript.

2. Each article could have one corresponding author.

3. Authors are not recommended to be co-first authors. Authors in the same institution could not be the co-first authors.

Note. The Disease and Diagnosis reserve the right of final explanations to the Authorship standards.

Clinical Trial Registry

Based on the ICMJE recommendations a clinical trial is defined as “any research project that prospectively assigns people or a group of people to an intervention, with or without concurrent comparison or control groups, to study the cause-and-effect, relationship between a health-related intervention and a health outcome.” In agreement with the ICMJE’s recommendations, The Disease and Diagnosis would consider publishing clinical trials that have been registered with a clinical trial registry that allows free online access to the public. As per our policy, registration of all trials in a public registry approved by the ICJME a primary register of the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform available from the following link:

https://www.who.int/clinical-trials-registry-platform.

Research Reporting Guidelines

Authors are encouraged to use the EQUATOR Network reporting guidelines for the study type:

• Randomized controlled trials (RCTs): CONSORT guidelines
• Systematic reviews and meta-analyses: PRISMA guidelines and MOOSE guidelines
• Observational studies in epidemiology: STROBE guidelines and MOOSE guidelines
• Diagnostic accuracy studies: STARD guidelines
• Quality improvement studies: SQUIRE guidelines
• Case reports guidelines: CARE guidelines

Withdrawal, Corrections, and Retractions policies

As a follower of the COPE, Disease and Diagnosis adhere to the “Code of Conduct”, the “Best Practice Guidelines” and "Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing".

Withdrawal

Withdrawal is an action that takes the manuscript out of the review process and places it back into the author’s dashboard. In general, we do not suggest article withdrawal, since it wastes valuable manuscript processing time, money, and works invested by the publisher.

Withdrawal Steps

• Pre-Review: is a period that an author(s) submit(s) her/his article until to be sent for review.
• Peer-Review: is a period the manuscript is submitted completely to the website and included in the review process.
• Final Decision: is a period from the acceptance of an article until to be sent for publication if the article meets the journal standards.
• Pre-Publication: when a paper is accepted for publication or published as an “ahead of print (In Press)” paper but has no volume/issue/page number.
• Post-Publication: when a paper is published and placed in a volume/issue with the page number.

Policies

• Pre-Review: The author(s) can withdraw their papers at this step without posting compelling reasons.
• Peer-Review, Final Decision, and Pre-Publication: The authors should have compelling reasons in order to withdraw their papers.
• Post-Publication: Withdrawing at this step is not possible at all.

When a withdrawal occurs, our publisher will remove the article content (HTML and PDF) and replace with a HTML page describing that the article has been withdrawn according to the Publisher’s policies.

See COPE Cases for details.

Correction

Disease and Diagnosis will consider the publication of a correction when a mistake may jeopardize the conclusions of an article or contains incorrect information regarding the metadata of an article such as author names, affiliations, title, etc) but does not undermine the validity of the findings. A note linking to the correction will be placed in the original article page.

Redundant publication

Duplicate or redundant submission is the same manuscript (or the same data) that is submitted to different journals at the same time. In such a case, we will follow the COPE guidelines.

Note: ICMJE recommends that translations are acceptable but MUST reference the original. Based on our policy, translations of the original articles can be considered as an online supplementary file. Editors may consider publishing a correction rather than a retraction/notice of duplicate publication in such cases.

Retraction

In keeping with COPE's Retraction Guidelines, a retraction will be considered by our editors if:

• It has clear evidence indicating the results are unreliable, either because of major errors (eg, miscalculation or experimental error, data fabrication, image manipulation, …)
• It has plagiarism.
• The findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper citation to previous sources, permission to reproduce, or justification (ie, cases of redundant publication)
• There is a copyright infringement or other legal issues
• It reports unethical research
• It has been published solely on the basis of a compromised or manipulated peer review process
• The author(s) failed to declare a major conflict of interest

Authors or editors of the journal may retract a paper. However, the final decision is made by the editors for retracting the material. If none of the authors will approve to publish a retraction, the editor/s may request such a retraction from the investigating institution, or the editor may ask a retraction on behalf of the journal. In each condition, the editor should inform the author(s) or institution affiliated to the author(s) for publishing a retraction.

• Note: After publishing a retraction, HTML version of the document will be removed from the site. Additionally, The PDF file of the article is retained unchanged; only a watermark showing “retracted” label is placed on each page of the PDF. Finally, a link is made to the original article.

Plagiarism

Disease and Diagnosis is powered by the iThenticate software, a plagiarism detector service that considers the originality of content submitted before publication. When plagiarism is identified, we act based on flowcharts and workflows determined in COPE.

Plagiarism contains, but is not limited to:

• Directly copying text from other sources
• Using an idea from another source with a little altered language
• Copying ideas, images, or materials/data from other sources
• Reusing text from your previous publications

Plagiarism Policies

• If plagiarism is identified during the peer review stage, the manuscript may be rejected.
• If plagiarism is identified after the publication of the article, we reserve the right to request a correction or retract the paper based on COPE guidelines.

Ethical Policies

Disease and Diagnosis expect the highest ethical standards from their authors, reviewers, and editors when conducting research, submitting papers, and throughout the peer-review process.

Disease and Diagnosis adhere 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 Disease and Diagnosis 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 in 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. For protecting the safety of individuals who participate in the study, academic and funding organizations

require any study including human participants be approved by an institutional review board (IRB) or ethics review committee. In studies involving animal experimentations, all criteria highlighted in the "Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals" should be addressed.

Patient Consent

The protection of privacy and information of patients in article is necessary for the publication field. Before submitting any article to journals, including medical interventions, new materials, or drug experiments, informed consent should be obtained and possible adverse effects or hazards, purpose of study, and types of methods and procedures must be explained to all enrolled patients. All authors should complete the forms that clarify their responsibilities and awareness about COPE regulations.

