Innovative Journal of Medical Imaging

Overview

The Innovative Journal of Medical Imaging is committed to maintaining high standards of research ethics and responsible publishing. The journal follows internationally accepted ethical guidelines set by organisations such as COPE, ICMJE, and WAME. All editorial and peer-review decisions are made with fairness, transparency, and respect for scientific integrity. The journal regularly reviews and updates its editorial and ethical policies to align with current global best practices. These policies guide the entire publication process, from manuscript submission and peer review to final publication, post-publication updates, and long-term archiving to ensure ethical compliance at every stage.

Ethical Consideration

For Human Research Ethics: Research involving human participants must be conducted in accordance with internationally accepted ethical norms and must comply with the Declaration of Helsinki and local regulatory guidelines. Authors are required to:

• Provide an official Institutional Review Board (IRB) or Institutional Ethics Committee approval letter and the corresponding approval number.
• Confirm that informed consent, written, verbal, or waived, was appropriately obtained and documented.
• Register all prospective clinical trials in a recognised clinical trial registry before participant enrollment.
• Ensure privacy, confidentiality, and data protection in accordance with national and institutional regulations.
• For retrospective or secondary data analyses, authors must include a clear statement indicating that ethical approval was obtained or formally waived by the ethics committee.

Animal Research Ethics: Manuscripts involving animal studies must include evidence of approval from an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) or equivalent regulatory authority. Animal research should align with internationally recognised guidelines such as the ARRIVE and Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. Authors must describe procedures to minimise pain, distress, and the number of animals used.

Plagiarism Screening

All submissions to the Innovative Journal of Medical Imaging are checked for similarity using iThenticate to ensure originality. The journal allows a maximum of 10% similarity. If the similarity is higher than this, the manuscript may be reviewed more carefully or rejected. Authors must properly cite and give credit for all borrowed, quoted, or closely used content. Any suspected plagiarism is taken seriously and will be investigated following COPE ethical guidelines.

Role and Responsibility

1. Chief Editor Responsibilities: The Chief Editor provides overall academic leadership and is responsible for maintaining the journal's vision, quality, and ethical standards. This role includes overseeing editorial policies, ensuring compliance with international publishing ethics, making final decisions on manuscripts when required, resolving ethical disputes or conflicts, and safeguarding the independence of the editorial process from commercial, institutional, or personal influences.
2. Editors Responsibilities: Editors are responsible for maintaining the scientific quality and fairness of the journal. They evaluate manuscripts based only on academic merit, scientific quality, and relevance. Editors ensure a bias-free review process, maintain confidentiality of manuscripts and reviewers, declare any conflicts of interest, and select qualified, independent reviewers. Editorial decisions are made independently and are not influenced by commercial or funding interests.
3. Author Responsibilities: Authors are responsible for submitting original, accurate, and ethically conducted research. They must avoid plagiarism and duplicate publication, meet authorship criteria, clearly state each author's contribution, and disclose funding sources and conflicts of interest. Authors should report data and methods honestly and inform the journal promptly if errors are identified after publication.
4. Reviewer Responsibilities: Reviewers support the journal by providing expert, fair, and constructive evaluations. They should accept reviews only within their area of expertise, maintain confidentiality, avoid using manuscript content for personal benefit, and report any ethical concerns, such as plagiarism or data issues. Reviewers must also disclose any conflicts of interest that could affect their judgment.

Editorial Board Member Submissions Policy

To ensure transparency, fairness, and the integrity of the peer-review process, the Innovative Medical Journal has a clear policy for handling manuscripts submitted by members of the editorial board, including editors and the Editor-in-Chief. When an editorial board member submits a manuscript, they are completely excluded from the editorial and peer-review process of their own submission. The manuscript is assigned to an independent handling editor who has no conflict of interest with the authors. In cases where the Editor-in-Chief is an author, the manuscript is managed by a senior independent editor or external editorial advisor.

All such submissions undergo the same double-blind peer review process, with at least two independent reviewers selected based solely on expertise and without any influence from the submitting author. Reviewers are not informed of the author’s editorial role, and the identity of reviewers remains confidential. Editorial decisions for these manuscripts are made independently and objectively, based strictly on scientific merit, methodological quality, ethical compliance, and relevance to the journal’s scope. Additional oversight may be applied where necessary to maintain transparency and trust in the editorial process. The journal ensures that no preferential treatment is given to editorial board members, and all submissions are evaluated under the same rigorous standards as those from external authors.

Peer Review and Manuscript Assessment

1. Double-Blind Peer Review: Innovative Journal of Medical Imaging follows a double-blind peer review process in which the identities of both authors and reviewers are kept confidential to reduce bias and ensure fair evaluation. Each manuscript is reviewed by at least two independent experts. Submissions are assessed for originality, scientific quality, methodological strength, ethical compliance, and clarity of presentation. The usual review period is approximately 2-3 weeks, depending on the complexity of the manuscript, with editorial supervision to maintain consistency and journal standards.
2. Revision Workflow: After the initial review, manuscripts may be returned to authors for revision. Revisions are generally classified as minor (to be completed within 5 days) or major (to be completed within 10 days). To ensure timely publication, a maximum of two revision rounds is permitted. Revised manuscripts are carefully reassessed by the editors and, when required, sent back to reviewers. Authors may request an extension if there are valid reasons for delay.
3. Editorial Decision-Making: The final editorial decision, acceptance, minor revision, major revision, or rejection, is made based on several key factors, including the novelty and relevance of the research, the quality and reliability of the methodology, the clarity and strength of the results, adherence to ethical standards, reviewer recommendations, and alignment with Innovative academic scope and publication policies.

Policies and Procedures for Ethical Misconduct

1. Research Misconduct Handling: The Innovative Journal of Medical Imaging follows a strict zero-tolerance approach toward research misconduct. Any allegations related to plagiarism, data fabrication or falsification, image manipulation, duplicate or redundant publication, inappropriate authorship practices, or undisclosed conflicts of interest are taken seriously. All such cases are carefully examined in line with COPE guidelines. Depending on the severity, actions may include rejection of the manuscript, retraction of a published article, temporary restriction on future submissions (typically 1-2 years), or formal communication with the authors' affiliated institutions.
2. Conflict of Interest (COI) Policy: Transparency regarding conflicts of interest is mandatory for all authors, reviewers, and editors. Any financial, professional, or personal relationships that could influence the work must be disclosed. This includes significant financial interests, employment or consultancy roles, patent ownership, academic competition, or close personal relationships. For industry- or commercially funded studies, authors must clearly state the role of the funding body in the study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, and manuscript preparation to ensure transparency and maintain scientific integrity.

Post Publication

To maintain accuracy and transparency in the scientific record, the Innovative Journal of Medical Imaging follows clear post-publication update practices. Minor errors that do not affect the main conclusions of an article are addressed through corrections. When there are serious concerns under investigation, the journal may issue an expression of concern to inform readers. Articles are retracted if major errors or confirmed ethical violations are identified. All corrections, expressions of concern, and retraction notices are permanently linked to the original article and remain freely accessible to readers, ensuring transparency and protecting the integrity of the scholarly record.

Last Updated on: 04/04/2026