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Journal Ethics

Indian Journal of Health Sciences and Biomedical Research KLEU is committed to meeting and upholding standards of ethical behaviour at all stages of the publication process. We follow closely the industry associations, such as the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), that set standards and provide guidelines for best practices in order to meet these requirements.

Authorship Diversity:

The journal believes in Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion and encourages submission from diverse geographical location to prevent bias toward any individual, group, or region.

Editorial Board Recusal:

The editors or co-editors can publish papers but if they have any financial or non-financial competing interests that may influence the decisions on an article, then they should recuse themselves from the decision-making process and delegate the responsibility to another member of the editorial team with appropriate expertise.

Information For Authors

The Editorial Process
  • A manuscript will be reviewed for possible publication with the understanding that it is being submitted to Indian Journal of Health Sciences and Biomedical Research KLEU alone at that point in time and has not been published anywhere, simultaneously submitted, or already accepted for publication elsewhere.
  • The journal expects that authors would authorize one of them to correspond with the Journal for all matters related to the manuscript.
  • All manuscripts received are duly acknowledged.
  • On submission, editors review all submitted manuscripts initially for suitability for formal review.
  • Manuscripts with insufficient originality, serious scientific or technical flaws, or lack of a significant message are rejected before proceeding for formal peer-review.
  • Manuscripts that are unlikely to be of interest to the Indian Journal of Health Sciences and Biomedical Research KLEU readers are also liable to be rejected at this stage itself.
Peer Review:
  • Manuscripts that are found suitable for publication in Indian Journal of Health Sciences and Biomedical Research KLEU are sent to two expert reviewers. During submission, the contributor is requested to provide names of two or three qualified reviewers who have had experience in the subject of the submitted manuscript, but this is not mandatory. The reviewers should not be affiliated with the same institutes as the contributor/s. However, the selection of these reviewers is at the sole discretion of the editor.
  • The journal follows a double-blind review process, wherein the reviewers and authors are unaware of each other's identity.
  • Every manuscript is also assigned to a member of the editorial team, who based on the comments from the reviewers takes a final decision on the manuscript.
  • The comments and suggestions (acceptance/ rejection/ amendments in manuscript) received from reviewers are conveyed to the corresponding author.
  • If required, the author is requested to provide a point by point response to reviewers' comments and submit a revised version of the manuscript. This process is repeated till reviewers and editors are satisfied with the manuscript.
Time for review:

Adequate time is given for the peer review with the turnaround time is about 12 weeks following which technical editing and publication takes place.

Steps for Manuscript Processing after Submission to the Journal:
  • Submission – You submit your manuscript to the journal.
  • Technical Check – An assessment is made that all of the necessary materials have been submitted in the correct formats including Plagiarism check by an authenticated software.
  • Editor Assignment – An Editor is assigned to triage and possibly invite reviewers.
  • nitial Review – The Editor evaluates your manuscript for overall appropriateness and/or novelty.
  • Peer-review – Reviewers (typically two) are assigned to formally evaluate your manuscript.
  • Adjudication – A decision is made on your manuscript: Revise, Reject, or Accept.
Copy Editing/Procedure after Acceptance:
  • Manuscripts accepted for publication are copy edited for grammar, punctuation, print style, and format.
  • Page proofs are sent to the corresponding author.
  • The corresponding author is expected to return the corrected proofs within three days. It may not be possible to incorporate corrections received after that period.
  • The whole process of submission of the manuscript to final decision and sending and receiving proofs is completed online.
  • To achieve faster and greater dissemination of knowledge and information, the journal publishes articles online as 'Ahead of Print' immediately on acceptance.
Clinical trial registry
  • Indian Journal of Health Sciences and Biomedical Research KLEU favors registration of clinical trials and is a signatory to the Statement on publishing clinical trials in Indian biomedical journals. Indian Journal of Health Sciences and Biomedical Research KLEU would publish clinical trials that have been registered with a clinical trial registry that allows free online access to public. Registration in the following trial registers is acceptable: https://ctri.nic.in/Clinicaltrials/login.php; http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/; http://isrctn.org/; and http://www.umin.ac.jp/ctr. This is applicable to clinical trials that have begun enrolment of subjects in or after June 2008.
  • Clinical trials that have commenced enrolment of subjects prior to June 2008 would be considered for publication in Indian Journal of Health Sciences and Biomedical Research KLEU only if they have been registered retrospectively with clinical trial registry that allows unhindered online access to public without charging any fees.
Authorship Criteria

Authorship credit should be based only on substantial contributions to each of the three components mentioned below:

  1. Concept and design of study or acquisition of data or analysis and interpretation of data;
  2. Drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and
  3. Final approval of the version to be published.
    • Participation solely in the acquisition of funding or the collection of data does not justify authorship. General supervision of the research group is not sufficient for authorship. Each contributor should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content of the manuscript.
    • The order of naming the contributors should be based on the relative contribution of the contributor towards the study and writing the manuscript.
    • Once submitted the order cannot be changed without written consent of all the contributors.
    • The journal prescribes a maximum number of authors for manuscripts depending upon the type of manuscript, its scope and number of institutions involved (vide infra). The authors should provide a justification, if the number of authors exceeds these limits.
Contribution Details

Contributors should provide a description of contributions made by each of them towards the manuscript.

