Ethics and Policies

SJMS aims to ensure everything it publishes is ethically sound and complies with the policies and principles set out by:

 

1. Authorship and Correspondence

An author is someone who has made significant contributions to: the study’s conception or design; acquisition and interpretation of data; drafting of the paper or revision of important intellectual content; and the final approval of the work.

  • The journal follows COPE’s Guideline on Authorship and AI Toolsand does not consider an AI tool as an author of a paper. Authors who use an AI tool for the writing of their manuscript, production of images or graphical elements of the paper, or in the collection and analysis of data must disclose clearly in the Materials and Methods (or similar) section of the paper how and which AI tool was used. Authors are fully responsible for the content of their manuscript, including the parts produced by an AI tool, and are thus liable for any breach of publication ethics.
  • Authorship changes: SJMS follows COPE’s Guidelines for Changes in Authorship – Before Publication – this includes additions, deletions and changes in the order authors are presented in the paper. Requests must come from the corresponding author with an explanation for the change. Any change in authorship requires consent from all authors.
  • Authorship issues raised post publication may result in a correction.
  • In submitting their work for consideration, authors offer a personal guarantee that the work does not infringe on any existing copyright.
  • All authors assume full responsibility for all parts of the research and commit to investigating and resolving any questions regarding the integrity, objectivity and validity of the manuscript and its findings. We encourage all authors and those involved in the editorial process of the manuscript to familiarise themselves with COPE’s Guidelines on Authorship Disputes.
  • The corresponding author agrees to handle all submissions and resubmissions before the acceptance of the manuscript, answering any queries post-publication regarding any aspect of the manuscript and its findings and signing official documents on behalf of all authors – with their permission.

 

2. Affiliations

For scientific articles, affiliations should include the institution(s) where the reported research was conducted and/or approved. For non-scientific articles, affiliations should include the institution(s) with which each author is currently affiliated.

 

3. Duplicate Publications and Self-Plagiarism

Any manuscript submitted must be an original piece of work which has not been published anywhere else in a current or similar form.

  • If a substantial portion of the manuscript has been published elsewhere, then that journal editor needs to provide permission for its re-use, and this must be acknowledged in the new work and declared to the journal editor on submission.
  • Any manuscript submitted must not be currently under consideration with any other journal or publisher. This does not include any deposits of a preprint on the author’s website or a preprint archive.
  • For manuscripts based on a thesis, the content of the thesis must be rephrased in line with the journal’s style guide. If the thesis has been published, the author must inform the journal editor about this and acquire permission from the publisher.
  • Authors must avoid self-plagiarism by acknowledging and citing any previous work from which they use information.

 

4. Preprint Policy

A preprint is the preliminary version of a manuscript that is made publicly available through a preprint server and/or archive before it is submitted to a journal.

  • SJMS accepts articles previously available as preprints provided the authors retain copyright in their work during the preprint process.
  • If accepted for publication by the journal, the preprint version should be linked to the final published article.

 

5. Plagiarism

SJMS does not tolerate any type of plagiarism, including but not limited to published and non-published material, images, text and downloads from websites.

  • All manuscripts submitted to the journal are screened for plagiarism using the Crossref Similarity Check powered by iThenticate. 
  • We strongly suggest that authors do not modify or manipulate any images used in the manuscript, especially when modifications may lead to falsification or manipulation of results.
  • Fraudulent results may result in a retraction following a thorough investigation of the claims of misconduct.
  • Manuscripts containing any form of plagiarism will be rejected. Policies outlined in the Retraction section will be imposed if plagiarism is detected following publication.

 

6. Publishing Existing Articles in Translation

SJMS follows ICMJE’s advice on translated works. Translations are acceptable but they must reference the original article. In such cases, the journal will issue a statement clarifying the purpose of/reason for publishing the translated work which will be added both to the HTML page and the PDF of the translated version with a link to the landing page of the original article rather than issuing a retraction/notice of duplicate publication.

 

7. Data Transparency

We encourage authors to keep an accurate recording of all data and supporting materials mentioned in the manuscript to facilitate clear understanding, verification and replication in the research.

 

8. Peer Review

All articles submitted to the journal undergo an initial assessment by the journal’s Editor-in-Chief or a member of the editorial board.

