Policies

Authorship | Ethics & Integrity | Peer Review | Copyright & Access

Authorship and Publication Policies

Ninevah University Journal of Medical Sciences (NUJMS)

The Ninevah University Journal of Medical Sciences (NUJMS) is committed to the highest standards of research integrity, transparency, and ethical publishing. Our policies follow the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) to ensure fairness, accountability, and quality at every stage of the publication process.

1. Authorship Guidelines

Authorship Criteria and Contributions

Authorship in NUJMS is based on the ICMJE criteria, and all four conditions must be met:

Substantial Contribution – Conception or design of the work, or acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data.
Manuscript Drafting or Revision – Drafting the manuscript or critically revising it for important intellectual content.
Final Approval – Reviewing and approving the final version for publication.
Accountability – Taking responsibility for all aspects of the work, ensuring accuracy and integrity.

Individuals who do not meet all criteria but have contributed in other ways (e.g., technical assistance, funding acquisition, data collection) should be acknowledged in the Acknowledgments section.

Corresponding Author Role

The corresponding author serves as the main contact with NUJMS during submission, peer review, and publication. Responsibilities include:

Ensuring all authors meet the authorship criteria and approve the final manuscript.
Completing administrative requirements (authorship details, ethics approvals, disclosures).
Responding promptly to editorial queries and post-publication requests.

For multi-author groups, authorship must be agreed upon before work begins and confirmed before submission.

Changes in Authorship

Changes in author order, addition, or removal of authors after submission require written approval from all authors, explaining the reason for the change.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Authors must declare any use of AI-assisted tools (e.g., language models, image generators) in the cover letter and relevant manuscript sections. AI cannot be listed as an author. Authors remain fully responsible for verifying the accuracy, originality, and proper attribution of AI-generated content.

2. Ethical Policies & Integrity

Ethical Approval and Informed Consent

Research involving human participants requires:

Approval from an appropriate Institutional Review Board (IRB), documented in the Methods section.
Clear statements on how informed consent was obtained (written or verbal, with reasons if verbal).

Editors may request copies of ethics approval and consent forms.

Ethics in Publishing

NUJMS follows COPE guidelines. Authors must ensure originality, proper citation, and compliance with copyright laws. Plagiarism, duplicate submission, and data falsification are serious violations.

Reviewers must:

Evaluate manuscripts confidentially and objectively.
Provide constructive feedback.
Avoid conflicts of interest.

Editors must:

Base decisions solely on scholarly merit.
Maintain confidentiality.
Avoid using unpublished materials for personal research.

Conflict of Interest (COI)

Authors must disclose any actual or potential conflicts—financial or otherwise—that could influence their work. Disclosures should be made at submission in accordance with ICMJE COI guidelines.

Duplicate or Previous Publication

Manuscripts must not have been published elsewhere or be under review by another journal. Any related or overlapping material must be disclosed at submission.

Plagiarism Prevention

All submissions are checked using Turnitin. A similarity index of up to 20% is acceptable for overlapping content. Plagiarism, fabrication, and falsification are grounds for rejection.

3. Review & Post-Publication

Peer Review Process

Each manuscript is assigned to qualified reviewers. Conflicting reviews may result in a third review. Authors are informed whether a manuscript is accepted, accepted with revisions, or rejected (with reasons provided).

Proofs and Post-Publication Corrections

Before publication, galley proofs will be sent to the corresponding author for review. Corrections must be returned within the specified time. Post-publication changes are made only for strong, justified reasons approved by the Editorial Board.

4. Licensing, Access, and Funding

Copyright & License Statement

All NUJMS articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

CREATIVE COMMONS ATTRIBUTION:

This license permits others to distribute, copy, and reuse the manuscript; to create extracts, abstracts, translations, or other adaptations; to include it in collective works; and to perform text or data mining — including for commercial purposes — provided that:

Proper credit is given to the author(s).
The work is not presented as endorsing any adaptation.
The work is not modified in a way that could harm the author’s honor or reputation.

NUJMS retains copyright of all published articles under this license, enabling unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Further details: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

Open Access Policy

NUJMS is an open-access journal. All articles are freely available from the date of publication and may be downloaded, reused, modified, or distributed with proper citation, in accordance with the CC BY 4.0 license.

Role of Funding Source

Authors must clearly state all sources of funding and the role of funders in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, and manuscript preparation.