JOURNAL POLICIES
In submitting to CJIC, all authors must agree to abide by CJIC editorial and journal policies. Manuscripts are reviewed with the explicit understanding that all authors have seen and approved of each submitted version.
1. Ethics and policies
CJIC endorses and applies the standards of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), which promotes integrity in peer-reviewed research publications. CJIC shall take reasonable steps to identify and prevent the publication of articles where research misconduct has occurred. The journal and its editors do not encourage misconduct, or knowingly allow misconduct to take place.
Please read the following policy statements:
2. Human and animal rights
CJIC promotes ethical and responsible research practices and the Editor-in Chief reserves the right to reject manuscripts if there is doubt whether appropriate procedures have been followed. Reviewers are encouraged to consider ethical issues raised by the research they are reviewing.
- Authors should provide evidence that research has adhered to national standards for research practices (in human and animal studies).
- Authors should provide evidence that studies have been approved by relevant bodies, the relevant research ethics committee or institutional review board, e.g. institutional review board, research ethics committee, data and safety monitoring board, and regulatory authorities including those overseeing animal experiments.
- If human participants were involved, manuscripts must be accompanied by a statement that the experiments were undertaken with the understanding and appropriate informed consent of each.
- If experimental animals were used the materials and methods (experimental procedures) section must clearly indicate that appropriate measures were taken to minimise pain or discomfort, and details of animal care should be provided.
- If a manuscript has been submitted from a country where there is no ethics committee, institutional review board, or similar review and approval, editors shall use their own experience to judge whether the manuscripts should be published.
CJIC will not publish individual information and identifiable images from patients/human subjects. We will also require explicit consent from any patients described in case studies or shown in photographs.
All experiments must have been conducted according to the principles expressed in the Declaration of Helsinki. Authors must follow the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors' policy.
Ethical statement
- Ethical statement is required for reports on humans or animals and the ethical considerations section must include:
- Name of the ethical review committee, if reviewed.
- Study approval number, if reviewed.
- Description of measures taken to maintain the confidentiality of data.
- For reports on human patients, a statement of the patients’ consent to publish clinical details and photographs is required.
- If the study was not human or animal research or the study was determined to be non-human subjects research or exempt, the authors must provide a statement with those details.
Ethical clearance document
- Evidence of ethical clearance for the study, such as the study approval letter or certificate from the IRB, a waiver from the IRB, etc., must be uploaded as a supplementary file.
- For research on human patients, a signed consent form from the patient(s) or their parent(s) or guardian(s) (for children) or their next of kin (for deceased patients) to publish clinical details and photographs is required and must be uploaded as a supplementary file at the time of submission.
3. Plagiarism and fabrication
Plagiarism is when an author attempts to pass off someone else’s work as his or her own. Duplicate publication, sometimes called self-plagiarism, occurs when an author reuses substantial parts of his or her own published work without providing the appropriate references. This can range from having an identical manuscript published in multiple journals/books, to ‘salami-slicing’, where authors add small amounts of new data to a previous manuscript.
Plagiarism can be said to have clearly occurred when large chunks of text have been cut and pasted. Such manuscripts would not be considered for publication in CJIC.
CJIC editorial manager is embedded with a software that compares all submitted manuscripts against all contents on the internet and generate an identity score in percentage.
If a case of plagiarism comes to light after a manuscript is published in CJIC, an investigation will be opened. If plagiarism is found, CJIC will contact the author’s institute and funding agencies. A determination of misconduct will lead CJIC to publish a corrigendum linked to the original publication, with an explanation. Depending on the extent of the plagiarism, the manuscript may also be formally retracted.
4. Correction, clarifications, retractions and apologies
In the event that CJIC is made aware of any allegation of research misconduct such allegations will be dealt with appropriately. CJIC shall publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed.
i. Correcting the record
CJIC is committed to preserving the historical accuracy of all its publications. In principle, no published work should be altered or removed from the print or electronic CJIC platforms after it has been published.
CJIC considers the online version of an article/manuscript/work published as the final and complete version. Even though it may be possible to correct this version, the policy is not to do so, except in very specific circumstances. The Editor-in Chief will make the final decision whether to correct a published work.
Authors of published works must inform CJIC promptly if they become aware of work needing correcting. Any correction requires the consent of all co-authors, so time is saved if requests for corrections are accompanied by a signed agreement by all authors. In cases where one or some authors do not agree with the correction statement, the coordinating author must provide the correspondence to and from the dissenting author(s).
ii. Errata
An erratum is a correction of an important error (one that affects the publication record, the scientific integrity of the work, or the reputation of the authors or of the work) that has been introduced during the production of the work, including errors of omission such as failure to make factual proof corrections requested by authors within the deadline provided by CJIC. Errata for typing or grammatical errors will not be published, except where an apparently simple error is significant (for example, an incorrect unit). A significant error in a figure or table is corrected by publication of a new corrected figure or table as an erratum only if the editor considers this necessary for a reader to understand it.
