EDITORIAL POLICIES

Competency Criteria

The editorial board comprises research scientists and medical specialists with rich research experience. Editors play a key role in this journal. Our strategy is to select editors who can manage journal growth. Typically, we prefer those with impressive academic careers. Excellent communication skills, teamwork capability, and prominence in the community are advantageous. The editors and editorial board work as volunteers for this journal. We usually follow the guidelines stated on "ONET," based on the knowledge, skills, and ability of the editorial staff.

Peer Review
The single most important criterion for acceptance of a paper is its novelty and scientific rigor. Peer-review and editorial processes are the main mechanisms for ensuring the quality of published articles. To this end, the submitted articles are subjected to a rigorous double-blinded external peer-review process to ensure that high-quality submissions are published. These published articles reflect up-to-date research findings, with reliable and sound results and an objective and unbiased discussion of the results. 

Author Contributions
Authors are those individuals who have made significant and substantial contributions to the manuscript, including the conception, design, execution, and interpretation of the study. All named authors must meet the ICMJE criteria for authorship, take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole, and give final approval for the version to be published. Finally, the corresponding author should sign the copyright agreement on behalf of the co-authors. An author is generally considered to be someone who meets all the following authorship criteria: 1) substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; 2) drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; 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.
All authors must declare that their submission represents original research. Moreover, they must affirm the factuality and authenticity of their data. In addition, they must declare that their manuscript has not been published or submitted elsewhere and is not under review by another journal. Authors may not use the verbatim text of previously published papers or of manuscripts submitted elsewhere. The same research project must not be published in more than one journal. The corresponding author should take primary responsibility for communication with the journal office during all the steps toward publication. Furthermore, the corresponding author should respond to the editorial office, cooperate with any requests from the journal after publication, actively participate in the peer-review process, and provide an erratum if necessary. This journal does not allow the addition or deletion of authors or changing of the authorship order after the final acceptance. Funding sources and Acknowledgment should be clearly declared in all submissions. References should be cited numerically, based on the order of citation, in the Vancouver style. Moreover, all resources that assisted in the performance of their research should be clearly acknowledged.

It should be noted that if AI software like ChatGPT has been utilized to assist in any part of the manuscript, then it should be undoubtedly acknowledged in the manuscript and during the submission. The AI software does not meet the authorship criteria and is unable to accept responsibility and accountability for the research outcome therefore it is impossible to be listed in the author list.

Study Design
All animal studies should follow the Animal Research: Reporting In Vivo Experiments (ARRIVE) guidelines. Protecting the rights of patients or animals is of great importance. The welfare of the animals used for research must be respected. The following reporting guidelines are recommended for specific study types: Randomized clinical trials, CONSORT; systematic reviews, PRISMA; diagnostic studies, STARD; study protocols, SPIRIT; clinical practice guidelines, AGREE; and qualitative research, SRQR. The authors should adhere to the Declaration of Helsinki in medical research involving human subjects, human materials, or human data. Independent local, regional, or national review bodies should approve the study. Authors should guarantee the integrity of the reported data and respond to all comments made by peer reviewers during the publication process. If the authors fail to provide a satisfactory answer to the comments of peer reviewers, the paper will be rejected. Ethical issues should be addressed by the authors. All participants in a research project should be thoroughly informed about the aims of the study and any possible side effects.

The authors should mention the clinical trial registration number in the Methods section. Reports of RCTs should present information on all major study elements, including the protocol, assignment of interventions (methods of randomization, concealment of allocation to treatment groups), and the method of masking (blinding), based on the CONSORT guidelines. Permission should be obtained by the authors for use of all copyrighted materials, including figures or tables, from another journal. The journal retains the right to ask for raw data, even after publication.

Informed Consent
Written informed consent should be obtained from all participants or their legal representatives, if applicable. Patient information should be kept confidential and anonymous. In addition, the journal reserves the right to ask for related documents.

Publication Fees
The journal receives no governmental, educational, charitable, or any other kind of funding. We do not accept advertisements and, therefore, require authors to pay the article-processing fees. Submission of a manuscript and peer-review processes are free of charge. A publication-processing fee of 2,400 EUR applies to accepted manuscripts prior to proof. This covers the cost of open-access, journal production, web hosting, CMS, database, online repository, archiving, XML conversion, reference formatting, an unlimited number of color figures, and extensive English editing. The article processing fees are non-refundable following the acceptance letter, if the author withdraws submission from consideration or in case of retraction.

