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Editorial Policies

The Journal follows the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and endorses the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals as well as the GPP3 guidelines regarding authorship. Submission of a manuscript to the journal implies that all authors have read and agreed to its content and that the manuscript conforms to the journal’s policies.

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Affiliations

Authors are required to list all pertinent affiliations to indicate where the research was approved, supported, or conducted. For non-research articles, authors must provide their current institutional affiliation. If an author has moved to a different institution before publication, they should state the affiliation where the work was carried out, with their current affiliation and contact information included in the acknowledgment section. Simply changing affiliation does not justify removing an author from a publication if they meet the authorship criteria.

Appeals and Complaints

The journal follows Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines on appeals to journal editor decisions and complaints about a journal’s editorial management of the peer review process. We welcome legitimate appeals to editor decisions, but you must provide strong evidence or new information in response to the editor's and reviewers' comments. This is crucial since most of the journal's scholarly articles are reviews and original research that rely on accurate scientific data.

For scholarly opinion articles, an appeal is less likely to change an editor's decision. These include viewpoints and opinion pieces where editorial judgment about readability and relevance is most important. However, all opinion-based articles must be evidence-based and fully referenced. You should always present your evidence and explain how it led you to your opinion.

Editors do not expect frequent appeals and rarely reverse their initial decisions. Therefore, if your manuscript is rejected, it is strongly recommended that you submit it to another journal. The decision to reject a manuscript often involves the editor’s assessment of its priority or significance, which are factors authors usually cannot address through an appeal. However, if you believe there is a valid case for an appeal, please follow the instructions provided below.

Acknowledgment

Those who contributed to the development of a manuscript but did not meet the criteria for authorship should be acknowledged. Additionally, organizations that provide support through funding or other resources should be recognized.

Authorship

The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all relevant co-authors are included in the paper and that no inappropriate co-authors are listed. Additionally, the corresponding author must confirm that all co-authors have reviewed and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication. Those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors, while individuals who have contributed to specific aspects of the research should be acknowledged or listed as contributors.

Authorship Criteria

Authorship credit should be granted only based on significant contributions to the following three areas:

• The conceptualization and design of the study, data acquisition, or data analysis and interpretation;
• Writing or critically revising the article for significant intellectual content; and
• Approving the final version for publication.

Simply providing funding or collecting data does not qualify one for authorship. General supervision of the research team is also insufficient for authorship. Each contributor must have been involved significantly in the work to assume public responsibility for relevant sections of the manuscript. The order of authors should reflect their relative contributions to the study and manuscript. After submission, the order cannot be altered without written consent from all contributors. The journal sets a maximum number of authors based on the manuscript type, scope, and number of institutions involved. Authors must justify if their number exceeds these limits.

Citations

Authors should avoid excessive or inappropriate self-citation or coordinated efforts among author groups to cite each other's work inappropriately, as this may constitute citation manipulation, a form of misconduct. Refer to the COPE guidelines on citation manipulation for more information COPE guidance on citation manipulation. For non-research articles (e.g., Reviews or Opinions), ensure that the references you cite are pertinent and provide a balanced and comprehensive view of the current research or scholarly work on the topic. Avoid biasing references toward any particular research group, organization, or journal. If you are unsure about citing a particular source, contact the journal’s editorial office for guidance.

Conflicts of Interest/Competing Interests

All authors must reveal any conflicts of interest related to the manuscript's publication, including any ties to institutions or products mentioned in the manuscript or crucial to the study's findings. They should also reveal any conflicts of interest involving products that compete with those discussed in their manuscript.

Sponsorship of Clinical Trials

Authors employed by pharmaceutical companies or organizations sponsoring clinical trials must disclose this as a potential conflict of interest. They should follow the Good Publication Practice guidelines for pharmaceutical companies (GPP3) to ensure that responsible and ethical standards are upheld.

Corrections, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions

Corrections to a published article can be made with the journal editor's approval. The editor will determine the extent of the corrections. Minor corrections will be applied directly to the original article, while major corrections will be handled differently: the original article will remain as is, and a corrected version will be published separately. Both versions will be linked, and a statement explaining the reason for the major changes will also be published. If needed, article retractions will follow COPE retraction guidelines.

