Ethical Policy
1. Publication Ethics
Brazilian Medical Students Journal (BMS) is committed to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) principles, adheres strictly to the COPE core practices for good publishing ethics, and expects authors to follow the Declaration of Helsinki of the World Medical Association. We have developed these ethical guidelines to help authors and the editorial board to understand and follow the ethical standards.
2. Copyright and Open Access
All research articles published by BMS are published by default as open access (regardless of who funded the research). Reuse is subject to an applicable Creative Commons license (CC BY: this license allows reusers to distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon the material in any medium or format, provided attribution is given to the creator. License permits commercial use.) We do not request payment for these research articles to be made available in open access or at any point in the process - everything is full access and completely open.
3. Conflict of Interest
Conflict of interest exists when professional judgment about a primary interest (such as the well-being of patients or validity of research) may be influenced by a secondary interest (such as financial gain or personal rivalry). To make the best decision about handling an article, we should know about any conflicting interests the authors may have and that if we publish the article, readers should also know about them.
In case where a reviewer’s or editor’s competing interest is too significant to mitigate, they must declare as a conflict of interest during submission, recuse from reviewing the paper, and this manuscript must be evaluated by other reviewers (s) and editor(s).
4. Scientific misconduct
There are different definitions of scientific misconduct. At Brazilian Medical Students, we deal with these issues on a case-by-case basis, following the guidelines of the central publication ethics bodies (COPE guidance). The following are considered as misconduct: discrimination, harassment, bullying, false statements that individual reputations/organizations, fraudulente research, data manipulation, unethical research.
5. Peer Review
This journal requires a minimum of two independent peer reviewers to peer review manuscripts for consideration in the journal. This journal uses a double-blind peer review model. The author does not know the reviewer identity, and neither the author identitiy is know by the reviewer.
6. Duty of Editorial Confidentiality to Authors
BMS editors treat all submitted manuscripts as confidential documents, meaning they will not disclose information about a manuscript to anyone without the authors' permission. The reviewer responsible for correcting the work in question will maintain the necessary secrecy. Only the editor maintains communication with the authors by e-mail and for any discussion topic and also forwards the findings of the review. During the manuscript review process, the following people may also have access to manuscripts:
- BMS editors and editorial staff, including internship medical students and occasionally foreign visitors - usually physicians or editors of other journals;
- External reviewers, including statisticians and experts in test methods;
- Members of the journal's editorial committees, comprising the final step in our peer review process for original research articles;
- The only time which details about a manuscript may be passed on to third parties without the authors' permission is if the editor suspects serious research misconduct.
7. Authorship and Contribution
BMS adheres to the Recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Academic Papers in Medical Journals (2018 ICMJE Recommendations) concerning authorship, contribution and group authorship. The corresponding author is responsible for communicating with co-authors. Anyone who does not meet these criteria should be listed in the Acknowledgement section with their permission. This journal's author instructions contain further information on submitting your author list with your manuscript.
8. Prior publication and pre-print
BMS will not publish materials that have already been published in full on any platforms and media. However, materials may be accepted that only had their abstracts published or partially disclosed by the media or in meetings/scientific meetings.
Previous publications in certain media or forms may be accepted, for example, in the case of publication on protocol registration platforms or clinical trial results.
All prior disclosure of the material, in part or whole, must be informed and described during the submission process.
Complete manuscripts not published in scientific journals and, consequently, not reviewed are usually called pre-prints, and for those submitted on electronic platforms and websites for pre-prints, e-prints. BMS will accept these articles as long as they are reported in the submission system so that the editor can assess the existence of possible disagreements/modifications. Furthermore, the author must mention in the manuscript that there was a pre-print and show protocol deviations.
9. Redundant publication, duplicates and plagiarism
A redundant publication is any publication that substantially overlaps with another previously published publication. BMS will not receive manuscripts that have already been significantly reported in another article submitted or published, either in print or electronically, to deprive readers and researchers of redundant content. If a paper submitted to the BMS overlaps more than 10% with content (article, manuscript) already submitted/published, authors must send copies of this content.
A duplicate publication is a publication of the same or substantially similar article(s) in more than one journal. BMS will not receive duplicate manuscripts. The author must explain, during the submission process, the existence of any circumstances that may lead the editor to believe that the article was published in another medium, such as the existence of a report of the same name (or similar name) previously published.
