JMCHS is committed to the highest standards of publication ethics. The journal follows the Core Practices and flowcharts of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the ICMJE Recommendations, and the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing. All parties — authors, editors, reviewers and the publisher — are expected to follow this statement.

Duties of authors

•     Submit original work; report data honestly and in enough detail to be replicated; never fabricate, falsify or selectively report data.

•     Acknowledge and cite all sources properly; avoid plagiarism, text recycling and redundant publication.

•     Do not submit the same manuscript to more than one journal at a time, or divide one study into several minimal publications without disclosure.

•     Include as authors only those who meet authorship criteria, and acknowledge all other contributors, including field and community partners.

•     Disclose all funding and competing interests.

•     Obtain ethics approval and appropriate informed consent, and protect the privacy of participants and communities.

•     Register trials and follow reporting guidelines.

•     Provide raw data if requested by the editors.

•     Notify the journal promptly of errors in published work and cooperate with corrections or retractions.

•     Never use paper mills, purchased authorship, fake reviewer suggestions or citation manipulation.

Duties of reviewers

•     Provide objective, constructive and timely reviews within their expertise.

•     Keep manuscripts confidential; do not use unpublished information for personal advantage.

•     Declare competing interests and decline reviews where they exist.

•     Report suspected ethical problems or misconduct to the editor.

Duties of editors

•     Decide on manuscripts based only on scientific merit, validity, relevance to scope and ethical soundness.

•     Evaluate manuscripts without regard to authors’ gender, caste, religion, ethnicity, nationality, institution, seniority or political views.

•     Ensure a fair double-blind peer review process and maintain confidentiality.

•     Declare and manage competing interests, including their own submissions.

•     Investigate complaints and misconduct allegations under COPE guidance and publish corrections, expressions of concern or retractions where needed.

Duties of the publisher

•     Guarantee editorial independence.

•     Provide accurate and transparent information about fees, policies, ownership and indexing.

•     Ensure permanent access to content through digital preservation.

•     Support editors in handling ethical issues and cooperate with institutions when misconduct is investigated.

Concerns about publication ethics may be sent in confidence to editor@corvusmedpress.com.