Publication Ethics

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

The journal of Journal of Veterinary Research (J Vet Res) is committed to publishing and widely disseminating high-quality content. The editorial operations of the journal of Journal of Veterinary Research (J Vet Res) must be governed by rigorous ethical standards that are both transparent and fair. We recognize that the scholarly publishing ecosystem is complex and includes editors, authors, reviewers, and publishers. Our expectation is that all involved have a shared understanding and acceptance of the journal’s policies on publication ethics and malpractice. Our policies are closely aligned with COPE’s (Committee on Publication Ethics) Core Practices document, which can be accessed at: COPE Core Practices.

By submitting an article to the journal of Journal of Veterinary Research (J Vet Res), you agree to comply with the following publication ethics and malpractice statement.

 

1. Responsibility of the Author

Reporting standards

Authors of original research reports should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.

Data access and retention

Authors could be asked to provide the raw data of their study together with the paper for editorial review and should be prepared to make the data publicly available if practicable. In any event, authors should ensure accessibility of such data to other competent professionals for at least ten years after publication (preferably via an institutional or subject-based data repository or other data center), provided that the confidentiality of the participants can be protected and legal rights concerning proprietary data do not preclude their release.

Originality

Authors will submit only entirely original works and will appropriately cite or quote the work and/or words of others. Publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work should also be cited. Authors should express their primary ideas and tasks explicitly even if they have been revised and quoted objectively. If precise sentences or paragraphs are seen in a research article, which seems it is an extract from an essay or a citation from another author, this sentence should be put in quotation marks. The essay ought to specify the origin of each applied datum and also all data. If specific data collection is applied by another author or this author, it should inform the other published or unpublished tasks. Authors should not submit an article, which has been previously submitted to this journal, assessed, and finally disapproved by the editor. If the first version was disapproved and the author is willing to submit a modified version for assessment, the essay resubmission justification should be clearly explained to the author or the editor. The permission for essay resubmission for the second time is possible in a particular situation.

 Plagiarism
The article registration will inform all authors by sending an e-mail to the journal of Journal of Veterinary Research (J Vet Res) website. It is evident that inserting the author’s name in the article is considered as his/her main role in writing the essay if the essay authors have no role in writing the essay and their name has not been mentioned. It is necessary to inform the received information by e-mail immediately. All the authors of the article are responsible for the origin of the work. All assessment rights for plagiarism checking in the journal are reserved.

    Plagiarism has a variety of forms:

  1. to insert the authors and researchers’ names who have no role in the article;
  2. to copy or repeat the most significant part of another article (even if the copied article is related to the author of a new essay);
  3. to show the outcome and results of other research to his/her own;
  4. to express false results, in contrast with scientific findings or distort the outcomes of the research;
  5. continuous publishing by a single author in some journals;
  6. to apply unreliable data or manipulate research data.

The journal editors will study plagiarism items for preserving the validity and the efforts of researchers without any overlook or indulgence based on the level of plagiarism then legally pursued as follows:

  1. The article will be disapproved, and in case of publishing, it will be disappeared from the site;
  2. The name of the authors will be inserted in the blacklist journals of the publisher;
  3. It will be prosecuted by qualified legal and judicial references;
  4. By writing an official letter, the plagiarism file is shared with other related domestic and foreign journals;
  5. By writing an official letter to the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, databases, universities, institutes, and journals or wherever the author has used the printing rate of this article, they are informed of the procedure.

Multiple, redundant, or concurrent publications

In general, papers describing essentially the same research should not be published in more than one journal. Submitting the same paper to more than one journal constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. Manuscripts that have been published as copyrighted material elsewhere cannot be submitted. In addition, manuscripts under review by one journal should not be submitted to other publications while the manuscript is under review. For the publication of creative works, the journal may make exceptions to the previously published rule; please consult the editor.

Acknowledgment of sources

Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work. Information obtained privately, as in conversation, correspondence, or discussion with third parties, must not be used or reported without explicit, written permission from the source. Information obtained in the course of confidential services, such as refereeing manuscripts or grant applications, must not be used without the explicit written permission of the author of the work involved in these services.

