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 animals) 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.