JCollBiomed is committed to maintaining the highest standards of integrity, transparency, and accountability in scholarly publishing. This policy is guided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Core Practices and the Recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

1. Responsibilities of Authors

Authors are responsible for ensuring that the submitted manuscript:

• Represents original work that has not been published previously and is not simultaneously under consideration by another journal;
• Presents research methods, results, and interpretations accurately and transparently, without fabrication, falsification, inappropriate data manipulation, or selective reporting;
• Properly acknowledges all sources, ideas, data, figures, and statements derived from other works;
• Provides sufficient methodological information to allow critical evaluation and, where applicable, replication of the research;
• Discloses all sources of funding, institutional support, and relevant financial or non-financial conflicts of interest;
• Identifies limitations and potential sources of bias that may influence the interpretation of the findings; and
• Complies with applicable ethical standards and regulations governing research involving human participants, animals, biological materials, and identifiable personal data.

Authors must retain the original research data and make such data available to the editors when reasonably requested for editorial evaluation or investigation.

2. Originality, Plagiarism, and Duplicate Publication

All submitted manuscripts may be screened using plagiarism-detection software before entering the peer-review process. Plagiarism includes the unauthorized use or reproduction of text, ideas, images, figures, tables, or data without appropriate acknowledgement. This includes self-plagiarism and redundant publication.

Manuscripts containing substantial plagiarism, fabricated data, manipulated images, or unauthorized duplication will be rejected. If such misconduct is identified after publication, the journal may issue a correction, expression of concern, or retraction in accordance with COPE procedures.

Authors must disclose any previous publication, preprint, conference abstract, thesis, or closely related manuscript that may overlap with the submitted work. Secondary publication is permitted only when it is ethically justified, transparently declared, properly referenced, and approved by the relevant editors and copyright holders.

3. Authorship and Contributorship

Authorship should be limited to individuals who meet all of the authorship criteria recommended by the ICMJE:

1. Making substantial contributions to the conception or design of the study, or to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data;
2. Drafting the manuscript or critically revising it for important intellectual content;
3. Approving the final version to be published; and
4. Accepting accountability for all aspects of the work and ensuring that questions related to its accuracy or integrity are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Individuals who contribute to the study but do not meet all authorship criteria should be appropriately acknowledged. Gift, honorary, guest, and ghost authorship are not permitted.

The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all listed authors have approved the manuscript, agreed to its submission, and accepted the stated order of authorship. Any proposed change in authorship after submission must be supported by a written explanation and approved by all affected authors.

4. Research Involving Human Participants

Research involving human participants, identifiable human data, or human biological materials must receive prior approval from an appropriate institutional review board or research ethics committee. Authors must state the name of the approving institution, approval number, and approval date in the manuscript.

Research involving human participants must comply with applicable national regulations and the current World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki.

Authors must obtain informed consent from research participants or their legally authorized representatives unless this requirement has been formally waived by the responsible ethics committee. Written consent for publication is required when a manuscript contains identifiable personal information, clinical photographs, images, or case details.

5. Animal Research

Research involving animals must receive prior approval from an appropriate institutional animal ethics or care and use committee and must comply with relevant national and institutional regulations. The manuscript must identify the approving institution and ethical approval number.

Authors should demonstrate that animal welfare was appropriately protected and that the principles of replacement, reduction, and refinement were considered. In vivo animal studies should be reported in accordance with the ARRIVE Guidelines 2.0.

6. Clinical Trial Registration

Prospective clinical trials must be registered in a publicly accessible and internationally recognized clinical trial registry at or before the time of first participant consent for enrolment. The registry name, registration number, and accessible URL must be stated in the manuscript. This requirement follows the ICMJE clinical trial registration policy.

7. Conflicts of Interest and Funding

Authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose any financial, professional, institutional, personal, academic, or intellectual relationships that could influence, or could reasonably be perceived to influence, the research or publication process.

