Sudan Journal of Medical Sciences

Ethics and Policies

At SJMS, we aim to ensure everything we publish is ethically sound and complies with the policies and principles set out by:

• Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)
• Council of Science Editors (CSE)
• European Association of Science Editors (EASE) 
• International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE)
• World Association of Medical Editors (WAME)

Authorship and Correspondence

An author is someone who has made significant contributions to the study’s conception or design; acquisition and interpretation of data; drafting of the paper or revision of important intellectual content; and the final approval of the work.

• The journal follows COPE’s Guidelines on Authorship and AI Tools and does not consider an AI tool as an author of a paper. Authors who use an AI tool for the writing of their manuscript, production of images or graphical elements of the paper, or in the collection and analysis of data must disclose clearly in the Materials and Methods (or similar) section of the paper how and which AI tool was used. Authors are fully responsible for the content of their manuscript, including the parts produced by an AI tool, and are thus liable for any breach of publication ethics.
• Authorship changes: SJMS follows COPE’s Guidelines for Changes in Authorship – Before Publication – this includes additions, deletions and changes in the order authors are presented in the paper. Requests must come from the corresponding author with an explanation for the change. Any change in authorship requires consent from all authors.
• In submitting their work for consideration, authors offer a personal guarantee that the work does not infringe on any existing copyright.
• All authors assume full responsibility for all parts of the research and commit to investigating and resolving any questions regarding the integrity, objectivity and validity of the manuscript and its findings. We encourage all authors and those involved in the editorial process of the manuscript to familiarise themselves with COPE’s Guidelines on Authorship Disputes.
• The corresponding author agrees to handle all submissions and resubmissions before the acceptance of the manuscript, answering any queries post-publication regarding any aspect of the manuscript and its findings and signing official documents on behalf of all authors – with their permission.

Affiliations

For scientific articles, affiliations should include the institution(s) where the reported research was conducted and/or approved. For non-scientific articles, affiliations should include the institution(s) with which each author is currently affiliated.

Duplicate Publications and Self-Plagiarism

Any manuscript submitted must be an original piece of work which has not been published anywhere else in a current or similar form.

• If a substantial portion of the manuscript has been published elsewhere, then that journal editor needs to provide permission for its re-use, and this must be acknowledged in the new work and declared to the journal editor on submission.
• Any manuscript submitted must not be currently under consideration with any other journal or publisher. This does not include any deposits of a preprint on the author’s website or a preprint archive.
• For manuscripts based on a thesis, the content of the thesis must be rephrased in line with the journal’s style guide. If the thesis has been published, the author must inform the journal editor about this and acquire permission from the publisher.
• Authors must avoid self-plagiarism by acknowledging and citing any previous work from which they use information.

Preprint Policy

SJMS supports the sharing of research via preprint servers, and our authors are permitted to share a Preprint of their article.

Authors must not transfer or assign copyright when sharing the preprint version of their manuscript, or make it available under an exclusive licence (i.e. the preprint must be open access).

SJMS accepts articles previously available as preprints, provided the authors retain copyright in their work during the preprint process. However, this must have taken place prior to submission to the journal, and the author must notify the journal of the existence of the preprint at the time of submission.

The manuscript cannot be submitted to the preprint server while undergoing peer review by the journal.

The revised manuscript, following peer review, cannot be submitted to the preprint server after peer review until the decision to accept or reject the article has been made.

If the manuscript is not accepted, the author can submit to preprint servers. However, if the article is accepted for publication, the author cannot submit this version to the preprint servers (but to ensure precedence and protection of intellectual property, the author can still submit a pre-peer review version of the article to a preprint server at this point). 

If accepted for publication by the journal, the preprint version should be linked to the final published article.

The author guarantees to liaise with the preprint server to ensure the published version of the record link is added to the preprint server website. Including the following:

• citation details for the version of the record (published in SJMS)
• a link to the version of the record (using the DOI for the version published in SJMS)
• wording such as:

“This is the version of the article before peer review or editing, as submitted by an author to [NAME OF JOURNAL].  Knowledge E Publishing is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from it.  The version of the record is available online at [FULL DOI] [MENTION IF TITLE HAS CHANGED AND INCLUDE NEW TITLE HERE]“

Plagiarism

SJMS does not tolerate any type of plagiarism, including but not limited to published and non-published material, images, text and downloads from websites.

• All manuscripts submitted to the journal are screened for plagiarism using the Crossref Similarity Check powered by iThenticate. 
• We strongly suggest that authors do not modify or manipulate any images used in the manuscript, especially when modifications may lead to falsification or manipulation of results.
• Fraudulent results may result in a retraction following a thorough investigation of the claims of misconduct.
• Manuscripts containing any form of plagiarism will be rejected. Policies outlined in the Retraction section will be imposed if plagiarism is detected following publication.

