Publication Ethics

JDHII is dedicated to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics and integrity. We follow the core practices and guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), and the principles outlined in the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) and Council of Science Editors (CSE) white papers.

1. Responsibilities of Authors

Authors must:

• Present original work that has not been previously published (except as preprints on recognized servers) and is not under consideration elsewhere.
• Ensure the accuracy and integrity of all data and results reported.
• Provide a clear, honest account of the research, including appropriate limitations and alternative interpretations.
• Cite all relevant prior work and avoid excessive self-citation.
• Obtain necessary permissions for any third-party material (figures, tables, text).
• Disclose all sources of funding, including grant numbers.
• Declare all relevant competing interests (financial and non-financial) in a dedicated section of the manuscript.
• Clearly identify and justify the use of generative AI tools (if any) in the research or manuscript preparation.
• Comply with appropriate authorship criteria (all authors must meet ICMJE four-criteria standard).
• Ensure appropriate informed consent, ethics committee approval, trial registration (for clinical/interventional studies), and adherence to relevant reporting guidelines.

2. Responsibilities of Reviewers

Reviewers are expected to:

• Treat all manuscripts as confidential documents.
• Declare any potential competing interests before accepting a review invitation and recuse themselves if a conflict exists.
• Provide objective, constructive, and evidence-based feedback within the agreed timeframe.
• Avoid personal criticism of the authors.
• Alert the editor to any substantial similarity to other published or submitted work, suspected research misconduct, or ethical concerns.

3. Responsibilities of Editors and Editorial Board

Editors and board members shall:

• Evaluate manuscripts solely on their scientific merit, relevance to the journal scope, and quality — independent of race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.
• Maintain confidentiality of submitted material.
• Recuse themselves from handling manuscripts in which they have a competing interest.
• Take prompt and appropriate action when ethical concerns are raised (following COPE flowcharts).
• Preserve the anonymity of reviewers in double-blind review.

4. Research Misconduct

JDHII takes allegations of misconduct very seriously. Misconduct includes (but is not limited to):

• Fabrication, falsification, or manipulation of data/images
• Plagiarism (including self-plagiarism/text recycling without disclosure)
• Duplicate/redundant publication
• Authorship disputes or gift/ghost authorship
• Failure to disclose competing interests
• Unethical research practices (e.g., lack of ethics approval, inadequate consent)

Suspected misconduct is investigated following COPE guidelines. Depending on severity and findings, outcomes may include:

• Correction
• Expression of Concern
• Retraction
• Notification to authors’ institutions/funding bodies/regulatory authorities

5. Handling Post-Publication Issues

• Corrections — Minor errors that do not invalidate the conclusions are corrected with a published Correction notice linked to the article.
• Retractions — Used when findings are unreliable due to major error, misconduct, or unethical research. A clear Retraction notice explains the reason and is prominently linked to the original article.
• Expressions of Concern — Issued when serious concerns exist but investigation is incomplete or inconclusive.

6. Complaints and Appeals

• Authors or readers who have concerns about editorial decisions, handling, or suspected breaches of ethics should contact the Editor-in-Chief in writing.
• Appeals of editorial decisions are considered only if there is evidence of a significant procedural error or new substantive information that could alter the decision. Appeals are reviewed by senior editorial members not involved in the original decision.

7. Open Access and Transparency

• All articles are published open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).
• We maintain transparency in editorial decision-making, peer-review processes, and handling of corrections/retractions.

JDHII encourages all parties (authors, reviewers, readers) to report suspected ethical breaches confidentially to: editor.jdhii@ciir.in (or via the journal contact form).