Enactment May 22, 2012

Research and publication ethics

The journal adheres to the ethical guidelines for research and publication described in Guidelines on Good Publication (https://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Guidelines (https://www.icmje.org).

Authorship

Authorship credit should be based on (1) substantial contributions to the conception and design, acquisition of data, and/or analysis and interpretation of data; (2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; (3) final approval of the version to be published; and (4) agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work to ensure that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. Every author should meet all of these four conditions. After the initial submission of a manuscript, any changes whatsoever in authorship (adding author(s), deleting author(s), or re-arranging the order of authors) must be explained by a letter to the editor from the authors concerned. This letter must be signed by all authors of the paper. A copyright assignment must also be completed by every author.

• • Corresponding author and first author: The Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science (JYMS) does not allow multiple corresponding authors for one article. Only one author should correspond with the editorial office and readers for one article. JYMS accepts notice of equal contribution for the first author when the study is clearly performed by co-first authors.
  
• • Correction of authorship after publication: JYMS does not correct authorship after publication unless the editorial staff has erred. Authorship may be changed before publication but after submission when an authorship correction is requested by all of the authors involved with the manuscript.

Originality, plagiarism, and duplicate publication

Submitted manuscripts must not have been previously published or be under consideration for publication elsewhere. No part of the accepted manuscript should be duplicated in any other scientific journal without permission from the Editorial Board. Submitted manuscripts are screened for possible plagiarism or duplicate publication by Similarity Check using the 'Turnitin' program (iParadigms, LLC, Oakland, CA, USA). If plagiarism or duplicate publication is detected, the manuscript may be rejected, the authors will be announced in the journal, and their institutions will be informed. There will also be penalties for the authors.
A letter of permission is required for any and all materials that have been published previously. It is the responsibility of the author to request permission from the publisher for any material that is being reproduced. This requirement applies to the text, figures, and tables.

Secondary publication

Manuscripts can be republished if they satisfy the conditions of secondary publication in the ICMJE Recommendations (https://www.icmje.org/urm_main.html).

Conflicts of interest

The corresponding author must inform the editor of any potential conflicts of interest that could influence the authors’ interpretation of the data. Examples of potential conflicts of interest are financial support from or connections to companies, political pressure from interest groups, and academically related issues. In particular, all sources of funding applicable to the study should be explicitly stated.

Statement of human and animal rights

Clinical research should be done in accordance of the Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects, outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki of 1975 (revised 2013) (https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/). Clinical studies that do not meet the Declaration of Helsinki will not be considered for publication. Human subjects should not be identifiable, such that patients’ names, initials, hospital numbers, dates of birth, or other protected healthcare information should not be disclosed. For animal subjects, research should be performed based on the National or Institutional Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, and the ethical treatment of all experimental animals should be maintained.

Statement of informed consent and Institutional Review Board approval

Copies of written informed consent documents should be kept for studies on human subjects, which includes identifiable information or sensitive information. For clinical studies of human subjects, a certificate, agreement, or approval by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the author’s institution is required. If necessary, the editor or reviewers may request copies of these documents to resolve questions about IRB approval and study conduct.

Registration of the clinical trial research

Any research that deals with a clinical trial should be registered with the primary national clinical trial registry site such as the Korea Clinical Research Information Service (CRiS, http://cris.nih.go.kr), other primary national registry sites accredited by the World Health Organization (https://www.who.int/clinical-trials-registry-platform/network/primary-registries) or ClinicalTrials.gov (http://clinicaltrials.gov/), a service of the United States National Institutes of Health.

Process for managing research and publication misconduct

When the journal faces suspected cases of research and publication misconduct, such as redundant (duplicate) publication, plagiarism, fraudulent or fabricated data, changes in authorship, an undisclosed conflict of interest, ethical problems with a submitted manuscript, a reviewer who has appropriated an author’s idea or data, complaints against editors, and so on, the resolution process will follow the flowchart provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE, https://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts). The discussion and decision on the suspected cases are carried out by the Editorial Board.

Process for handling cases requiring corrections, retractions, and editorial expressions of concern

Cases that require editorial expressions of concern or retraction shall follow the COPE flowcharts (https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Flowcharts). If correction needs, it will follow the ICMJE Recommendation for Corrections, Retractions, Republications, and Version Control (https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/publishing-and-editorial-issues/corrections-and-version-control.html) as follows:
Honest errors are a part of science and publishing and require the publication of a correction when they are detected. Corrections are needed for errors of fact. The minimum standards are as follows: (1) it shall publish a correction notice as soon as possible detailing changes from and citing the original publication on both an electronic and numbered print page that is included in an electronic or a printed Table of Contents to ensure proper indexing; (2) it shall post a new article version with details of the changes from the original version and the date(s) on which the changes were made through CrossMark; (3) it shall archive all prior versions of the article. This archive can be directly accessible to readers; (4) previous electronic versions shall prominently note that there are more recent versions of the article via CrossMark.

Editorial responsibilities

The Editorial Board will continuously work to monitor and safeguard publication ethics: guidelines for retracting articles; maintenance of the integrity of the academic record; preclusion of business needs from compromising intellectual and ethical standards; publishing corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when needed; and excluding plagiarism and fraudulent data. The editors maintain the following responsibilities: responsibility and authority to reject and accept articles; avoiding any conflict of interest with respect to articles they reject or accept; promoting the publication of corrections or retractions when errors are found; and preservation of the anonymity of reviewers.