Research and Publication Ethics

General Guidelines

All of the manuscripts should be prepared in strict observation of research and publication ethics guidelines recommended by the Council of Science Editors (http://www.councilscienceeditors.org/); International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE, http://www.icmje.org); and World Association of Medical Editors (WAME, http://www.wame.org).

MedPharmRes follows the best practice in publication ethics and expects that authors comply with its policy. The journal does not allow any forms of plagiarism, manipulation of figures, competing interests, dual submission, or inappropriate authorship (for example, ghost or guest authorship should be avoided).

Reviewers and editors are expected to declare any competing interests and treat all manuscripts fairly and confidentially. Any allegations of research or publication misconduct will be seriously investigated. MedPharmRes will treat suspected or alleged misconduct according to its established protocol. Any conclusive evidence of misconduct will change the manuscript’s scientific records, which may include issuing a correction or retraction. MedPharmRes reserves the right to contact authors’ institutions, funding agencies or regulatory bodies if needed to investigate suspected or alleged cases of publication misconduct.

Any concerns about potential misconduct should be directed via email to the Journal’s Editor-in-Chief or Journal’s Editorial Staff and should not be communicated on blogs, other means of social media or other third party websites.

Plagiarism

To protect academic integrity, all submissions are screened by a similarity detection software (Crossref Similarity Check Powered by iThenticate) multiple times during the peer-review and/or production processes. MedPharmRes does not accept plagiarism at any form and will treat plagiarism according to the COPE guidelines(https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Guidelines). If plagiarism is detected during the peer review process, the manuscript may be rejected. If plagiarism is detected after publication, we may issue a correction or retraction of the paper. We reserve the right to inform authors’ institutions on plagiarism detected either before or after publication.

• Editors and reviewers are expected to strictly evaluate submitted manuscripts and notify the journal of any plagiarism detected or suspected.
• Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to:
  • Directly copying text from other sources without attribution
  • Copying ideas, images, or data from other sources without attribution
  • Reusing text from your own previous publications without attribution or agreement of the editor
  • Exception: Reusing text from the Methods section in the author’s previous publications, with attribution to the source, is acceptable.
  • Using an idea from another source with slightly modified language without attribution
  • Translated plagiarism: using English translation, in whole or in part, of one’s own previous publications in other languages, including Vietnamese.

Confidentiality

MedPharmRes respects the integrity of the peer-review process and strictly ensures the confidentiality of all submitted materials until published. The confidentiality must be ensured by all parties including editors, reviewers and authors during the peer-review process and all correspondences. Information on submission must not be shared with any other unrelated parties unless previous agreements made between all related parties. The involvement of a third party in the review must be declared at the time of the review submission.

Editors and reviewers are expected not to make use of any materials or take advantage of any information they gain through the peer review process. MedPharmRes will detect and seriously handle all breaches of confidentiality. Any concerns on confidentiality misconduct that arise during the review process will be strictly investigated according to COPE guidelines.

Author Requirements

Authors must indicate at the time of submission whether their submitted manuscripts or any materials of their submitted manuscripts have been submitted or published elsewhere. Authors must include copies of previously published or submitted manuscripts and describe its relationship to their current submitted manuscript.

Prior publication of research as a thesis, presentation at medical or scientific conferences, or posting on preprint servers will not preclude consideration of your manuscript.

MedPharmRes supports the public disclosure of all clinical trial results, as mandated. Prior disclosure of results on a clinical trial registry site will not affect consideration.

Editor and Reviewer Requirements

Reviewers and editors are expected to evaluate any related materials and notify the overlap and alert duplicated submission or publication during the review process to MedPharmRes.

Figure Preparation

Image files should not be manipulated or adjusted in any way that could lead to misinterpretation of the information presented in the original image. Read more about our guidelines on reporting blots and gel data and uploading original image files and on Preparing Figures from Image Files.

Biosecurity and Dual Use Research of Concern

We recognize that certain research may fall into the category of “dual use research of concern.” This is defined by the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) of the United States National Institutes of Health as any "biological research with legitimate scientific purpose that may be misused to pose a biologic threat to public health and/or national security."

MedPharmRes Editorial Boards and Staff are committed to the widespread dissemination of research while being sensitive to the issues of responsible publication standards. In this context, we assess the risks and benefits of publishing the research. If the risks outweigh the benefits, we will not publish it.

Policy Enforcement

We follow the standards set by the University of Medicine and Pharmacy at Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Each manuscript is checked at the submission for any potential risk of policy violation. Immediate rejection after submission receipt may be applied to manuscripts with identified risks. If risks are identified after a paper published, MedPharmRes will minimize the risk according to the prevailing guidelines and may contact authors’ institution for considering a fine.

Authorship

An 'author' is generally considered to be someone who has made substantive intellectual contributions to a published study. According to the ICMJE guidelines (https://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf), authorship credit should be based on:

• 1) Substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, and/or analysis and interpretation of data; AND
• 2) Drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
• 3) Final approval of the version to be published; AND
• 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 work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Authors wishing to make any changes to authorship will be asked to make and submit an official letter to the editor. Please note that changes to authorship cannot be made after acceptance of a manuscript.

Competing Interests

The Journal requires authors to declare all competing interests including financial or non-financial support related to their work. Where authors have no competing interests, the statement should read “The author(s) declare(s) that they have no competing interests”. The editor may ask for further information relating to competing interests.

Statement of Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

Any investigations involving humans and animals should be approved by the institutional review board (IRB) or institutional animal care and use committee (IACUC), respectively, of the institution where the study took place. In addition, investigations with pathogens requiring a high degree of biosafety should obtain approval from the relevant committee (institutional biosafety committee). Informed consent should be obtained, unless waived by the IRB, from patients (or legal guardians) who participated in clinical investigations. Human participants should not be identifiable, such that patients' names, initials, hospital numbers, dates of birth, or other protected healthcare information should not be disclosed. If experiments involve animals, the research should be based on national or institutional guidelines for animal care and use. Original articles submitted to KD that address any investigation involving humans and animals should include a description of whether the study was conducted un approval by the IRB (with or without patient informed consent) or IACUC, respectively. IRB no. is required for the submission process, and if absent, the process cannot proceed.

Selection and Description of Participants

Ensure correct use of the terms sex (when reporting biological factors) and gender (identity, psychosocial or cultural factors), and, unless inappropriate, report the sex and/or gender of study participants, the sex of animals or cells, and describe the methods used to determine sex and gender. If the study was done involving an exclusive population, for example in only one sex, authors should justify why, except in obvious cases (e.g., prostate cancer). Authors should define how they determined race or ethnicity and justify their relevance.

Post-Publication Discussions and Corrections

The post-publication discussion is available via the correspondences. Readers can express a concern about a published article by submitting a correspondence on the article within 8 weeks of publication. In a case of error in the article, it can be corrected through the author’s reply to the correspondence, erratum or retraction.

Managing Research and Publication Misconduct

When the journal faces suspected cases of research and publication misconduct such as a redundant (duplicate) publication, plagiarism, fabricated data, changes in authorship, undisclosed conflicts of interest, an ethical problem discovered with the submitted manuscript, a reviewer who has appropriated an author’s idea or data, complaints against editors, and other issues, the resolving process will follow the flowchart provided by COPE (https://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts). The Editorial Board will discuss the suspected cases and reach a decision. The journal will not hesitate to publish errata, corrigenda, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when needed.