Data Transparency and Sharing

We encourage authors to accurately record all data and supporting materials mentioned in the manuscript to facilitate clear understanding, verification, and replication in the research. The journal also encourages authors to deposit the data and other supporting materials related to their paper in a suitable public repository for transparency and accessibility.

Peer Review

All articles submitted to the journal undergo an initial assessment by the journal’s Editor-in-Chief or a member of the editorial board.

• If considered suitable for peer review, articles are then reviewed by two reviewers who are experts in the subject area and are not part of the journal’s editorial team. These reviewers are selected through effective systems to ensure they vigorously and fairly review all submissions.
• Reviewers are required to familiarise themselves and perform the review in line with COPE’s Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers.
• SJMS operates a double-blind peer review model, in which neither the author nor the reviewer knows the identity of the other.
• Reviewers are expected to communicate any signs of research misconduct or manipulation and support the journal in investigating any misconduct claims. Based on reviewers’ reports, the journal decides whether to reject the submission, return with minor or major suggestions for improvements, submit to a different journal or accept.
• Authors are notified of the final decision through the journal’s submission system within four to eight weeks.

Conflicts of Interests

All conflicts of interest – financial, non-financial, professional or personal – that may affect the objectivity of the research must be declared upon submission. Editors and reviewers are likewise responsible for disclosing any conflicts of interest.

Human and Animal Research

For human or animal studies, approval must be obtained from an institutional or local review board. This information, the name of the review board, and approval numbers/codes should be stated in the manuscript.

• Research involving humans must adhere to the Declaration of Helsinki Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects. All research participants should be informed about the study’s aims and any possible negative effects of the intervention. Written informed consent must also be obtained from all participants.
• Research involving animals must adhere to the National Institutes of Health Guidance For the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals.
• Approval for research involving humans or animals must be obtained from an institutional or local review board. This information, the name of the review board, and approval numbers/codes should be stated in the manuscript.
• Ethical considerations must be addressed in the Methods section, and the journal reserves the right to request the related documents.

Clinical Trials

According to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), a clinical trial is “any research study that prospectively assigns human participants or groups of humans to one or more health-related interventions to evaluate the effects on health outcomes”.

• Authors of clinical trials are required to prospectively register their trial with one of the trial registries recognised by the ICMJE or World Health Organization.
• The registration number of the trial and the name of the trial registry must be mentioned in the manuscript.

Corrections, Expressions of Concern and Retractions

To address issues involving serious ethics or integrity concerns, the journal follows ICMJE and COPE guidelines. In line with that, SJMS publishes three types of post-publication notices: Corrections, Expressions of Concern and Retractions.

Corrections

Corrections are issued if the errors are minor and do not alter the results or conclusion of the reported research. If an author is found to have made an error, the journal will issue a corrigendum, and if the journal’s editorial team is found to have made an error, they will issue an erratum.

Corrigenda and Errata are assigned DOIs and linked to the original articles.

Expressions of Concern (EoC)

Expressions of Concern (EoC) are issued by the journal’s Editor-in-Chief if they have substantial doubt about the honesty and integrity of a published article. An EoC is published as a PDF and linked to the original article, similar to an Erratum or Corrigendum. After an EOC is published, the article may be corrected or retracted.

Retractions

SJMS follows COPE’s Retraction Guidelines. As such, a retraction may be considered in cases of:

• A significant unintentional error (miscalculation or experimental error) invalidates the findings or conclusions of the authors.
• Fabricated or falsified data, or other misconduct
• Figure or image manipulation
• Plagiarism
• Copyright infringement
• Redundant publication: Publication of the findings elsewhere without proper attribution or permission
• Use of unethical research practices in conducting the study
• Identification of a primary competing interest which was not disclosed and is thought to have potentially influenced the results or their interpretation

In extreme circumstances, the journal may remove an article from its website. Such events include legal obligations like a court order, privacy infringements, endangerment of an individual or the general public, and defamation.

Grievance Procedure

SJMS draws from the guidelines presented by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) to Manage Complaints and Disputes. Should a complaint and/or dispute arise, they may be directed to publishing@knowledgee.com.

Integrity of Record

SJMS maintains a record of all its metadata, including article titles, author information, volume, issues and page numbers, etc. The journal ensures that the metadata is accessible to all within a jurisdiction without violating the law of the land and modifying the research content to suit geographical, linguistic or cultural diversity. In the event of a retraction or correction, when the journal needs to alter the publication record in any way, SJMS preserves the indexing and accessing information as much as possible.

The journal applies the same principles to marketing and does not modify or manipulate the representation of the academic record of the article in its marketing activities.

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used for the stated purposes of this journal.

Upon publishing, all authors will be automatically registered for content alerts from the publication. To stop receiving the alerts, authors can subsequently unsubscribe through the link provided in the email.

These email addresses will not be made available to any other party.