  • If considered suitable for peer review, articles are then reviewed by two reviewers who are experts in the subject area and are not part of the journal’s editorial team. These reviewers are selected through effective systems to ensure they vigorously and fairly review all submissions.
  • Reviewers are required to familiarise themselves and perform the review in line with COPE’s Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers.
  • SJMS operates a double-blind peer review model, in which neither the author nor the reviewer knows the identity of the other.
  • If a reviewer does not respond within two weeks of the assignment, a reminder is sent to them. If they fail to respond again, another reviewer is assigned.
  • Reviewers are expected to communicate any signs of research misconduct or manipulation and support the journal in investigating any misconduct claims. Based on reviewers’ reports, the journal decides whether to reject the submission, return with minor or major suggestions for improvements and resubmission, or accept.
  • Authors are notified of the final decision through the journal’s submission system.

 

9. Conflicts of Interests

All conflicts of interest – financial, non-financial, professional or personal – that may affect the objectivity of the research must be declared upon submission. Editors and reviewers are likewise responsible for disclosing any conflicts of interest.

 

10. Human and Animal Research

For human or animal studies, approval must be obtained from an institutional or local review board. This information, the name of the review board, and approval numbers/codes should be stated in the manuscript.

 

11. Clinical Trials

According to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), a clinical trial is “any research study that prospectively assigns human participants or groups of humans to one or more health-related interventions to evaluate the effects on health outcomes.”

  • Authors of clinical trials are required to prospectively register their trial with one of the trial registries recognised by the ICMJE or World Health Organization.
  • The registration number of the trial and the name of the trial registry must be mentioned in the manuscript.

 

12. Corrections, Expressions of Concern and Retractions

To address issues involving serious ethics or integrity concerns, the journal follows ICMJE and COPE guidelines. In line with that, SJMS publishes three types of post-publication notices: Corrections, Expressions of Concern and Retractions.

Corrections

Corrections are issued if the errors are minor and do not alter the results or conclusion of the reported research. If an author is found to have made an error, the journal will issue a corrigendum, and if the journal’s editorial team is found to have made an error, they will issue an erratum.

Corrigenda and Errata are assigned DOIs and linked to the original articles.

Expressions of Concern (EoC)

Expressions of Concern (EoC) are issued by the journal’s Editor-in-Chief if they have substantial doubt about the honesty and integrity of a published article. An EoC is published as a PDF and linked to the original article, similar to an Erratum or Corrigendum. After an EOC is published, the article may be corrected or retracted.

Retractions

SJMS follows COPE’s Retraction Guidelines. As such, a retraction may be considered in cases of:

  • A major unintentional error (miscalculation or experimental error) which invalidates the findings or conclusions of the authors
  • Fabricated or falsified data, or other misconduct
  • Figure or image manipulation
  • Plagiarism
  • Copyright infringement
  • Redundant publication: Publication of the findings elsewhere without proper attribution or permission
  • Use of unethical research practices in conducting the study
  • Identification of a major competing interest which was not disclosed and is thought to have potentially influenced the results or their interpretation

In extreme circumstances, the journal may remove an article from its website. Such events include legal obligations like a court order, privacy infringements, endangerment of an individual or the general public, and defamation.

 

13. Grievance Procedure

SJMS draws from the guidelines presented by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) to Manage Complaints and Disputes. Should a complaint and/or dispute arise, they may be directed to [email protected].

 

14. Integrity of Record

SJMS maintains a record of all its metadata including article titles, author information, volume, issues and page numbers, etc. The journal ensures that the metadata is accessible to all within a jurisdiction without violating the law of the land and modifying the research content to suit geographical, linguistic or cultural diversity. In the event of a retraction or correction, when the journal needs to alter the publication record in any way, SJMS preserves the indexing and accessing information as much as possible.

The journal applies the same principles to the marketing and does not modify or manipulate the representation of the academic record of the article in its marketing activities.

 

15. Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used for the stated purposes of this journal.

Upon publishing, all authors will be automatically registered for content alerts from the publication. To stop receiving the alerts, authors can subsequently unsubscribe through the link provided in the email.

These email addresses will not be made available to any other party.