Authors must describe the role of the funding body in the study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, and decision to submit the work for publication. If the funder had no involvement in these activities, this should be stated explicitly.

Editors and reviewers must withdraw from handling manuscripts when a potential conflict of interest could compromise their objectivity.

8. Responsibilities of Editors

Editors are responsible for making publication decisions based on the manuscript's scientific quality, originality, methodological rigour, relevance to the journal's scope, and ethical acceptability.

Editors must:

• Evaluate manuscripts without discrimination based on nationality, ethnicity, religion, gender, institutional affiliation, political belief, or other personal characteristics;
• Protect the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts and author information;
• Maintain editorial independence and prevent commercial, institutional, or personal interests from influencing editorial decisions;
• Avoid handling manuscripts in which they have a conflict of interest;
• Investigate credible allegations of research or publication misconduct; and
• Follow appropriate procedures for corrections, expressions of concern, retractions, complaints, and appeals.

Editorial decisions must not be influenced solely by the potential to increase journal citations or other journal metrics.

9. Responsibilities of Reviewers

Reviewers must evaluate manuscripts objectively, constructively, confidentially, and within the agreed timeframe. Personal criticism, discriminatory remarks, and unsupported accusations are unacceptable.

Reviewers must:

• Declare relevant conflicts of interest and decline the review when impartiality cannot be maintained;
• Treat the manuscript and all related materials as confidential;
• Not use unpublished information for personal research, professional advantage, or the benefit of another party;
• Identify relevant published work that has not been appropriately cited; and
• Provide clear, evidence-based recommendations to assist authors and editors.

Reviewers must not share or upload unpublished manuscripts, data, or figures to unauthorized artificial intelligence platforms or other third-party systems that could compromise confidentiality.

10. Use of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools and AI-assisted technologies cannot be listed as authors because they cannot assume responsibility or accountability for published work.

Authors who use generative AI or AI-assisted tools in manuscript preparation, data processing, image generation, analysis, or language editing must disclose the tool's name, version where available, purpose, and manner of use. Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, citations, confidentiality, and integrity of all submitted content.

AI-generated output must be critically reviewed and independently verified by the authors. The use of AI does not excuse plagiarism, fabricated references, inaccurate statements, manipulated data, or copyright infringement. This provision follows current ICMJE guidance on AI use and the COPE position on AI and authorship.

11. Handling Allegations of Misconduct

Research and publication misconduct may include plagiarism, data fabrication, data falsification, deceptive image manipulation, duplicate submission, undisclosed conflicts of interest, unethical research, citation manipulation, peer-review manipulation, paper mill activity, and inappropriate authorship.

All allegations will be assessed fairly and confidentially in accordance with COPE guidance. The journal may request explanations, original data, ethical documentation, or assistance from the authors' institutions. Appropriate actions may include rejection, correction, expression of concern, retraction, notification of relevant institutions, or restrictions on future submissions.

12. Corrections, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions

The journal is committed to maintaining the accuracy and integrity of the scholarly record.

• Correction may be published when an error affects part of an article but does not invalidate its principal findings.
• Expression of concern may be issued when serious concerns exist but an investigation remains incomplete or inconclusive.
• Retraction may be issued when findings are unreliable because of a major error or misconduct, when plagiarism or redundant publication is confirmed, or when research was conducted unethically.

Retraction notices will explain the reason for retraction and will remain permanently linked to the original article. Retracted articles will remain accessible but will be clearly identified as retracted, consistent with COPE retraction guidance and ICMJE recommendations.

13. Complaints and Appeals

Authors may submit a reasoned appeal against an editorial decision or a complaint concerning editorial conduct. Appeals must provide specific scientific or procedural grounds and should not merely express disagreement with the outcome.

Complaints and appeals will be handled fairly and confidentially and, where possible, by an editor who was not directly involved in the original decision. The submission of an appeal does not guarantee reversal of the editorial decision.