Duties of Author

Ethics of author (s)

Only those who have significantly contributed to the manuscript and claim authorship should be included as authors. The corresponding author is the main responsible for any requirements from the journal in behalf of other authors. Authors are asked to read the following instructions carefully. All types of manuscripts must:

  • Be written in excellent English, in a clear, easy-to-understand, precise, and concise way.
  • Provide new, engaging, and valid information that improves clinical care or guides future research.
  • The author(s) stated shall be solely responsible for this work.
  • The manuscript has not been previously published elsewhere and is not currently under consideration by another journal.

General author's responsibilities

  1. Authors of reports of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the manuscript. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.
  2. Authors should not submit the same manuscript simultaneously to more than one publication at a time. This constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.
  3. Authors must ensure that they have written original works and that any work or words of other authors, contributors, or sources have been appropriately credited and referenced.
  4. Authors submitting their works to the Karbala MJ for publication as original articles confirm that the submitted works represent their own contributions and have not been copied or plagiarized in whole or in part from other works without clearly citing the source. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work.
  5. Authors must ensure that the manuscript has not been published elsewhere.
  6. Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project should be acknowledged or listed as contributors.
  7. The corresponding author with the journal should ensure that all appropriate co-authors are included in the author list of the manuscript and that there is a full consensus of all co-authors in approving the final version of the paper and its submission for publication.
  8. Authors should disclose financial or other conflicts of interest that might influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support should be disclosed.
  9. When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editors and cooperate with them to retract or correct the manuscript. 

Reporting Standards

Authors of original research reports should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.

Data Access and Retention

Authors could be asked to provide the raw data of their study together with the paper for editorial review and should be prepared to make the data publicly available if practicable. In any event, authors should ensure accessibility of such data to other competent professionals for at least ten years after publication (preferably via an institutional or subject-based data repository or other data Centre), provided that the confidentiality of the participants can be protected and legal rights concerning proprietary data do not preclude their release.

Plagiarism Policy

The Karbala JM publishes only original peer-reviewed articles. Plagiarism is not acceptable. In case of plagiarism, the manuscript is rejected, and necessary action is taken in line with the Publication Ethics Guidelines. All articles submitted to the Karbala JM will be checked for plagiarism. The plagiarism check is the second step after the editor-in-chief assigns the article. Another check will be by any editorial board member, reviewer, editor, etc., in any stage of the article process- before or after acceptance, during editing, or at a page proof stage.

Plagiarism can occur in three forms:

  1. Copying or paraphrasing substantial parts of another’s paper (without attribution),
  2. Claiming results from research conducted by others, or
  3. Authors copy her or their own previously published material either in full or in part, without providing appropriate references – also called “self-plagiarism” or “duplicate publication”.

The Karbala JM will judge any case of plagiarism on its own merits. If plagiarism is detected, either by the editors, peer reviewers, or editorial staff at any stage before publication of a manuscript –before or after acceptance, during editing, or at the page proof stage, the editor-in-chief will alert the author(s), asking her/him to either rewrite the text or quote the text exactly and to cite the original source. If the plagiarism is extensive - that is, if at least 20% of the original submission is plagiarized - the article may be rejected, and the author’s institution/employer notified.

Every manuscript submitted for publication is checked for plagiarism after submission and before being sent to an editor for editorial review. The Karbala JM uses Turnitin to detect instances of overlapping and similar text in the submitted manuscript.

Authors will submit only entirely original works and will appropriately cite or quote the work and/or words of others. Publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work should also be cited.

Data Fabrication, and Image Manipulation

Data presented and used in the research endeavor must be original and not anyhow fabricated. Image files must not be modified in any way that could cause misinterpretation of the information provided by the original image. In case such modification is detected, the manuscript is rejected. Authors should only use images and figures in their articles if they are relevant and valuable to the scholarly work reported.

Using Third-Party Material and Confidentiality

As a warranty authors must obtain the necessary written permission to include material in their article that is owned and held in copyright by a third party, including – but not limited to – any proprietary text, illustration, table, or other material, including data, audio, video, film stills, screenshots, and any supplemental material.

Information obtained in the course of confidential services, such as refereeing manuscripts or grant applications, must not be used without the explicit written permission of the author of the work involved in these services.

Citation Policy

Where the text or image/illustration, table, or any other material is taken from other sources (including the author’s previous published manuscripts) the source should be clearly indicated and cited, and that appropriate permission is obtained.

Authors must avoid excessive and inappropriate self-citation or prearrangements among author groups to inappropriately cite each other’s work, as this can be considered a form of misconduct called citation manipulation. Please check the COPE guidance on citation manipulation.

The author(s) of a non-research article (e.g., a Review or Opinion) should ensure the references cited are relevant and provide a fair and balanced overview of the current state of research or scholarly work on the topic. References should not be unfairly biased toward a particular research group, organization, or journal.

Multiple, Redundant or Concurrent Publication

An author should not in general publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal of primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical behavior and is unacceptable.

In general, an author should not submit for consideration in another journal a paper that has been published previously, except in the form of an abstract as part of a published lecture or academic thesis or as an electronic preprint.

Publication of some kinds of articles (e.g. clinical guidelines, translations) in more than one journal is sometimes justifiable, provided certain conditions are met. The authors and editors of the journals concerned must agree to the secondary publication, which must reflect the same data and interpretation of the primary document. The primary reference must be cited in the secondary publication. Further details on acceptable forms of secondary publication can be found in the ICMJE.