Peer Review Process

Iraqi Journal of Medical Sciences is using double-blind peer reviewing system to assure the quality of the publication. All manuscripts should be submitted through our online manuscript management system. The author should first register in our system and then submit their manuscript. We will use Turnitin to check similarities prior to sending to external reviewers. We will notify corresponding authors within one to two months about their manuscript through our online system. Iraqi Journal of Medical Sciences depend mostly on external reviewers in addition to the help introduce by internal reviewers.

Editorial Policy:

Misconduct Policy:

• Duplicate publication

Any manuscript submitted to the journal must be original and the manuscript, or substantial parts of it, must not be under consideration by any other journal. In any case where there is the potential for overlap or duplication we require that authors are transparent. Authors should declare any potentially overlapping publications on submission. Any overlapping publications should be cited. Any ‘in press’ or unpublished manuscript cited, or relevant to the Editor’s and reviewers' assessment of the manuscript, should be made available if requested by the Editor. The editor reserves the right to judge potentially overlapping or redundant publications on a case-by-case basis.

In general, the manuscript should not already have been formally published in any journal or in any other citable form. If justified and made clear upon submission,

Any suspected cases of covert duplicate manuscript submission will be handled as outlined in the COPE guidelines and the Editor may contact the authors’ institution. The journal endorses the policies of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) in relation to overlapping publications.

• Dealing with allegations of misconduct

The journal takes seriously all possible misconduct. If an editor has concerns that a submitted article describes something that might be considered to constitute misconduct in research, publication or professional behavior, the editor may discuss the case in confidence with the Editorial Board Members.

If the case cannot be resolved by discussion with the author(s) and the Editor still has concerns, the case may be reported to the appropriate authorities. If, during the course of reviewing an article, an editor is alerted to possible problems (for example, fraudulent data) in another publication, the editor may contact the journal in which the previous publication appeared to raise concern.

Readers that suspect misconduct in a published article are encouraged to report this to the editor for that title.

• Plagiarism detection

The journal is a member of CrossCheck by CrossRef and Turnitin. Turnitin is a plagiarism screening service that verifies the originality of content submitted before publication. Turnitin checks submissions against millions of published research papers, and billions of web content. Authors, researchers and freelancers can also use Turnitin to screen their work before submission.

 

Correction and Retraction Policies:

• Corrections to published work

Honest errors are a part of science and publishing and require publication of a correction when they are detected. We expect authors to inform the journal’s Editor (by the Contact Us section of the journal website) of any errors of fact they have noticed (or have been informed of) in their article once published. Corrections are made at the journal’s discretion. Changes to published articles that affect the interpretation and conclusion of the article, but do not fully invalidate the article, will, at the Editor(s)’ discretion, be corrected via publication of a Correction that is indexed and bidirectionally linked to the original article.

As Publishers, we have a duty to maintain the integrity of the scientific record. For this reason, minor corrections that do not affect the scientific understanding of the paper (for example formatting or typographical errors or preference of wording) may be rejected if submitted post-publication in order to prevent discrepancies downstream.

The correction procedure depends on the publication stage of the article, but in all circumstances a correction notice is published as soon as possible:

 

• Online First publication

The Online First (or ‘published ahead of print’) version is considered the version of record, and not an opportunity to make changes prior to print publication. The journal will consider replacing this version with an updated version which corrects the error and notes the changes that have been made and the date(s) on which the changes were made (in a correction notice at the end of the article). Previous electronic versions prominently note that there are more recent versions of the article. The correction notice will be retained in the print version for record. The original text will remain accessible.

• Publication in an issue or a continuous publication journal

If the article has already appeared in an issue, a correction notice will be printed in the next available print issue. The online version of the article will link to the correction notice, and vice versa. The PDF will be replaced with a version watermarked with “Retracted” but the original text will remain accessible. In rare cases, the journal may have to remove the original content for legal reasons. In such cases the journal will leave the metadata (title and authors) and replace the text with a note saying the article has been removed for legal reasons.

 

• Retractions

Retractions are considered by journal editor in cases of evidence of unreliable data or findings, plagiarism, duplicate publication, and unethical research. We may consider an expression of concern notice if an article is under investigation. All retraction notices explain why the article was retracted. The retraction procedure depends on the publication stage of the article:

 

• Author name change requests

The journal wants to ensure a smooth process and experience to facilitate author name changes after publication. Authors may change their name for many reasons.  To request an author name change use (the Contact Us section of the journal website)

The following to be considered in such request:

• The changes will be made directly on the article(s). The journal will not request the approval of any co-authors on the paper to update the name. Researchers may wish to inform their co-authors of the change, for example, so that they use an updated offline copy or change the way they cite the publication. Alternatively, the journal will notify the corresponding author alone as standard practice. As part of any author name change request, the journal will endeavor to make any necessary changes to all references to the author’s identity, for example, email address, pronouns, or any other occurrence within the body of their paper.
• The journal recommends using an ORCID ID to authors who change their name and want to ensure that all of their prior publications are discoverable in one place.  
• The journal will update the PDF and HTML versions of the paper on our website. The journal cannot control whether the author name changes are made to other websites.  If an author wishes their work to be fully discoverable in all indexing and archiving sites under both prior and current names, authors may need to contact the indexes and databases directly.
• Unfortunately, the journal does not have the ability to update citations in other publications for the author’s papers in which a name change has been made.
• The journal will retain an original copy of the article to ensure that changes have been made accurately and to be able to demonstrate what versions of the article have been published at any given point, should that be required (e.g., for legal purposes). The original version will not be made publicly available.

 

The Complaints Policy:

This procedure applies to complaints that relate to content, procedures or policies that are the responsibility of the journal or our editorial staff. Complaints may provide an opportunity and a spur for improvement, and so we aim to respond quickly, courteously, and constructively. The complaints will be dealt with confidentially. The procedure outlined below aims to be fair to those making complaints and those complained about:

 

• Complaints about publication ethics or scientific content

This will in the first instance be handled by the Editor responsible for the journal. The Editor will follow guidelines published by the Committee on Publication Ethics.

• Complaints about processes

Such as time taken for review, the editor will review and respond to the complainant's concerns.  

Please approach the editorial and publishing management team by email to:

iraqijms@colmed.nahrainuniv.edu.iq

   

• Complaint timeframes

All complaints will be formally acknowledged within three working days. If possible a full response will be made within two weeks. Where we consider a complaint to be vexatious or the result of a coordinated campaign, we reserve the right to reply outside of the suggested time frames, and on some occasions we may not respond to all complainants individually.

 

If the complainant remains dissatisfied with the handling of their complaint, the complainant may complain to an external body.

 

• External bodies

If a complainant remains unhappy after a reply considered definitive by the editor, the complainant may complain to an external body “Committee on Publication Ethics”, when that body has relevant oversight. COPE publishes a code of practice for editors of scientific, technical, and medical journals. It will facilitate the resolution of disputes with member editors, journals and publishers but only once a journal’s own complaints procedures have been exhausted.