Editorial Policy
Journal editors are assigned with specific articles pertaining to the area of their expertise. Upon their agreement on finding a merit in the submission matching to the journal broad objectives, they suggest the reviewers on the basis of reviewer’s data base available in the journal or a new reviewer may also be suggested. After the process of review and subsequent revisions, editor marks his opinion about the publish ability of the article. The final decision about publication is taken up by the chief editor. The journal adopts a double blind review policy where authors and reviewers are not disclosed their identity mutually.
The policies of the journal on plagiarism, open access and how its content may be reused
The policies of the journal on plagiarism, open access and how its content may be reused are in unison with open access scientific journals. Plagiarism including the text recycling is not acceptable to the journal and if such act is brought into the notice of editorial board at any stage of publication cycle, a subsequent action may be warranted. Journal usually undergoes a plagiarism check only when the article is found to have a publication value during initial phases of review. In this case, the journal invites its reviewers to bring it to the notice of editor if they presume some part of the article plagiarized.
Open Access Policy
The journal follows an open access model of publishing where the contents of the journal are freely and fully available and are citable with a proper citation to the original publication. Readers of AAM are not charged for getting an access to the published material of the journal.
Reuse Policy
The material published in the journal may be reused for academic purposes as permitted under the CC BY-NC-SA license, with due recognition and citation to the original work published at Annals of Ayurvedic Medicine. Any part or the article or the article as a whole can not to be re-published without obtaining the permission from the publisher. The authors of the orginal articles are also advised to refrain from text recycling as this may also amount to self-plagiarism.
Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Policy
AAM is a proud member of COPE and observes carefully the policies on publication ethics and malpractices. To ensure the best quality publications and to avoid duplicate publications, journal asks clearly from the submitting author if the article is submitted solely to AAM and is not considered for publication elsewhere. A distinct copyright form is asked from the authors to be submitted if their article is accepted for publication. This form includes the statement about the originality of the content and proper citation of all referred work. This also makes all the contributing authors responsible for any malpractice related with publication if comes or being brought into the notice of the editorial board. AAM has a distinct authorship criterion as recommended by ICMJE which reads as follows-
Authorship listed in the initial submission is not allowed to be changed unless is agreed by all authors listed initially and there is a substantial reason to look at the request.
Retracting the articles:
Journal also has a policy of retracting the published articles if some serious fallacy (beyond the level of publishing an erratum) is being brought into the notice of the editorial board after its publication. In such case the journal will add a note about reason of retraction and will link it with the original article.
Post Publication review:
To ensure a fair debate in the peer community contextual to the published articles, AAM has a policy of having post publication reviews also. Any comments after the publication of an article in AAM are welcome and can be published in next issues of the journal depending upon the merit of the comments. These comments are usually published as letter to editor.
Conflict of Interest
The conflict of interest statement is required from authors, reviewers and also from the editors handling a particular article. Editors and reviewers are advised to stay away from decision making of any article they are found to have a potential conflict of interest. Authors are advised to state clearly about any conflict of interest from the submitted article. Such conflicts may be financial, legal or institutional. Any financial support or sponsorship received to conduct the study is also required to be stated clearly which submitting a manuscript in the journal.
Authorship:
Every author enlisted in the author list is supposed to have contributed significantly in designing, executing or drafting the article. A clear statement of this kind is required to be submitted at the time of submission. AAM discourages any guest and gifted authorship award and follows the ICMJE authorship criteria to justify the authorship. The first author, the last author and the corresponding author should also need to have a specific reason for placing them at these positions. Any changes in these positions are not entertained afterward unless have a substantial reason to do so.
Policy on Conflict of Interest, Human and Animal Rights, and Informed Consent for publications
A conflict of interest declaration is required from authors, peer reviewers and also from the subject editors while handling a particular article. In case of arrival of any conflict while dealing with an article, reviewers and editors are advised to notify it immediately so that the remedial steps may be taken.
An ethical clearance from appropriate Ethics Committee pertaining to the human and animal use in research is mandatory for all experimental or human trial studies. The editorial board may ask for the digital copy of the clearance in case it is needed. All clinical trials involving human participation are recommended to be registered prospectively at Clinical Trial Registry-India (CTRI) if these are conducted in India or respective registries of the country where the research is primarily conducted.
Informed consent is essential for all clinical trials, case reports and case series. A clear statement of this intent should be given in all such articles.
To ensure the protection of rights of individual participants in the research, care should be exercised not to disclose any personal details of the involved in the research. Extra caution will be exercised while publishing the photographs revealing the identity of an individual.
The role of journal editors in reviewing and approving material that is published
Journal editors are assigned with specific articles pertaining to the area of their expertise. Upon their agreement on finding a merit in the submission matching to the journal broad objectives, they suggest the reviewers on the basis of reviewer’s data base available in the journal or a new reviewer may also be suggested. After the process of review and subsequent revisions, editor marks his opinion about the publish ability of the article. The final decision about publication is taken up by the chief editor. The journal adopts a double blind review policy where authors and reviewers are not disclosed their identity mutually.
The process for handling cases requiring corrections, retractions, and editorial expressions of concern
Corrections and corrigendum pertaining to any mistake noticed after the publication of an article are published in next issues as early as it is noticed. Corresponding changes may be made in the original files. A serious ethical, design, analysis or authorship concern about a published article may lead to its retraction. For some minor issue requiring a cautious reading of the article, an editorial expression of concern may also be issued.
For more information, on ethical issues viewers are requested to look at https://publicationethics.org/ which is the official website of COPE.
AAM adheres to the ethics policy as is recommended by COPE