Conflict of Interest
Any conflict of interest related to the manuscript should be declared by the authors. These include but are not limited to, commercial, personal, political, and intellectual aspects. All editors, editorial staff, and reviewers should also report potential conflicts related to the submissions with which they are working. Authors should preferably complete the uniform disclosure form available at http://www.icmje.org/conflicts-of-interest/.

Corrections and Retractions
We respect research integrity and have a research integrity officer and committee. If serious scientific misconduct is found during any step of production or post-publication, the article will be withdrawn or retracted. If fraudulent behavior is suspected, further investigations may involve the author’s higher authorities. Corrections or retractions of published articles will be made by publishing a correction or retraction note. In this way, the original article remains in the public domain, and subsequent notes will be published. The decision to publish a correction or retraction is based on COPE guidelines. However, if the error is minor, a correction statement will be published rapidly. Moreover, the journal assumes responsibility if errors are caused on our side. If errors are caused by the authors, a correction will be published in the next earliest possible issue.

All statements expressed in our publications are merely those of the author(s) and do not reflect the publisher’s or editorial board’s opinion. The publisher and board members do not endorse any service or product presented in our publications and disclaim any accountability or liability for such materials.

Published articles are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International License, which permits copying and redistributing the material for non-commercial usage if the original work is properly cited. 

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PEER REVIEW POLICIES

In all stages of our work, ethics is a concern. Our emphasis is primarily on the scientific rigor of the articles mainly original articles, review articles, and systematic reviews. Quality control is pivotal to our academic structure. All submissions undergo a double-blinded external peer-review process. The peer-review process, from submission to decision on publication, is outlined below:

Submission of Manuscript: The corresponding author submits the paper to the journal through the journal management online system or occasionally through email.

Editorial Office Screening: The editorial office checks the composition and arrangement of the paper and the similarity of the text. The primary manuscript check evaluates duplicate submissions, plagiarism, or other technical concerns. If the manuscript does not meet the submission requirements, it is returned to the authors for corrections or may even be rejected due to ethical concerns.

Editor-in-Chief Evaluation: The Editor-in-Chief evaluates whether the manuscript is appropriate based on the journal scope and assesses its novelty, scientific importance, and relevance to the general readership. If the paper does not meet these criteria, it may be rejected. Note: Articles submitted by the board, staff, and Editor-in-Chief will also be subjected to peer review. These types of papers should be handled by another person on the editorial board (without conflicts of interest), and in all processes, those who have a conflict of interest will not be involved. Furthermore, in this case, the editor should be blinded to the reviewer’s identity.

Inviting Peer-Reviewers: At least two peer reviewers review manuscripts that have passed the initial screening. The editorial office sends invitations to experts whom they believe to be appropriate reviewers. All submissions undergo a double-blinded peer-review process. Editors, staff, and potential reviewers present their conflicts of interest, if any.

Conduction of Review: The reviewers will submit their comments to the editorial office based on a comprehensive checklist, with a recommendation to accept or reject the paper or request for minor or major revisions. Their comments will be forwarded to the authors, following confirmation by the assigned editor. The aforementioned review process may be repeated if manuscript revision (major or minor) is requested. Responses to the comments, along with the reviewers’ comments, will then be evaluated by the Editor-in-Chief, who will make the final decision.

Other Concerns: All submissions undergo a confidential peer-review process. Originality, reliability, publication ethics, statistical validity, language, and relevance are important factors for reviewers to accept the submission. There is no guarantee that the manuscript will be accepted if the authors are encouraged to revise and resubmit the manuscript. Rejected manuscripts will not be re-reviewed. All manuscripts are treated as confidential by the editorial staff, editors, and assigned reviewers. The reviewers’ comments will not be published. The identity of the reviewers will remain anonymous.

Author(s) may list names of potential reviewers when submitting a publication; however, the final decision regarding the selection of reviewers is made at the discretion of the editor. Relevant previously published articles must be identified by the reviewer if not cited in the references, and constructive comments should be presented to improve the quality of the article. In addition, any similarity of data or methods with other previous publications must be reported to the Editor-in-Chief, although the journal inspects similarity in the report of the text at the screening level. If there is any conflict of interest between the reviewer and the authors or research funder, the manuscript must be reviewed by another person. Peer reviewers are volunteers selected from researchers who have impressive academic careers.