About patients that couldn’t be traced anymore, the authors can include the information of patients anonymously in the article, which completely respect the privacy of the population study.

For deceased patients, the correspond of study can obtain informed consent from his relatives, family, or protector (for children and minors). If relatives are unknown or not contactable, the journal can check and balance between the value of information and likelihood of identification of patients or illegal acts for the journal’s decision.

For images and graphs - laparoscopic and ultrasound images, pathology sections or slides, and undistinctive parts of the patient’s body, any marks or signs which reveal the patient’s name or private information, should be removed.

Competing Interest Statement

In medical publication, 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 DDJ 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, respectively. Reviewers and Editors with COI will be excepted from the manuscript process. All authors must declare all competing interests in their title page. Further information can be found at the following links:

https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/

https://publicationethics.org/competinginterests and the World Association of Medical

http://wame.org/wame-editorial-on-conflict-of-interest

Complaints and Appeals

The “Disease and Diagnosis” respond promptly to complaints and ensures there is a way for dissatisfied complainants to take complaints further by sending an email to the Editor-in-Chief of the journal (ddj@hums.ac.ir / ddj.hums@gmail.com). We follow the COPE's guidelines and flowcharts for handling complaints against the journal, its staff, editorial board, or the publisher.

Peer Review Process

All submissions to the journal go through a Double-Blind Peer-Review Process. A peer review system including two or three reviewers is applied to guarantee the quality of manuscripts accepted for publication. Our Editors have the right to decline the review process of the manuscript when the manuscript: (a) focused on a subject outside the aim and scope of the Journal, (b) has technical errors.

This review consists of the following steps:

1. At the first stage, an internal staff check format and style of manuscript to assure that it is suitable to go through the normal peer review process. If authors have not considered the guides, the manuscript will be sent back to authors for compatibility.

2. Submissions are then assigned to an Editor for evaluation.

3. The Editor decides whether reviews from additional experts are needed to evaluate the manuscript. The majority of submissions are evaluated by two external reviewers, but it is up to the Editor to determine the number of reviews.

4. After evaluation, the Editor chooses between the following decisions:

• Accept
• Minor Revision
• Major Revision
• Reject

  If the decision is Minor Revision and Major Revision, authors have 7 and 14 days to resubmit the revised manuscripts, respectively. Authors may contact email address if they require an extension. Upon resubmission, the Editor may choose to send the manuscript back to external reviewers or may make a decision based on personal expertise. Finally, Managing Editor receives the reviewers’ comments and sends them along with the decision letter to the corresponding author. The final decision on each manuscript will be made by the Editor-in-Chief.

  Duties of Editors

  Publication decisions
  The editors of the Journal are responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published. They are 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. They actively work to improve the quality of the journal.

  Fair play
  The editor evaluates 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.

  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.

  Editorial Freedom at the Disease and Diagnosis

  The Disease and Diagnosis adheres to the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) Policy on “The Relationship between Journal Editors-in-Chief and Owners”. More specifically, the Editor-in-Chief has editorial independence and as such has full authority over the journal’s editorial content including how and when information is published. Editorial decisions are based solely on the validity of the work and its importance to readers, not on the policies or commercial interests of the owner. The DDJ is the official journal of the Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences. Neither the Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences nor other organizations interfere in the evaluation, selection or editing of individual articles, either directly or by creating an environment in which editorial decisions are influenced.

  CrossMark Policy

  CrossMark is a multi-publisher initiative to provide a standard method for readers to find the current version of a piece of content. By applying the CrossMark logo, our journal is committing to maintaining the content it and notifying readers to changes if and when they occur.

  All articles have the CrossMark logo in PDF or HTM files. Clicking on the CrossMark logo at the top of each article in PDF and HTML file will indicate the current status of a document and may also give additional information about the document.

  For more details on CrossMark, please refer the CrossMark website at the following link:

  https://www.crossref.org/services/crossmark/.

  Editorial Board Policy

  The selection of Editorial/advisory Board is a vital stage. We choose our editors in keeping with quantity and the quality published articles, citation of her/his works together with the "H-index". Disease and Diagnosis follows to “the COPE Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors” regarding the selection of them.

  Editor-in-Chief/Deputy Editor-in-Chief

  S/he is the lead editor playing the vital role to guarantee integrity and quality of content of the submitted manuscript. EIC must have at least a PhD/MD degree to be able to lead the publication process. Based on Scopus database, the minimum h-index for the Editor-in-Chief is 14. S/he has some responsibilities as follows:

• Making an overall plan for improving quality of the content regarding submitted manuscripts
• Reviewing and making the final decision for the submitted manuscripts
• Identifying qualified editorial board members who can contribute to the progress and management of the journal

• Handling meetings in order to interact with all the members of the Editorial Board regarding code conducts, standards, and new policies of the Journal.

Associate Editors

Associate editors are responsible for peer-review process and ensuring publication of high-quality papers. They would help the lead editor in terms of different aspects related to the works of publication, and peer review process.

Editorial Board Members

The Editorial Board Members must be familiar with the peer-review process, publication ethics and code of conduct as well as standards for high-quality publications.

The following points highlight our policies regarding manuscripts submitted to Disease and Diagnosis:

1- Submitted version of article: The authors submitting articles to Disease and Diagnosis are banned from publication of the submitted data (except for registries required for clinical trials) in an open repository before its acceptance.

2- Accepted version of the article: The authors can deposit their manuscript in open repositories after acceptance in the journal process without any embargo policy.

3- Final version of the article (PDF format): We encourage authors to share the final PDF version of their article in open repositories.