Authorship of the paper

Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Where others have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included on the paper and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

    All the mentioned authors should work seriously in a research article to be responsible for the results. The authorship should be shared in proportion to different supporting. Authors should accept the responsibility and validity of the task, which includes the authorship validity or compilation, only for the task, which they have done practically, or they have helped. Faculty members should list the student’s name as the main author if the article is derived from a dissertation or thesis of a student. The corresponding author who submits the article to the journal should send one sheet or one version of the article to all shared co-authors to satisfy them by article submission and publishing.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest

All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflicts of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed. Examples of potential conflicts of interest which should be disclosed include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding. Potential conflicts of interest should be disclosed to the editor at the earliest stage possible. Readers should be informed about who has funded the research and the role of the funders in the research.

Fundamental errors in published works

When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, the author must promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper. If the editor or the publisher learns from a third party that a published work contains a significant error, the author must promptly retract or correct the paper or provide evidence to the editor of the correctness of the original paper.

 Conflict of Interests

The author should express the resources of the financial scheme in the text of the article and then applies to submit it. Each of the mentioned resources should be printed with the article. If the type of situation, which shows the contrast, is doubtful, it should be clarified; any item in the field of conflict of benefits should inform the editor or the publishing office. The corresponding author can recommend the probable reviewer for the article at the time of submitting the essay to the journal of Journal of Veterinary Research (J Vet Res). Authors ought to avoid any probable contrasts or actions in selecting the editors and reviewers. This kind of conflict of benefits is not only applied to the corresponding author but also includes all the co-authors of the article.

The examples of possible Conflicts of Interest are as follows:

  1. One of the authors is from the same institution or university, as the reviewer is in that institution;
  2. One of the authors, a member of the thesis committee who has been a reviewer or editor and vice versa;
  3. One of the authors, editors, or reviewers who are the co-author in another article, or had been a co-author of an article in the past two years.

Authors should not introduce or name the people whom they know who have studied the previous article and have put forward their hypothesis because this movement is contrary to the hidden assessment process of the article automatically. Manuscripts submitted by authors from our institution or our reviewers’ board should be reviewed by referees from outside. Articles submitted by reviewers and the Editorial Committee for review or revision and resubmission by the author if necessary.

 Double-blind peer-review

The journal of Journal of Veterinary Research (J Vet Res) follows a double-blind peer-review in which the authors do not know the reviewers and vice versa. The authors should respect the confidentiality of the assessment process and not reveal their identity to reviewers and vice versa. For instance, the article should not include any information like self-revelation so that the reviewer can identify the author. Authors should not publish their submitted articles on personal or social websites (either articles or first versions), because authors can be identified easily by reviewers on the Web. Authors should not mention the people as reviewers where previous articles or previous copy has been studied and suggested his/her recommendations because this awareness or knowledge is contrary to the double-blind peer-review process.

 Precision

The authors are finally responsible for the whole content of the submitted article to the journal of Journal of Veterinary Research (J Vet Res). Authors are in charge of representing a precise perspective of the done research as well as an objective debate, especially for the research's importance. Authors should report their findings thoroughly, not eliminating data relevant to the text or structure of research questions. Regardless of supporting the expected outcomes or being in contrast, results should be reported. Authors should present the features or relevant characteristics of their research, their findings, and their interpretation precisely. Fundamental suggestions, theories, methods, and research schemes relevant to findings and their interpretations should be revealed and subjected.

    The article should contain all the necessary details and resources in a way that researchers access the same data collection to repeat the research. If an author discovers a mistake or an important carelessness, he/she is responsible for informing the editor-in-chief and the procedure immediately to cooperate with the article modification or revision. If the author or publication, by a third person or party, understands that the published article is suffering from a monumental error, the author is responsible for applying the article modification or revision as well as providing the evidence for the editor based on the precision and correction of the main article.

