Palestinian Medical and Pharmaceutical Journal (Pal. Med. Pharm. J.)

Publications Ethics

The Palestinian Medical and Pharmaceutical Journal (PMPJ) trusts its editors, who in turn trust peer reviewers to provide fair assessments, and authors trust editors to select appropriate peer reviewers, and readers put their trust in the peer-review process. To fulfil the academic publishing standards, all parties should abide by the following ethics.

 1.    Ideas and Expression

Our editors and readers have a right to expect that submitted work is the author’s own, that it has not been plagiarized, i.e., taken from other authors without permission where required, and that copyright has not been breached, e.g., if figures or tables are reproduced.

2.    Ethical Obligations

The Palestinian Medical and Pharmaceutical Journal (PMPJ) expects authors to maintain the highest ethical standards when conducting research and in the publication process. The following principles, which are not an exhaustive list, should apply:

2.1 Soundness and Reliability

      The research being reported should:

• Be conducted in an ethical and responsible manner and follow all relevant legislation.Be sound and carefully executed.   
• Use appropriate methods of data analysis and display.

     The authors should:

•  Check their manuscripts carefully at all stages to ensure that methods and findings are reported accurately.
•  Carefully check calculations, data presentations, typescripts/submissions, and proofs.

2.2 Honesty

      Researchers should:

• Present their results honestly and without fabrication, falsification, or inappropriate data manipulation.
•  Present research images, e.g., micrographs, X-rays, pictures of electrophoresis gels, without them being modified in a misleading way.
• Follow applicable reporting guidelines.
•  Provide sufficient detail and describe their methods clearly and unambiguously and with reference to public sources of information, in order to permit others to repeat the work and confirm the findings.
• Data should always be reported accurately and never be manipulated, with any problematic data also treated accordingly.
•  Present reports of complete research. They should not omit inconvenient, inconsistent, or inexplicable findings or results that do not support the authors’ or sponsors’ hypothesis or interpretation.
•  Alert the editor promptly if they discover an error in any submitted, accepted, or published work.       
•  Authors should cooperate with editors in issuing corrections or retractions when required.
•  Represent the work of others accurately in citations and quotations,Not copy references from other publications if they have not read the cited work. 
•  Identify any hazards inherent in conducting the research.

Special notes:

•  Researchers should not enter agreements that permit the research sponsor to veto or control the publication of the findings (unless there are exceptional circumstances, such as research classified by governments because of security implications).
• If investigations have involved animals or human subjects, authors should provide all the statements required by the journal in order to prove that the experimental protocols were approved appropriately and that they meet all the guidelines of the agency involved, including obtaining informed consent where required.
• Information obtained privately should not be used without the explicit permission of the individuals from whom it was obtained, and appropriate letters confirming permission to include this information must be acquired.

2.3 Balance

      Researchers should:

•  Present new findings in the context of previous research. The work of others should be fairly represented. Scholarly reviews and syntheses of existing research should be complete, balanced, and should include findings regardless of whether they support the hypothesis or interpretation being proposed. Editorials or opinion pieces presenting a single viewpoint or argument should be clearly distinguished from scholarly reviews.
• Address study limitations in their manuscript.
• Avoid criticisms of a personal nature, although well-supported criticism of a piece of work is always welcomed.

2.4 Originality

       Researchers should:

• Adhere to the accepted publication requirements that submitted work should be original and has not been published elsewhere in any language without express citation and acknowledgment of the previously published work.
• Adhere to and follow all applicable copyright laws and conventions. Copyright material, e.g., tables, figures, or extensive quotations, should be reproduced only with appropriate permission and acknowledgment.
• Properly acknowledge and reference relevant previous work and publications, both by other researchers and the authors’ own. The primary literature should be cited where possible.
• Properly acknowledge data, text, figures, or ideas originated by other researchers, and these should not be presented as if they were the authors’ own work. Original wording taken directly from publications by other researchers should appear in quotation marks with the appropriate citations.
• Inform editors if findings have been published previously or if multiple reports or multiple analyses of a single data set are under consideration for publication elsewhere. Authors should provide copies of related publications or work submitted to other books/journals.
• Not claim originality if others have already reported similar work in part or as a whole, and credit should always be given to the work and findings of others that have led to their findings or influenced them in some way.

      Special notes:

• Multiple publications arising from a single research project should be clearly identified as such, and the primary publication should be referenced. Translations and adaptations for different audiences should be clearly identified as such, should acknowledge the original source, and should respect relevant copyright conventions and permission requirements. If in doubt, authors should seek permission from the original publisher before republishing any work.
• Avoid fragmenting research to maximize the number of manuscripts submitted to a journal, and the submission of the same research to multiple books/journals or other publication media. Both these practices seriously undermine the innovative nature of research findings.