1. Originality and Plagiarism

Authors must ensure that all submitted manuscripts are original works that have not been published previously, nor are they under review elsewhere. Any overlapping content, including prior preprints, conference abstracts, or datasets, should be clearly declared.

Plagiarism in any form—whether verbatim copying, paraphrasing without attribution, or reuse of previously published figures and tables without permission—is strictly prohibited. To safeguard integrity, all submissions undergo plagiarism detection checks. If significant overlap is detected, the authors will be contacted for clarification, revision, or withdrawal.

2. Authorship on Articles

OpenMed Research follows the ICMJE criteria for authorship. Only individuals who have made substantial intellectual contributions—such as conceptualizing the study, designing methodology, collecting or analyzing data, and drafting or critically revising the manuscript—should be listed as authors.

Guest authorship (adding someone who did not contribute), honorary authorship (adding someone for their status), and ghost authorship (excluding a contributor) are unethical and not allowed. Each author’s specific contribution must be transparently reported using the CRediT taxonomy (e.g., Conceptualization, Writing – Original Draft, Data Curation).

Before submission, all authors must approve the final version of the manuscript and agree to be accountable for its content.

3. Competing Interests

Authors are required to fully disclose any financial or non-financial competing interests that could influence the interpretation of their work. Financial interests include employment, consultancy roles, stock ownership, honoraria, or research funding from commercial entities. Non-financial interests include personal or professional relationships, political or religious beliefs, or intellectual biases that may affect objectivity.

If there are no conflicts of interest, authors must include a statement confirming this. OpenMed Research publishes these disclosures alongside the article for full transparency.

4. Ethical Policies

4.1 Research Involving Humans

Manuscripts reporting studies involving human participants must include a statement confirming approval from an appropriate Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board (IRB). All participants should have provided informed consent, which must be documented in the manuscript. For vulnerable populations, special ethical considerations must be outlined.

Any identifying information about patients or participants must be removed unless explicit written consent for publication has been obtained.

4.2 Research Involving Animals

Animal studies must comply with internationally recognized guidelines for animal welfare, such as the ARRIVE guidelines. Authors must include details of the ethical approval obtained, housing and care conditions, and efforts made to minimize suffering.

4.3 Research Involving Plants

For studies involving collection or experimentation with plant species—especially rare, endangered, or protected varieties—authors must demonstrate compliance with national and international biodiversity regulations (e.g., Convention on Biological Diversity). Any required collection permits must be documented.

5. Registration of Clinical Trials and Systematic Reviews

5.1 Trial Registration

All clinical trials must be registered in a publicly accessible registry (such as ClinicalTrials.gov or WHO ICTRP) before the enrollment of participants. The registration number should be clearly stated in both the abstract and methods section of the article.

5.2 Systematic Review Registration

To promote transparency and prevent duplication, systematic reviews should be registered in PROSPERO or an equivalent registry before data extraction begins. The registration number should be included in the methods section.

6. Standards of Reporting

To ensure clarity and reproducibility, authors must follow appropriate reporting guidelines relevant to their study design. For example:

• CONSORT for randomized controlled trials

   

• PRISMA for systematic reviews and meta-analyses

   

• CARE for case reports

   

• STROBE for observational studies

   

Checklists from these guidelines may be requested during submission.

7. Licenses and Copyright

Articles published with OpenMed Research are fully open access and distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. This license allows others to copy, distribute, and adapt the work, provided the original authors and source are appropriately credited.

Authors retain full copyright of their work. If third-party material (e.g., previously published figures or images) is used, authors are responsible for obtaining necessary permissions.

8. Permanency of Content

Once published, articles remain permanently accessible on the OpenMed Research platform. However, in some cases, updates or changes may be necessary:

• Corrections: If minor errors are identified that do not affect the validity of the study, an official correction notice will be published and linked to the original article.

   

• Retractions: If significant errors, ethical breaches, or misconduct are discovered, the article may be retracted with a clear explanation.

   

• Removals: Content may only be removed under exceptional circumstances, such as legal obligations, privacy concerns, or defamatory material.

   

All updates maintain version transparency, ensuring that previous versions remain accessible with proper annotation.

9. Allegations of Misconduct

Any allegations of plagiarism, data fabrication, unethical research, or duplicate publication will be investigated in accordance with COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) guidelines. Authors will have an opportunity to respond before any action is taken. Confirmed misconduct will lead to a correction, retraction, or removal as appropriate.

10. Appeals and Complaints

Authors may appeal editorial decisions if they believe the process was unfair or a misunderstanding occurred. Appeals must include a clear justification with supporting evidence.

Complaints about peer review, editorial handling, or publishing policies can be submitted to info@openmedresearch.com. All complaints are reviewed by an independent Ethics and Integrity Panel.