Editorial Ethics

Conflict of Interest Policy

MEDICC Review is guided by the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals  (URM), which stipulate that “all participants in the peer review and publication process must disclose all relationships that could be viewed as presenting a potential conflict of interest.”

In keeping with the URM, MEDICC Review requires all authors and reviewers to state explicitly whether potential conflicts do or do not exist. This statement is signed by each author of articles submitted as Original Research, Review, Lessons from the Field, Perspective or Viewpoint and by reviewers of such articles. Potential conflict of interest declared by authors will be published with articles appearing in the journal. In addition, in the interest of full disclosure, MEDICC Review publishes relevant institutional affiliations of authors of all articles accepted for publication.

MEDICC Review uses double blind peer review and excludes reviewers affiliated with institutions with which authors of a particular article are also affiliated. Reviewers must provide written disclosure of any conflicts of interest that could bias their evaluation of a manuscript, and must disqualify themselves from reviewing any manuscript if the potential for bias exists.

MEDICC Review abides by the URM requirement that “editors making final decisions about manuscripts must have no personal, professional or financial involvement in any of the issues they might judge.”

Ethics & Editorial Responsibility

The editors of MEDICC Review make all final decisions regarding publication of manuscripts. Opinions expressed in articles and letters to MEDICC Review are the views of their authors, and do not necessarily reflect those of the Editors, publishers or Editorial Board. Responsibility for originality of manuscripts, free of plagiarism or fraud, rests with the authors. MEDICC Review will retract any article found to contain plagiarized or fraudulent content.

Privacy and Confidentiality

The editors respect author and reviewer confidentiality regarding the scientific work of the former and opinions expressed by the latter. As stated in the URM: “Editors must not disclose information about manuscripts (including their receipt, content, status in the reviewing process, criticism by reviewers or ultimate fate) to anyone other than the authors and reviewers.”