Publication Policies

The Journal is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal that publishes original research, reviews, case studies and short communications in clinical medicine, pharmacology and pharmacy, public and community health, nursing and allied health, biochemistry, microbiology, and related health sciences. For an Embase-eligible title, the scope must be biomedical / life-sciences focused. The Journal aims to advance evidence-based knowledge, ensure rigorous peer review, and provide immediate open access to published work. Only manuscripts that fall within this stated scope are considered.

Editorial decisions are based solely on the scientific quality, originality, clarity and relevance of a manuscript to the Journal's scope, and are free from commercial, political or personal influence. The Editor-in-Chief has full authority over the editorial content and the timing of publication. Advertising, reprint or other commercial revenue does not influence editorial decisions. Decisions to accept or reject are informed by peer review and are not affected by the authors' nationality, ethnicity, gender, religion, seniority or institutional affiliation.

The Journal operates a double-blind peer-review process in which the identities of authors and reviewers are kept confidential. Every submission is first checked by the editorial office for scope, formatting and similarity, and is then evaluated by at least two independent expert reviewers. Reviewers assess originality, methodology, validity of results, clarity and ethical compliance, and recommend acceptance, minor revision, major revision or rejection. The Editor makes the final decision. Average time from submission to first decision is [X weeks]. Reviewers must declare any conflict of interest and treat manuscripts as confidential.

Based on COPE Core Practices and Elsevier's recommended standards.

Authorship follows the ICMJE criteria. An author must (1) make a substantial contribution to conception/design or acquisition/analysis/interpretation of data; (2) draft or critically revise the work; (3) approve the final version; and (4) agree to be accountable for the work. Contributors who do not meet all four criteria should be acknowledged, not listed as authors. The corresponding author is responsible for communication and for confirming that all listed authors have approved the submission. Any change to authorship after submission requires written agreement from all authors and editor approval. Guest, gift and ghost authorship are prohibited.

All authors must disclose any financial or non-financial interests that could be perceived to influence the work, including funding, employment, consultancies, honoraria, patents or personal relationships. A declaration of interest statement must appear in the manuscript; where there are none, authors must state “The authors declare no competing interests.” Editors and reviewers must recuse themselves from any manuscript in which they have a competing interest.

Every submission is screened with recognised similarity-detection software [Turnitin / iThenticate]. The Journal's acceptable similarity index is below [15]% excluding references. Manuscripts exceeding the threshold, or containing verbatim copying, self-plagiarism, salami-slicing or improperly attributed content, are returned or rejected. Confirmed plagiarism after publication leads to correction or retraction and notification of the authors' institutions.

The Journal follows COPE retraction guidelines. Honest errors are corrected through a published Correction/Erratum linked to the original article. Articles are retracted where findings are unreliable due to misconduct or honest error, where there is plagiarism or redundant publication, or where ethical breaches are found. Retraction notices are freely available, clearly identify the retracted article, and state the reason. The original article is retained and marked as retracted; it is not removed, to preserve the scholarly record. “Withdrawal” applies only to in-press articles before formal publication.

Authors may appeal an editorial decision by writing to [editorial email] with a point-by-point response to the concerns raised. Appeals are considered by the Editor-in-Chief, who may seek further review; the decision on an appeal is final. Complaints about process, ethics or conduct are acknowledged within [X] working days and handled in line with COPE guidance.

Research involving human participants must comply with the Declaration of Helsinki and be approved by a recognised ethics/institutional review board; the approval reference must be stated in the manuscript. Written informed consent must be obtained from participants (or guardians), and consent for publication is required for any identifying information or images. Studies involving animals must comply with applicable national/institutional guidelines (e.g. ARRIVE) and report ethical approval. Manuscripts lacking required ethics statements are not sent for review. essential for Embase

Authors are encouraged to make the data underlying their findings openly available in a recognised public repository, or as supplementary material, and to include a Data Availability Statement indicating where the data can be found and any access conditions. Authors should describe methods in enough detail to allow reproduction, and provide analysis code where feasible. The Journal may request raw data during review.

The Journal is open access. Authors retain copyright of their work and grant the Journal a licence to publish. Articles are distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence, allowing reuse with proper attribution. The exact licence is displayed on every article page. A licence-to-publish / copyright form is provided to authors at acceptance.

The full text of all articles is digitally preserved through Zenodo and BASE and assigned a persistent identifier (DOI). The Journal maintains a policy of continued online availability so that content remains accessible to readers even if publication ceases. [Consider also enrolling in PKP PN / Portico / CLOCKSS for stronger preservation, which Scopus/Embase view favourably.]

Authors may deposit the published version of their article in their institutional or subject repository, or on their personal/academic pages, without embargo, provided the original publication in the Journal is cited and linked.

[State clearly whether the Journal charges a fee. If there is a fee: publish the exact amount, what it covers (editorial handling, hosting, DOI, preservation) and what it does NOT buy (it never buys acceptance). If there is no fee, state “The Journal does not charge any submission or publication fee.”] Describe any waiver policy. Transparency here is a key anti-predatory signal for CSAB.

The Journal's revenue sources are [list: APCs / institutional support / none]. Any advertising is clearly distinguishable from editorial content, is not related to editorial decisions, and does not target readers based on their behaviour. The Journal does not send unsolicited bulk email (spam) soliciting submissions.

Authors must disclose any use of generative AI or AI-assisted tools in the writing process in a statement in the manuscript, and remain fully responsible for the content, its accuracy and its integrity. AI tools cannot be listed as an author. AI must not be used by reviewers to breach confidentiality of a manuscript, and any AI assistance in editorial/peer-review processes must be disclosed. Scopus/Embase now encourage a dedicated, visible AI policy of this kind.

The Journal publishes [e.g. quarterly — 4 issues per year], on a fixed, uninterrupted schedule. Consistency and no gaps in the publication history are directly assessed by the CSAB.