  • Description should be divided in following categories, as applicable: concept, design, definition of intellectual content, literature search, clinical studies, experimental studies, data acquisition, data analysis, statistical analysis, manuscript preparation, manuscript editing and manuscript review.
  • One or more author should take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole from inception to published article and should be designated as 'guarantor'.
Conflicts of Interest/ Competing Interests
  • All authors of must disclose any and all conflicts of interest they may have with publication of the manuscript or an institution or product that is mentioned in the manuscript and/or is important to the outcome of the study presented.
  • Authors should also disclose conflict of interest with products that compete with those mentioned in their manuscript.

Duties of Editors

  1. Publication Decisions: Editors are responsible for deciding whether to accept, reject, or request modifications to submitted manuscripts based on the review report of the editorial board.
  2. Review of Manuscripts: The Editorial Staff, including the Editor-in-Chief and Associate Editors, ensures an initial evaluation of each manuscript for originality using appropriate plagiarism-detection software. During this stage, the manuscript undergoes a quality screening to determine whether it meets the journal’s standards for further consideration. Manuscripts that pass this screening are forwarded for single-blind peer review by three reviewers. Each reviewer provides recommendations to accept, reject, or request revisions to the manuscript. The review process is typically completed within 12 weeks.
  3. Fair Play: Manuscripts are evaluated solely on their intellectual content, without discrimination based on the authors’ sex, gender, race, religion, citizenship, or other personal characteristics.
  4. Confidentiality: Editors ensure that all information regarding submitted manuscripts remains confidential and is not disclosed to anyone outside the editorial process.
  5. Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: Editors must not use unpublished materials disclosed in submitted manuscripts for their own research without the explicit written consent of the authors.

Duties of Authors

Responsibilities of Authors

  1. Reporting Standards

    2. Authors are expected to present an accurate account of their original research, accompanied by an objective discussion of its significance. Manuscripts must adhere to the journal's submission guidelines (see Policies).

  2. Originality

    3. Authors must ensure that their work is entirely original.

  3. Multiple, Redundant, or Concurrent Publications

    4. Authors must not submit the same manuscript to more than one journal simultaneously. Furthermore, redundant or duplicate publication of the same research across multiple journals is strictly prohibited.

  4. Publication Guidelines

    5. Manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with the journal's submission guidelines (see Submission Guidelines).

  5. Submitting Revised Manuscripts

    6. Revised manuscripts should be submitted through the online system within 60 days of receiving reviewer comments. Submissions beyond this period will be treated as new submissions, assigned a new manuscript number, and subjected to a new review process.

  6. Acknowledgement of Sources

    7. Authors are required to acknowledge all data sources and reference any publications that have significantly influenced their research.

  7. Authorship of the Paper

    8. Authorship should be restricted to individuals who have significantly contributed to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the study. Co-authors must be included for significant contributions, and all listed authors must approve the final submitted version of the manuscript.

  8. Data Access and Retention

    9. Authors may be asked to provide raw data related to their manuscript for editorial review and must ensure the data is retained for potential future reference.

  9. Disclosure of Financial Support

    10. Authors must clearly disclose any financial support received for the research presented in their manuscript.

  10. Fundamental Errors in Published Works

    11. If an author identifies a significant error or inaccuracy in their published work, they are obligated to promptly notify the editor and cooperate in correcting or retracting the paper as necessary.

  11. Declaration of AI Usage:

    12. Authors must disclose any use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools or software during the preparation of their manuscript, including for writing assistance, data analysis, or image creation. Such disclosure should include the name of the tool(s) used and the purpose for which they were employed. The authors bear full responsibility for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of the manuscript, including any content generated or assisted by AI tools. Failure to disclose the use of AI tools may lead to the rejection of the manuscript or retraction of the published article.

Duties of Reviewers

  1. Confidentiality

    2. Manuscript reviewers must treat all information regarding submitted manuscripts as confidential and handle it as privileged information.

  2. Acknowledgement of Sources

    3. Reviewers are responsible for ensuring that authors have properly acknowledged all sources of data used in the research. Any noticeable overlap or similarity between the manuscript under review and other published works known to the reviewer must be immediately reported to the editor.

  3. Standards of Objectivity

    4. Reviews must be conducted objectively, and reviewers should clearly express their opinions with well-supported arguments.

  4. Promptness

    5. If a reviewer is unable to complete the review within the stipulated time, they must promptly inform the editor so the manuscript can be reassigned to another reviewer.

  5. Use of AI in the Journal Peer Review Process

    6. The manuscript must not be uploaded into any generative AI tools or software for analysis, editing, or any other purpose. This confidentiality extends to all correspondence related to the manuscript between the reviewer and the editor. Reviewers must maintain the privacy and integrity of the manuscript at all times, in accordance with the ethical guidelines of the journal.