For any manuscript that includes details or images of an individual, written informed consent for publication must be obtained from the person (or their parent or legal guardian if they are under 18). The consent should permit publication under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which means the details will be freely accessible on the internet. If the individual is deceased, consent must be obtained from their next of kin. The manuscript should include a statement confirming that written informed consent for publication was secured. Authors may use their own consent form or one from their institution or region if suitable. The consent form must specify that the details/images will be publicly available on the internet. The form should be provided to the Editor upon request and will be kept confidential.

Confidentiality

A submitted manuscript is considered confidential. Academic Journals will not share submitted manuscripts with anyone except those involved in processing and preparing the manuscript for publication if accepted. This includes editorial staff, corresponding authors, potential and actual reviewers, and editors. In cases of suspected misconduct, the manuscript may be disclosed to members of the Academic Journals’ ethics committees and institutions or organizations that need it to address the issue. Academic Journals will adhere to the relevant COPE flowcharts as needed.

Copyright Policy

User Rights

AJSET is an Open Access journal. Users have the right to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles under the following conditions: CC BY-NC-SA Deed - Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International - Creative Commons. Copyright statement stated here and embedded in each published article.

Open Access Policy

The journal is an Open Access journal. Users have the right to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles under the following conditions: Deed - Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International - Creative Commons.

The CC BY-NC-SA (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike) license allows others to remix, adapt, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as they credit the original creation. Additionally, any new works based on the original must be distributed under the same license, ensuring that derivative works are also available for non-commercial use and share alike.

Author Rights

The journal permits the author(s) to retain copyright and the publisher to retain publishing rights without limitations.

Data Falsification/Fabrication

Deliberate manipulation or fabrication of data is a grave form of misconduct intended to deceive others and undermine the integrity of the scholarly record, leading to far-reaching and long-term consequences. When submitting a manuscript to the journal, authors must ensure that all data presented is accurate and faithfully represents their work. Authors are also expected to keep all raw data referenced in their manuscripts to assist the journal with the evaluation process. Failure to produce the original data upon request may result in the rejection or retraction of the manuscript or published paper.

Data Sharing Policy

Our journal's data-sharing policy is designed to encourage and facilitate the exchange of research data among researchers. We actively promote and support the timely and appropriate sharing of data, enhancing our submission processes to make this easier. By standardizing our author data guidelines, we aim to clarify data storage and sharing options, thereby improving access and reuse. We also emphasize proper data citation practices to ensure that researchers receive due credit for their efforts. Working closely with the scientific community, we are committed to establishing strong data review practices to validate, document, and support the reuse of published research data. Additionally, we advocate for the publication of research data as separate, peer-reviewed outputs to increase its reusability and provide further recognition for authors.

Desk Rejection Policy

1. The topic or scope of the study does not align with the focus of the journal.
2. There are issues related to publication ethics, non-compliance with international standard guidelines, and plagiarism, with a similarity index exceeding 20 percent.
3. The topic lacks significant impact and does not contribute enough new knowledge to the field.
4. The study design contains flaws.
5. The objective of the study is not clearly articulated.
6. The organization of the study is problematic and/or certain components are missing.
7. There are issues with writing or significant problems in grammar and style.
8. The manuscript does not adhere to the journal's submission guidelines.

Duplicate Submission/Publication

Authors must declare upon submission that the manuscript is not being considered elsewhere. Discovering a duplicate submission or publication is generally regarded as a deliberate act, including articles published in another language. For permissible secondary submissions or publications (such as an article translated into English), authors must obtain permission from the publisher and copyright holder of the original article, and inform the editor of the new journal about the original article's history. Additionally, it should be clearly stated to readers that the article is a translated version, with a citation to the original article provided.

Funding

The journal mandates that authors disclose all sources of funding and financial support in their manuscripts. Authors should detail the involvement of sponsor(s) in any phase of the study, from design through to manuscript submission, or clarify if the sponsor(s) had no involvement. Please ensure that this information is precise and aligns with the requirements of your funder.

Images and Figures

Include images and figures in your article only if they are relevant and add value to the work. Do not use purely decorative content. As per the Journal Author Publishing Agreement, you must secure written permission for any third-party copyrighted material, including text, illustrations, tables, data, audio, video, film stills, screenshots, musical notation, and supplementary materials.

