Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement

The South Sudan Medical Journal is dedicated to following the best practices on ethical matters, errors and restrictions. This ethics statement for the journal are based largely on the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Best Practice Guidelines. All our authors, editors and reviewers are expected to adhere to the standards below.

Duties of Editors

Publication decisions

The Editor-in-Chief of the South Sudan Medical Journal is responsible for deciding which articles submitted to the journal should be published and is guided by the policies of the journal's editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The editor may confer with other editors or reviewers in making this final decision.

Fair play

Submitted manuscripts are evaluated for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic, origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.

Confidentiality

The Editor-in Chief and any editorial staff must not disclose information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest

Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor's own research without the explicit written consent of the author(s).

The editor is committed to ensuring that advertising, reprint or other commercial revenue has no impact or influence on editorial decisions.

Duties of Reviewers

Contribution to editorial decisions

Peer review assists the Editor-in-Chief in making editorial decisions and through communicating with the author, may help the author to improve the paper. See our Guidelines for Reviewers.

Promptness

Any selected reviewer who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its timely review will be impossible should immediately notify the editorial team and excuse himself or herself from the review process so that alternative reviewers can be contacted.

Confidentiality

Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the Editor-in-Chief.

Standards of objectivity

Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is not acceptable. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.

Acknowledgement of sources

Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors to consider to strengthen their paper. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer should alert the Editor-in-Chief's attention to any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.

Disclosure and conflict of Interest

Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the submission.

Duties of Authors

Reporting standards

Authors reporting results of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behaviour and are unacceptable.

Data access and retention

Authors may be asked to provide the raw data in connection with a paper for editorial review, and should be prepared to provide public access to such data and should in any event be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable time after publication.

Originality and plagiarism

Authors should ensure that submitted work is original and has not been published elsewhere in any language, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others that this has been appropriately cited or quoted. Applicable copyright laws and conventions should be followed. Copyright material (e.g. tables, figures or extensive quotations) should be reproduced only with appropriate permission and acknowledgement. See our Plagiarism Statement.

Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication

An author should not in general publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behaviour and is unacceptable.

Acknowledgement of sources

Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work. Images of, and data from, recognisable persons must have the permission of that person (or guardian).

Authorship of a manuscript

Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included on the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

Disclosure and conflicts of Interest

All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.

Fundamental errors in published works

When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal’s editor or publisher and cooperate with them to either retract the paper or to publish an appropriate erratum.

Publisher’s confirmation

In cases of alleged or proven scientific misconduct, fraudulent publication or plagiarism the Editor-in-Chief, will take all appropriate measures to clarify the situation and to amend the article in question. This includes the prompt publication of an erratum in the next publication issue or, in the most severe cases, the complete retraction of the affected work.

The Publisher is committed to the availability of publications and ensures the content preservation/accessibility by partnering with the corresponding organizations. All South Sudan Medical Journal content is archived in Africa Journals Online and the Directory of Open Access Journals.