We offer a special service, entitled “Presubmission inquiries.” Manuscripts outside the scope of our journal are omitted in the initial screening phase. For this service, the corresponding author emails an abstract and a cover letter to the editorial office. We attempt to respond to such submissions within 1 week, with notes on the suitability of the proposed manuscript. The goal of the presubmission inquiry is to verify whether the received manuscript reasonably satisfies the measures detailed in the scope of the journal. However, there is no guarantee on our part to accept a particular submission after the presubmission inquiry process.

ETHICS & ADVERTISEMENT POLICIES

Ethics is an important consideration at all stages of our work. Please refer to our pages about peer review policy and editorial policy to identify more ethics-related concerns.

We endorse the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) policies in editorial, peer review, advertisement, ethics, informed consent, and handling cases requiring corrections, retractions, and editorial expressions of concern. We also respect the policies of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations for the conduct, reporting, editing, and publication of scholarly work in medical journals.

Conflicts of Interest
Conflicts of interest include (but are not limited to) research grants from funding agencies (research funder’s name and grant number); financial support for educational programs, employment, or consultation; position on advisory board or board of directors; or other types of management and financial relationships, such as receiving reimbursements, fees, funding, or salary from an organization that may gain or lose financially by the publication of the article in any way, intellectual property rights (e.g., patents, copyrights, and royalties from such rights), and holdings of spouse and/or children that may have a financial interest in the work.

Any conflict of interest related to the manuscript should be declared by the authors. These include, but are not limited to, commercial, personal, political, and intellectual conflicts of interest. All editors, editorial staff, and reviewers should also report potential conflicts of interest related to the submissions with which they are working.

Informed Consent
Regarding human research, informed consent and ethical approval should be clearly mentioned in the Methods section. The author should also confirm that all experiments (human or animal) were performed in compliance with the relevant institutional guidelines and should also state the name of the institutional committee(s) that approved the study.

Study Subjects
All animal studies should follow the Animal Research: Reporting In Vivo Experiments (ARRIVE) guidelines. Protecting the rights of patients or animals is of great importance. The welfare of the animals used for research must be respected. The following reporting guidelines for specific studies are recommended: Randomized clinical trials, CONSORT; systematic reviews, PRISMA; diagnostic studies, STARD; study protocols, SPIRIT; clinical practice guidelines, AGREE; and qualitative research, SRQR. The authors should adhere to the Declaration of Helsinki in medical research involving human subjects, human materials, or human data.

Independent local, regional, or national review bodies should approve the study. Authors should guarantee the integrity of the reported data and should respond to all comments made by peer reviewers during the publication process. If the authors fail to provide satisfactory answers to the comments of peer reviewers, the paper will be rejected. Ethical issues should be addressed by the authors. All participants in a research project should be thoroughly informed about the aims of the study and any possible side effects.

Corrections and Retractions
We respect research integrity and have a research integrity officer and committee. If serious scientific misconduct is found during any step of production or post-publication, the article will be withdrawn or retracted. If fraudulent behavior is suspected, further investigations may involve the author’s higher authorities. Corrections or retractions of published articles will be made by publishing a correction or retraction note. In this way, the original article remains in the public domain, and subsequent notes will be published. The decision to publish a correction or retraction statement is based on COPE guidelines. However, if the error is minor, a correction statement will be published rapidly. Moreover, the journal assumes responsibility if errors are caused on our side. If errors are caused by the authors, a correction statement will be published in the next earliest possible issue.

Advertising Policy
We do not accept advertisements at present.

We believe that advertisements should be independent of editorial decisions. Advertising content should be clearly indicated and should not be confused with editorials or articles. Advertisements that seem to be unsafe for health and those related to racial, ethnic, sexual, and religious issues are not admissible. All advertisements for drug-related content should inspire rational drug use and must not be misleading in nature. Furthermore, editorial decisions and publisher assignments are not influenced by advertisements and sponsors. The publisher has the right to withdraw drug-specific targeted campaigns linked to a specific article. All inquiries should be reviewed by the Advertising Standards Committee at the publisher’s office. The editors and publisher disclaim responsibility for any injury to persons or property resulting from any ideas or products referred to in articles or advertisements.

Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing
The Journal complies with the ICMJE uniform requirements for manuscripts. This is clearly indicated in the submission guidelines. In addition, this journal follows the COPE guidelines and Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing. The statements and opinions contained in this journal are solely those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the editor or publisher.