(Aligned with COPE Core Practices, DOAJ Principles of Transparency and Best Practice, and ICMJE Recommendations)
Advanced Journal of Biomedicine & Medicine (AJBM) is committed to maintaining the highest standards of editorial integrity, research ethics, and transparency in scholarly publishing. The journal follows the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the ICMJE Recommendations, and the DOAJ Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing.
1. Authorship Criteria
AJBM adheres to the authorship criteria established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals.
To qualify as an author, each individual must meet all four of the following ICMJE criteria:
- Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data.
- Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content.
- Final approval of the version to be published.
- Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work, ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
General principles:
- Only natural persons who meet the four criteria may be listed as authors.
- All authors must be able to identify their own contribution and have confidence in the integrity of their co-authors.
- One corresponding author must be designated for communication with the journal.
- Equal contributions may be acknowledged in a dedicated “Authors’ Contributions” or “Acknowledgments” section.
- The corresponding author is responsible for submitting complete authorship information, conflict-of-interest disclosures, and ethical approval details.
Group Authorship: For collaborative or multicenter studies, group names may appear in the byline, provided that all individuals who meet ICMJE criteria are listed (e.g., in a supplementary file) and accept joint responsibility for the work.
Changes to Authorship: Any addition, deletion, or rearrangement of author names after submission requires written approval from all authors. The Editor-in-Chief may request supporting documentation and reserves the right to decline changes that are not justified.
2. Contributorship and Guarantorship
AJBM supports transparent contributorship. All submissions must include a Contributor/CRediT statement specifying each author’s role (e.g., conceptualization, methodology, data curation, formal analysis, writing – original draft, writing – review & editing, supervision).
- Only those meeting ICMJE criteria are listed as authors.
- Individuals who contributed to the work but do not meet all authorship criteria (e.g., data collectors, laboratory technicians, language editors, patients or volunteers) may be acknowledged with their permission.
- One or more authors must act as guarantors, accepting final responsibility for the integrity and accuracy of the entire work.
For narrative reviews, editorials, or case reports, the contributorship statement should specify who conceived the article, performed the literature review, drafted the manuscript, and approved the final version.
3. Copyright and Licensing Policy
Open Access Statement: Advanced Journal of Biomedicine & Medicine (AJBM) is a fully open access journal. All articles are made freely available immediately upon publication without any subscription or registration barriers.
AJBM permits any user to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full text of its articles, or to use them for any other lawful and non-commercial purpose, without requiring prior permission from the publisher or the authors. This policy is in accordance with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) definition of open access.
Copyright: Authors retain copyright in their work.
Upon acceptance, authors grant AJBM / BM-Publisher Ltd a non-exclusive license to publish, archive, and distribute the article in any format, including for indexing and preservation purposes.
License: All AJBM articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
4. Conflict of Interest Policy
Public and professional trust in biomedical publishing requires full transparency about potential conflicts of interest (COI). A COI exists when professional judgment concerning a primary interest (such as the validity of research) may be influenced by a secondary interest (such as financial gain, personal relationships, or academic competition).
Responsibilities:
- Authors: Must disclose all financial and non-financial relationships, including funding sources, consulting fees, advisory roles, stock ownership, patents, or institutional support, using the ICMJE COI Disclosure Form.
- Reviewers: Must declare any COI prior to accepting a review assignment and should decline review if impartiality is compromised.
- Editors: Must recuse themselves from handling any manuscript in which they have a personal, financial, institutional, or collaborative conflict.
- Editorial staff: Must not use unpublished materials for personal or professional benefit.
All published articles must contain a Conflict of Interest Statement that clearly reports funding, sponsor roles (if any), and data-access conditions.
5. Protection of Human Subjects and Animals in Research
AJBM requires authors to comply with internationally accepted ethical standards for research involving humans and animals.
Human Studies:
- Must conform to the Declaration of Helsinki (2013 revision).
- Must be approved by an Institutional Review Board (IRB) / Research Ethics Committee (REC) or equivalent body.
- The manuscript must clearly state the name of the committee, approval number, and approval date.
- Authors must confirm that written informed consent (and assent, where applicable) was obtained from all participants.
- Clinical trials should be registered in a recognized registry (e.g., ClinicalTrials.gov, WHO ICTRP) before enrollment.
Animal Studies:
- Must follow institutional and national guidelines (e.g., ARRIVE guidelines, EU Directive 2010/63/EU) for the care and use of animals.
- Ethical approval details must be included in the manuscript.
Case Reports / Case Series: Identifiable patient information (including images) must not be published without explicit, written patient consent or guardian consent.
6. Article Withdrawal, Correction, and Retraction Policy
AJBM follows the COPE Retraction Guidelines and current ICMJE recommendations to safeguard the integrity of the scholarly record.
Article Withdrawal (Pre-Publication): A manuscript may be withdrawn by the authors or by the editor prior to publication in cases of duplicate submission, serious authorship disputes, or ethical violations.
Corrections (Erratum / Corrigendum): For minor errors that do not affect the scientific conclusions, AJBM will publish a correction notice linked to the original article and assign it a DOI.
Retractions: A retraction will be issued when published work is found to contain major errors or ethical breaches (plagiarism, data fabrication/falsification, unethical research). Retraction notices are permanent, clearly labeled, and linked to the original article, which remains accessible with a “Retracted” watermark or header.
Replacement / Republication: In rare cases of honest error, a corrected and re-reviewed version of the article may be republished following full editorial oversight.
7. Disclaimer
The opinions, data, and conclusions published in AJBM are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editor-in-Chief, Editorial Board, or Publisher (BM-Publisher Ltd). Publication in AJBM does not constitute endorsement of products, methods, or institutions.
8. Cookie and Privacy Policy
The AJBM website uses cookies and analytics technologies to improve functionality, security, and user experience.
- No personally identifiable information is collected without user consent.
- Users may disable cookies in their browser; however, some functions may be limited.
- AJBM complies with GDPR and applicable UK/EU data protection regulations.
- Personal data of authors, reviewers, and editors used in the editorial process is treated as confidential.
9. Compliance Statement
Advanced Journal of Biomedicine & Medicine (AJBM) confirms its adherence to:
- COPE Core Practices (latest version)
- ICMJE Recommendations for Medical Journals
- DOAJ Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing
- Industry-standard Publication Ethics and Malpractice Guidelines (e.g., Scopus / Elsevier policies)