Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

The International Journal of Epidemiology and Tropical Medicine (IJETM) is committed to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics. We believe that the dissemination of scientific knowledge must be intrinsically linked to academic integrity, transparency, and moral accountability. Accordingly, the editorial management of IJETM adheres strictly to the principles and best practice guidelines established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

1. Authorship Criteria and Responsibilities

Authorship must be based strictly on substantial and accountable intellectual contributions to the research.

  • Eligibility Criteria: Every individual listed as an author must fulfill all four of the following requirements:

    1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the study, or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data.

    2. Active participation in drafting the manuscript or critically revising it for important intellectual content.

    3. Final approval of the version to be published.

    4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the paper are appropriately investigated and resolved.

  • Corresponding Author Responsibilities: The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all co-authors have reviewed and approved the final manuscript prior to submission. All authors must provide valid institutional affiliations, contact details, ORCID identifiers, and explicit disclosures of potential conflicts of interest.

2. Scientific Misconduct and Malpractice

IJETM maintains a strict zero-tolerance policy regarding all forms of scientific misconduct.

  • Research Misconduct: Manuscripts suspected of non-compliance with ethical standards are subject to immediate rejection by the Editorial Board. The journal reserves the right to report confirmed instances of misconduct to the authors' host institutions, ethics committees, or regulatory bodies.

  • Data Fabrication and Falsification:

    • Data fabrication (the creation of fictitious data) and data falsification (the manipulation of research processes, instruments, or the selective omission/alteration of data or images to yield a desired outcome) constitute severe scientific violations.

    • The Editorial Board reserves the right to request raw, anonymized underlying data during the peer-review process for verification. Failure to produce original data upon request may result in manuscript rejection or article retraction.

  • Duplicate and Redundant Submission: Manuscripts submitted to IJETM must not be under consideration, accepted, or published elsewhere. Any degree of overlap with prior publications must be transparently disclosed and properly cited.

  • Citation Integrity: Authors must cite relevant, original primary literature to substantiate their claims. Citation manipulation—including excessive self-citation, coordinated citation cartels among author groups, or artificial citations to IJETM to inflate journal metrics—is strictly prohibited.

  • Plagiarism Screening: All incoming submissions undergo automated similarity screening using advanced plagiarism detection software (e.g., Turnitin or iThenticate). Manuscripts exhibiting an overall similarity index exceeding 15–20% or containing uncredited direct text copying will be returned for revision or rejected outright.

3. Ethical Compliance for Human and Animal Studies

Human Participant Research & Informed Consent

  • Research involving human subjects, biological materials, or clinical data must comply with the ethical standards outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki.

  • Authors must include a formal statement confirming that the study protocol was reviewed and approved by an accredited Institutional Review Board (IRB) or Ethics Committee, explicitly stating the official approval/reference number.

  • Written informed consent must be obtained from all participants (or legal guardians in the case of minors under 18 years of age). A statement confirming this must be integrated into the Methods section.

  • Research involving vulnerable populations (e.g., incapacitated patients, incarcerated individuals) or studies where informed consent was waived by an ethics board require special evaluation and remain subject to editorial discretion.

  • Human Organ/Tissue Transplantation: Research involving human transplantation must explicitly affirm that no organs or tissues were sourced from executed prisoners and must state the acquiring institutions and clinics.

Animal Experimentation

  • Studies involving animal experimentation must strictly conform to institutional, national, and international guidelines for animal welfare (e.g., the ARRIVE guidelines).

  • Authors must carefully assess potential harm to animals, minimize the number of animals used, and provide detailed descriptions of the species, strains, housing conditions, and procedures.

  • The manuscript must explicitly state the ethical approval details and document the specific measures taken to minimize animal suffering.

4. Clinical Trial & Systematic Review Registrations

  • Clinical Trials: IJETM mandates prospective registration for all clinical trials in an accessible public registry (e.g., ClinicalTrials.gov, WHO ICTRP, or recognized national registries). The Trial Registration Number (TRN) and date of registration must be placed on the final line of the abstract.

  • Study Protocols: IJETM supports the publication and referencing of study protocols to enhance methodological transparency and prevent reporting bias.

  • Systematic Reviews: Prospective registration of systematic reviews (e.g., via PROSPERO) is strongly encouraged. The registration number must be stated at the end of the abstract.

5. Peer Review Ethics

  • Confidentiality & Impartiality: The peer-review process at IJETM is executed with complete confidentiality, impartiality, and timeliness. Editors and reviewers are strictly prohibited from sharing manuscript content or metadata with unauthorized parties.

  • Conflict of Interest: Reviewers must decline invitations to review manuscripts where financial, personal, or collaborative conflicts of interest may compromise their objectivity.

  • Constructive Feedback: Reviewers are expected to deliver objective, evidence-based, and constructive evaluations to help authors refine their scientific work.

  • Handling Violations: Allegations of misconduct during the review process will be investigated in strict accordance with COPE flowcharts.

6. Retractions, Corrections, and Post-Publication Governance

IJETM upholds the permanent scientific record through formal post-publication correction protocols.

Grounds for Retraction

Published articles will be formally retracted in accordance with COPE Retraction Guidelines under the following conditions:

  1. Clear evidence of data fabrication, falsification, or severe plagiarism.

  2. Fundamental scientific errors that invalidate the study's primary conclusions.

  3. Unethical research practices or undisclosed major conflicts of interest.

  4. Unlawful duplicate or redundant publication.

  5. Unresolved, severe authorship disputes.

Retraction Protocol

  1. Initiation: Formal retraction requests may be submitted by authors, readers, or editors to the Editor-in-Chief, backed by substantiating evidence.

  2. Initial Assessment: The Editor-in-Chief conducts a preliminary review and requests a formal response from the corresponding author.

  3. Investigation & Adjudication: The Editorial Board and independent experts conduct a formal investigation before the Editor-in-Chief renders a final determination.

  4. Issuance of Notice: Upon retraction, an official Retraction Notice will be published and bidirectionally linked to the original article online.

  5. Indexing Updates: IJETM will notify major indexing services (e.g., DOAJ, Scopus, PubMed) and national academic integrity platforms (such as ANJANI in Indonesia) of the retraction status.

Corrections and Editorial Notes

  • Minor errors that do not compromise the overall scientific integrity of a paper will be addressed via a formal Correction (Erratum or Corrigendum), which will be indexed and linked back to the original article.

  • The journal may issue an Editorial Note or Expression of Concern while an investigation into potential misconduct is ongoing or inconclusive.