 Human rights

Authors are in charge of preserving and supporting privacy, human munificence, human freedom, and welfare, as well as research participants. The articles involved in human affairs (field studies, simulations, interviews) should be done according to the human rights regulations.

 Being up to date

Authors should act quickly and appropriately to revise and modify the articles. If an author cannot act before the deadline (maximum one month), he/she should contact the editor-in-chief for an extension or refusal from the assessment process at once.

 

2. Responsibility of the Editor

The editor’s chief responsibility is to determine which submissions to the journal will be published. He/she must ensure that decisions are made based on the manuscript’s merit and that the author’s race, gender, religious or political beliefs, ethnicity, or citizenship are not considered.

Confidentiality

Information concerning a submitted manuscript should only be revealed to the corresponding author, reviewers, editorial board members, or the publisher as required or otherwise appropriate.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest

Reviewers will not use unpublished information disclosed in a submitted manuscript for their own research purposes without the author’s explicit written consent. Reviewers will recuse themselves from reviewing manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships/connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers. Editors should follow the procedure set out in the COPE flowchart. Editors should respond promptly to complaints and should ensure there is a way for dissatisfied complainants to take complaints further.

Independence
Editors should preserve their pen and paper independence to work and make sure that authors are free to write. The editors are responsible for accepting or refusing the articles, which typically depend on the idea, and recommendations of reviewers; by the way, the articles which are inappropriate from the point of view of editors are probably refused without reviewers’ assessment.

 No biases

Editors should improve their position score and circumstances confidentially, and constructively unbiased. Editors carry the essay review duty only based on scientific merits. Editors should act unbiased, without personal or ideological advocacy.

Conflict of Benefits

Editors should avoid any action, which increases conflicts of benefits with its unreasonable aspect. For instance, to avoid potential conflict of benefits, the editor is not allowed to publish an article, which is not clearly identified, reviewed, or partly reviewed. Liability, writing authority, and editing each article by the editor, submitted to the journal of Journal of Veterinary Research (J Vet Res), should be submitted by the editor to another qualified person like the previous editor or one of the members of the editorial boards. Editors should avoid any article study, which is in contrast with their real or potential conflict of benefits. The contrast may be due to the competitive, partnership, financial or other relations with any other companies, organizations, or institutes related to the article. The examples related to the relations, which show conflicts of benefits of the editor or author are:

  1. Both the author and editor have been employed by one institute;
  2. The editor has been one member of the dissertation committee of the author or vice versa;
  3. The editor and the author are currently co-workers and co-authors in another article or have been co-authors in an article in the past two years.

 Double-Blind Peer-Review

The journal follows a double-blind peer-review in which authors do not know the reviewers and vice versa. Assessment standards should be expressed clearly and concisely.

 Confidentiality
Editors and their editorial boards are not allowed to reveal relevant information about the article to anyone but reviewers and authors. Official and formal procedures should be determined to preserve the confidentiality of the assessment process. Editors are expected to make sure the confidentiality of the double-blind peer-review process and lack of information revelation, which may reveal the author’s identity to reviewers and vice versa. Reviewers’ anonymity can be breached only when reviewers permit editors to reveal their identities. Editors should make sure that their editorial boards are compatible and coordinated with them. Some parts of a submitted article, which has not been published, are not allowed to be used in the personal research of an editor without the author’s written permission. Confidential ideas or information, which has been got by article assessment, should be preserved privately, not to be used for private benefits.

 Assessment Quality

Typically, two reviewers are invited to express their idea about an article. The editor should evaluate all assessments qualitatively. The editor may rarely edit an assessed article before submitting it to the author (for example, eliminating an expression, which reveals the reviewer’s identity or not sending the assessed article in case it is not constructive or appropriate. Rankings and scores of assessment quality, as well as other functional features, are assessed periodically by the editor to make sure of the optimized operation of the journal of Journal of Veterinary Research (J Vet Res). These scores and rankings should help decision-making in the field of reappointment of reviewing teams and continuous requests. Individual operation data should be accessible to editors and kept confidential.