Misconduct

Misconduct involves breaches of editorial policy, journal guidelines, publication ethics, or any applicable standards from COPE, WAME, ICMJE, and STM. Activities that threaten the integrity of the research or publication process are also considered misconduct. Suspected cases will be investigated in accordance with COPE guidelines.

Publication Ethics

The journal and its editorial board are committed to upholding and complying with the policies and principles established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Duties of Editors

Publication Decisions

The editorial board of the journal is responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published. Members of the board confer and refer to reviewer recommendations in making this decision, constrained by legal requirements related to libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism. Editorial decisions are not affected by the origins of the manuscript, including the nationality, ethnicity, political beliefs, race, or religion of the authors.

Confidentiality, Disclosure, and Conflicts of Interest

During the review process, editors must not disclose information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, and other editorial advisers. Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor's, reviewer’s, or any other reader’s own research without the express written consent of the author. Readers should be informed about who has funded the research or other scholarly work and whether the funders had any role in the research and its publication and, if so, what this was.

Author Relations

Editors strive to ensure that peer review at the journal is fair, unbiased, and timely. The journal has established policies for handling submissions from editorial board members to ensure unbiased review. Author instructions provide guidance about the criteria for authorship.

Reviewer Relations

The Journal encourages reviewers to comment on ethical questions and possible misconduct raised by submissions (e.g. unethical research design, and inappropriate data manipulation), and to be alert to redundant publication and plagiarism. Reviewers’ comments should be sent to authors in their entirety unless they contain offensive or libelous remarks. Contributions of reviewers to the journal are regularly acknowledged and cease to use reviewers who consistently produce discourteous, poor quality, or late reviews.

Quality assurance

Editors should take all reasonable steps to ensure the quality of the material they publish, recognizing that different sections have different aims and standards. Editors should seek assurances that the research they publish has been approved by an appropriate body (e.g. research ethics committee, institutional review board) where one exists. Editors should be alert to intellectual property issues and work with their publishers to handle potential breaches of laws and conventions. Errors, inaccurate, or misleading statements must be corrected promptly and with due prominence.

Duties of Reviewers

Contribution to Editorial Decisions

Reviewers assist the editorial board in making editorial decisions. Reviews should be conducted objectively, and observations should be formulated clearly with supporting arguments so that authors can use them for improving the paper. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate.

Qualification of Reviewers

Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse himself from the review process. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

Confidentiality

Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage.

Acknowledgment of Sources

Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. References to the ideas of others should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer should also call to the editor's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.

Duties of Authors

Reporting Standards

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 paper. Authors should be prepared to provide public access to raw data in connection with a paper and retain such data for at least two years after publication. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.

Originality, Plagiarism, and Concurrent Publication

Authors should ensure their work is entirely original and that any work and/or words of others have been appropriately acknowledged. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. Submitting essentially the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflicts of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.

Authorship of the Paper

The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included in the paper and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication. 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.

Fundamental Errors in Published Works

When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in the published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor and work with the editor to retract or correct the paper.

Peer Review Process

All manuscripts are subjected to peer review and are expected to meet the standards of academic excellence. If approved by the editor, submissions will be considered by peer reviewers, whose identities will remain anonymous to the authors and vice versa; the identities of authors will remain anonymous to the reviewers (Double-blind peer review). The decision regarding the acceptance or rejection of a manuscript is the responsibility of the editorial board and is based on the recommendations of the reviewers (peer-reviewed process).

Our Research Integrity team will occasionally seek advice outside standard peer review, for example, on submissions with serious ethical, security, biosecurity, or societal implications. We may consult experts and the academic editor before deciding on appropriate actions, including but not limited to recruiting reviewers with specific expertise, assessment by additional editors, and declining to further consider a submission.

Plagiarism

The journal enforces a strict anti-plagiarism policy, rejecting any submission that uses others' ideas, words, or work without proper acknowledgment. This includes full or partial plagiarism, duplicate or redundant publications, and self-plagiarism (in any language). Preprint archives are not considered duplicate publications. The corresponding author is responsible for the manuscript throughout the evaluation and publication process and acts on behalf of all co-authors. All manuscripts are screened for plagiarism using professional software, and those with unacceptable similarity indices are immediately rejected.

Preprints Policy

Authors are free to share their preprints anywhere at any time. If the preprint is accepted for publication, we encourage linking it to the final published version using its Digital Object Identifier (DOI). Authors can also update their preprints on platforms like arXiv or RePEc with their accepted manuscripts.