iii. Corrigenda
A corrigendum is a correction of an important error made by the authors of the work. Corrigenda are judged on their relevance to readers and their importance for the published record. Corrigenda are published after discussion among the editors, often with the help of peer reviewers. All co-authors must sign an agreed wording for the corrigendum. Corrigenda submitted by the original authors are published if the scientific accuracy or reproducibility of the original work is compromised; occasionally, on investigation by the editors, these may be published as retractions. In cases where some co-authors decline to sign a corrigendum or retraction, CJIC reserves the right to publish it with the dissenting author(s) identified.
iv. Addenda
An addendum is a notification of a peer-reviewed addition of information to work (for example, in response to a reader’s request for clarification). Addenda should not contradict the original publication, but if the author inadvertently omitted significant information available at the time, this material can be published as an addendum after peer review and after discussion among the editors. Addenda are published rarely and only when the editors decide that the addendum is crucial to the readers’ understanding of a significant part of the published contribution.
v. Retractions
A retraction may be made with respect to invalid results, when the conclusions of a work are seriously undermined as a result of honest miscalculation or error.
A retraction may also be made as a sanction applied to scientific misconduct, such as a serious infringement of publishing ethics or a breach of author warranties, which can include breaches of third-party copyright. Infringements of publication ethics may include multiple submissions, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, and fraudulent use of data.
All co-authors will be asked to agree to a retraction. In cases where some co-authors decline to sign a retraction, CJIC in consultation with the publisher reserves the right to publish the retraction with reference to the dissension among authors.
Retracted work will be clearly indicated and bear a ‘retracted’ watermark throughout. However, in rare circumstances it may be necessary to remove work completely from the online location. This will occur only where the published work infringes on others’ legal rights, or is clearly defamatory, or where the work is (or clearly may be) the subject of a court order, or where the work’s information might pose a serious health risk. In these circumstances, while some of the metadata will be retained online, the text will be replaced with a notice that the content has been removed for valid reasons.
vi. Expression of concern
If conclusive evidence about the reliability or integrity of a published work cannot be obtained, e.g. if authors produce conflicting accounts of the case, or authors’ institutions refuse to investigate alleged misconduct or to release the findings of such investigations, or if investigations appear not to have been carried out fairly or are taking an unreasonably long time to reach a conclusion, then the editor may issue an expression of concern rather than retracting the publication immediately.
Such expressions of concern, like retraction notices, shall be clearly linked to the original publication, i.e. in electronic databases and by including the author and title of the original publication as a heading, and shall state the reasons for the concern. If more conclusive evidence about the publication’s reliability becomes available later, the expression of concern shall be replaced by a notice of retraction (if the article is shown to be unreliable) or by an exonerating statement linked to the expression of concern (if the article is shown to be reliable and the author is exonerated).
5. Publishing corrections
Corrections will be done in the following manner:
- The title will include the words ‘Erratum’, ‘Corrigendum’, Addendum’, ‘Retraction’, or ‘Expression of concern’, as applicable.
- It will be published as a separate document, with a unique DOI, and be included in the work’s table of contents.
- It will cite the original publication.
- It will enable the reader to identify and understand the correction in the context of the errors made, or explain why the work is being corrected, or explain the editor’s concerns about the contents of the work.
- It will be linked electronically with the original electronic publication, wherever possible.
- It will be in a form that enables indexing and abstracting services to identify and link corrections to their original publications.
What to do if you have found an error in your article
Authors of the published article must inform CJIC promptly if they become aware of an error needing correcting. If the correction is approved, we will publish its notice and link it to the original article online.
Examples of corrections we would consider including:
- a spelling error or factual error in the title
- incorrect author list or misspelt name(s)
- incorrect, omitted or additional affiliation (only, if this was incorrect at the time of submission)
- error in ORCID
- error in the Copyright line
- error in correspondence details
- error in the article category heading
- missing or incorrect citation of the article
- correction for missing or misleading text, in an otherwise reliable publication, if the meaning is changed or an error was introduced
- error in statistical data that does not alter conclusions
- error in medical terms, such as the wrong slide of microscopy provided
- amendment to tables, figures, and appendices, if the meaning is changed or an error introduced
- figure source, attribution or permission information missing
- poor figure quality
- missing or incorrect conflict of interest or disclosure statement
- omitted or incorrect funding information (e.g. funding number or organization name)
- error in online-only supplemental data
- incorrect reference, or misspelt author name in the reference list (not additional or updated references or citations)
- mislabeled figures or tables.
Although we consider all submitted corrections, we do not publish corrections that would not affect the article in a material way or significantly impair the reader’s understanding of the article.
6. Copyright, licensing and publication rights
Author(s) of work published by CJIC are required to grant CJIC the unlimited rights to publish the definitive work in any format, language and medium, for any lawful purpose.
The authors retain the non-exclusive right to do anything they wish with the published article(s), provided attribution is given to the journal with details of the original publication. The authors specifically have the right to post the article on the authors’ or their institution’s websites or in institutional or other repositories.
7. Disclaimer
CJIC and the publisher accept no liability for any real or perceived loss, cost, claim or damage sustained from reliance upon any information, statement, or opinion contained in any published work. Any information or content should be independently verified before reliance upon it. Links to third-party websites are provided in good faith and the publisher and CJIC disclaim any responsibility for the information and materials contained in any such third-party websites.