 Being up to date

To guarantee the article’s assessment and quick response to the authors’ requests about assessment status by a determined deadline (maximum one week after receiving the article) editors should apply primary assessment and reviewer selection.

 Quality of decision

Editors are responsible for describing the decisions of the editorial boards for authors and their articles. Editors should write high-quality letters where these letters represent the combination of the reviewers’ recommendations and extra suggestions for another author. Editors should not attach the result of the decision in the letter format without an explanation of the advice and suggestions of the reviewer.

 Precision
As the editor receives convincing evidence from the reviewer based on false concepts or results of an unpublished article, he should inform procedure to the author. If similar evidence about an article were published, the editor should apply an emergency modified publishing, return the previous one, and express relevant matters with other notes appropriately.

 Authority
The Editor is responsible for the final authority and responsibility of the journal. They should respect the journal formation (such as readers, authors, reviewers, editors, and staff of the editorial boards) and try his/her best for the truthful and honest content of the journal as well as continuous improvement. The Editor should select members of the editorial boards based on the written assessment board, determine their responsibilities and evaluate their actions regularly.

 Operation
The Editor should design the operation in full operational detail, taking account of all policy, technical, economic, financial, institutional, management, environmental, socio-cultural, and gender-related aspects. The journal is going to be published based on annual auditing related to admission level, publishing intervals, submitted articles percentage for revision and foreign revision as well as the operation data. Operation indexes ought to improve the journal operation for assessing the revolution of articles along with publishing processes.

 

3. Responsibility of Reviewers

Purpose of Peer-Review

The peer-review process is a crucial component in helping the editor and/or editorial board reach editorial or publishing decisions and may also serve the author in improving the quality of the submission.

Promptness

A potential reviewer should withdraw from the review process if he/she feels unqualified to assess the contribution or cannot provide an assessment in a timely manner as defined by the editor.

Confidentiality

Manuscripts for review must be considered confidential documents. Information concerning the manuscripts should not be discussed with others without the approval of the editor.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest

Editors and editorial board members will not use unpublished information disclosed in a submitted manuscript for their own research purposes without the author’s explicit written consent. Editors will recuse themselves from considering manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships/connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers; instead, they will ask another member of the editorial board to handle the manuscript.

    Reviewers should abstain from assessing the articles, which they think are involved in conflicts of benefits such as shared financial, organizational, and personal benefits or any connections with other companies, institutes, or related individuals with the essay, the reviewers who may have conflicts of benefits in the field of a special article. This conflict should be clarified for the editor to determine the appropriate level of assessment. For instance, there is a situation where the reviewer is editing and evaluating a similar article in that journal or another along with a similar research article, keep in mind that under the process of double-blind peer-review, as reviewers do not know the authors, it is unlikely that reviewers are aware of the involved conflicts of benefits among authors. Thus, they are not limited by these conflicts. If reviewers become aware of such conflicts, they should inform the editor of the journal.

Objectivity

Reviewers should strive to be objective in their assessments. Reviewers’ comments should be clearly expressed and supported by data or arguments. Personal criticism of the author(s) is not appropriate.

Acknowledgment of sources

Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer should also call to the editor’s attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.

 Reciprocal communication

Evaluation and studying are professional activities for journals, which have valued the whole profession to be encouraged. It is usually expected that the researchers who submit their articles to a journal accept the journal’s invitation for their article assessment.

 Right to refuse and rejection

Abstinence or rejection of the assessment of an article based on time or status is essential. For example, a reviewer who is not qualified enough to review a research article should refrain from assessing the article. By potential conflicts of benefits, reviewers should abstain from their assessment. If the reviewers are asked to assess an article, which has been previously assessed, they should inform the editor of primary evaluation details unless they are asked to reassess.

 Double-Blind peer-review

The publication has a process of double-blind peer-review. Reviewers should abstain from assessing the articles, in which they have previously provided written suggestions in the first version. If a reviewer is aware of the author’s identity or co-author’s identity, is involved naturally in assessing the article. Reviewers are also responsible for avoiding writing, telling, and doing whatever reveals their identity for the author.