Protection of Patients' Rights to Privacy

Studies in Humans and Animals

If the work involves the use of human subjects, the author should ensure that the work described has been carried out in accordance with The Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki) for experiments involving humans. The manuscript should be in line with the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals and aim for the inclusion of representative human populations (sex, age, and ethnicity) as per those recommendations. The terms sex and gender should be used correctly.

Authors should include a statement in the manuscript that informed consent was obtained for experimentation with human subjects. The privacy rights of human subjects must always be observed.

All animal experiments should comply with the ARRIVE guidelines and should be carried out in accordance with the U.K. Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act, 1986 and associated guidelines,EU Directive 2010/63/EU for animal experiments , or the National Research Council's Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals , and the authors should clearly indicate in the manuscript that such guidelines have been followed. The sex of animals must be indicated, and where appropriate, the influence (or association) of sex on the results of the study.

Informed Consent

Patients have a right to privacy that should not be violated without informed consent. Identifying information, including names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, or pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. Informed consent for this purpose requires that an identifiable patient be shown the manuscript to be published. Authors should disclose to these patients whether any potentially identifiable material might be available via the Internet as well as in print after publication. Patient consent should be written and archived either with the journal, the authors, or both, as dictated by local regulations or laws. Nonessential identifying details should be omitted. Informed consent should be obtained if there is any doubt that anonymity can be maintained. For example, masking the eye region in photographs of patients is inadequate protection of anonymity. If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic pedigrees, authors should provide assurance, and editors should so note, that such alterations do not distort scientific meaning. When informed consent has been obtained, it should be indicated in the published article.

Special Issues

Special Issue topics are determined by the editorial team of AJSET and are typically released continuously each year. Special Issue submissions follow the same process and author guidelines as any issue submission. Potential authors are encouraged to review all submission guidelines and follow the process as outlined. Special issue topics are determined by the editorial team and a call for submissions for special issues is typically included in the current year's special issue release.

What is the review process and what are the guidelines for special issues?

All submissions, including those for special issues, follow the same submission process and author guidelines as regular issues of AJSET. Potential authors should review the submission guidelines and adhere to the outlined process. Special issues are reviewed and published just like regular issues of the journal. Topics for special issues are set by the editorial team, and a call for submissions is usually announced in the current year’s special issue release.

Standards of Reporting

Research should be presented in a manner that facilitates verification and reproducibility. Therefore, we encourage authors to provide detailed descriptions of their research rationale, protocol, methodology, and analysis.

Use of Third-Party Material

You must secure the necessary permissions to reuse third-party materials in your article. This includes, but is not limited to, text, illustrations, photographs, tables, data, audio, video, film stills, screenshots, and musical notation. While brief extracts of text and some materials may be used for criticism and review without formal permission, any other materials not covered by this exception require written consent from the copyright owner before submission.

Use of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies in Writing

Please note that this policy pertains solely to the writing process and does not apply to the use of AI tools for analyzing data or drawing insights during the research phase. Authors who utilize AI or AI-assisted technologies in their writing should focus on improving readability and clarity, rather than using them to perform core tasks such as generating scientific insights, making conclusions, or providing clinical recommendations. The use of these technologies must always be under human oversight, with the content thoroughly reviewed and edited to ensure accuracy. AI can produce content that may seem authoritative but could be inaccurate, incomplete, or biased. Therefore, authors remain fully responsible and accountable for the final content. It is also important for authors to disclose their use of AI or AI-assisted technologies in their manuscripts, and this disclosure will be included in the published work. Such transparency builds trust between authors, readers, reviewers, editors, and contributors, and ensures compliance with the terms of use for these tools. Furthermore, AI should not be credited with authorship or listed as a co-author. Authorship carries responsibilities that only human contributors can fulfill. Every author is accountable for responding to inquiries about the accuracy or integrity of the work, approving the final version, and agreeing to its submission. Authors also have the duty to ensure the work's originality, that the authors listed meet authorship criteria, and that it does not infringe on third-party rights.

Use of AI in Peer Review

To ensure the protection of authors' rights and research confidentiality, the use of Generative AI or AI-assisted technologies such as ChatGPT and similar services is not permitted for peer review at this time (see our GenAI reviewer policy ). We are reviewing compliant AI tools and may consider revising this policy in the future.