In case of suspicion, the editor can consult other editors about the manuscript's content. Suppose he knows that the material has already been previously published. In that case, the editor may return the manuscript unreviewed and refuse the author's articles. Moreover, it can announce the authors' attitude in the journal. If the publication precedes the duplication, the editor will announce the duplication in the journal and notify the authors of the need to write a letter acknowledging the duplication at the editor's discretion.
BMS does not tolerate plagiarism and self-plagiarism. Manuscripts are screened and will be rejected if found plagiary. If the publication process has been completed, the authors will be notified and must write a letter of retraction.
If you have noticed any ethical irregularity in the content of BMS, please tell us via email at [email protected].
10. Corrections, Retractions and Republishing
Errors can be part of the scientific routine and the publication process and require immediate correction when identified. As in the case of systematic reviews or guidelines, updates of previous publications are considered new publications (republication).
If correction is required, BMS will publish a notice detailing the changes to the original article as soon as possible. In addition, a new version of the report will be published with details of what was modified and the date it was made, keeping the previous version archived to be accessible to readers if requested. In the last version of the published material, it will be identified that there is a more recent version of the article, which must be cited.
Errors resulting from coding issues or miscalculations can have significant implications for the article. If these errors do not change the direction or significance of the results, interpretations and conclusions, the corrections will follow as already explained. In the presence of errors, however, liable to substantially change the significance of what is presented, invalidating conclusions, retraction is required. In the case of “honest error” (classification and calculation), if the error was judged to be unintentional, and the new version goes through the editorial procedures, retraction with republication (replacement) may be considered. To maintain transparency, in cases of substitution, the extent of the changes will be available in supplementary material or an appendix.
The authors of the retracted article should be the same as the original. However, if this is not possible, retractions from other responsible persons may be accepted, in specific circumstances, at the discretion of the editor-in-chief. The retracted articles will remain in their original (electronic) version, in public access, being identified as retracted in all their forms.
BMS does not assume the validity of fraudulent work, and editors have the right to ask the authors' institution to ensure the validity of other results published in this journal. If this is not met, editors may publish an announcement expressing concern that the validity of the first published article is uncertain.
11. Evidence-Based Publication Policy
Science is guided by critical thinking and judgment based on the analysis and integration of knowledge in making the best decision. In this way, Brazilian Medical Students reinforces its commitment to Evidence-Based Medicine in producing scientific knowledge based on criticality and social responsibility.
12. Editorial model
BMS follows the editorial models proposed in the guidelines of the World Association of Medical Editors and the code of good practices in the publication of the Committee on Publication Ethics, as well as the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors and the research reporting checklists and guides from the ECUADOR network.
13. Research Ethics
Research involving human data data should follow the ethical resolutions of the country where the research is conducted, and should conform to relevant international ethical and legal standards for research (as the Declaration of Helsinki). For Brazilians, the policy establishes compliance with Brazilian legislation and the Data Protection Law, in addition to CNS-CONEP resolutions.
The role of BMS is to ensure that all published articles follow the ethical precepts guaranteed by the Declaration of Helsinki. Research conducted with human beings should send ethical approval with a statement of acceptance, including the name of the committee(s) ethics, identification number of the approval(s), and the statement that participants gave informed consent before participating in the research. Temporary documents will not be accepted. In cases where the need for formal ethics committee approval was waived, the name of the ethics committee that granted the waiver should be included in methods.
BMS also asks authors to detail the ethical-moral basis of their work and how consent was obtained, if applicable to the article. This detail can be done in the manuscript or during the submission process in the form of a supplementary file named “Ethical Considerations”. Even if all of this information is not included in the final version of the article, it can be made available to reviewers and editors in case they consider commenting on research ethics.
Authors should prospectively obtain consent from the individuals involved in research to participate in their research and/or for their tissues or data to be used. The need for consent and method of obtaining consent should be determined by the authors’ institutional ethics committee. Details of consent to participate should be included in manuscripts.
All research involving animals submitted to the BMS must follow ethical standards concerning animal welfare. It must follow international, national and institutional guidelines and have been approved by the ethics committee in animal research. In the methods section, the procedures and policies used must be explained, as well as the name of the ethics committee(s) or institutional review board(s) and the identification number of the approval(s). Details of the protocols used and how the research was conducted can be provided in the manuscript or during the submission process in the form of a supplementary file named “Ethical Considerations”.
Editors and reviewers may ask authors for additional information if questions arise about the ethical conduct of the research during the review, even if the work has previously been submitted to an ethics committee or institutional board.
The reviewer(s) and editor(s) are ethically committed to the submitted research to protect patients (and animals) and prevent future unethical conduct; they may seek external advice if the research is ethically incorrect.