No biases

Reviewers should assess articles objectively, fairly, and professionally. They are recommended to avoid any personal bias in their reviews.

 Confidentiality
Reviewers should respect the confidentiality of the assessment process. It is important to recognize whether this article is confidential or not. Reviewers should not discuss with anyone except the editor about the article and they are not allowed to transfer the essay information to someone else. If reviewers are suspected of a wrong deed should inform the editor confidentially, not expressing their worries to other departments till the official announcement.

 Precision
To assess the article and say recommendations to the author (authors), reviewers should always know that the assessment influences the publishing process. Reviewers should be honest with authors about their relevant article worries. Reviewers ought to define and support their scientific review sufficiently and, it means they should provide details and ample information for the editor to justify their advice to the author. Reviewers cannot be bipolar, for instance, on the one hand, very friendly and intimate assessments facing with the author and on the other hand, very sharp assessments in-person discussion with the editor.

 Punctuality
Reviewers should act quickly in their assessments and reviews. If a reviewer cannot act on his/her task by a determined deadline (maximum one month) he/she ought to contact the editor for extending the reviewing time or new reviewer selection.

 

4. Copyright and License

The journal of Journal of Veterinary Research (J Vet Res) is a fully open-access journal, which means that all articles are available on the Web to all users immediately upon publication. All articles are published under a Creative Commons License. Therefore, the copyright of articles accepted for publication rests with the author(s). Author(s) retain copyright to their work without restrictions. The author(s) has complete control over the work (e.g. retains the right to reuse, distribute, republish, etc.). All content of the Journal is published with open access under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY).

 

5. Informed Consent

All participants in human subjects research have a right to privacy that should not be violated without informed consent. Identifying information, including names, initials, etc., should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, or pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the participants (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. Informed consent in this situation requires that an identifiable participant be shown the manuscript and should provide the consent before publication. Authors should disclose to these patients whether any potential identifiable material might be available via the Internet as well as in print after publication. Participants’ consent should be written and archived either with the Journal, the authors, or both, as dictated by local regulations or laws.

 

6. Plagiarism Policy

The journal of Journal of Veterinary Research (J Vet Res) adheres to the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines set forth by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), and International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). We accept all terms and conditions of COPE about plagiarism and in case, any attempt of plagiarism is brought to our attention accompanied by convincing evidence, we act based on flowcharts and workflows determined in COPE.

    The Editorial Boards of the journal of Journal of Veterinary Research (J Vet Res) take the necessary measures to examine the incoming articles on their originality, reliability of contained information, and correct use of citations. The Editorial Board of the journal acknowledges that plagiarism is unacceptable and therefore establishes the following policies that state-specific actions (penalties) if plagiarism is identified in a manuscript submitted for publication in the journal.

    Authors should ensure that they submit only entirely original works. If they have used the work and/or statements of others, this must be appropriately cited or referenced. Plagiarism in any form, including quotations or paraphrasing of substantial parts of another’s article (without attribution), “passing off” another’s article as the author’s own, or claiming results from research conducted by others, constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. Manuscripts that are a compilation of previously published materials of other authors (without their own creative and authoring interpretation) are not accepted for publication. It is inadmissible to use unfair text borrowing and assigning research results not belonging to the authors of the submitted manuscript. The authors must ensure that the submitted manuscript:

       - describes completely the original work;

       - is not plagiarism;

       - has not been published before in any language;

       - the information used or words from other publications are appropriately indicated by reference or indicated in the text.

    Existing copyright laws and conventions must be observed. Materials protected by copyright (for example, tables, figures or large quotations) should only be reproduced with the permission of their owner. The journal of Journal of Veterinary Research (J Vet Res) takes responsibility to assist the scientific community in all aspects of publication ethics policy, particularly in the case of multiple submissions/publications and plagiarism. The editors reserve the right to check the received manuscripts for plagiarism. The manuscript submitted to the journal must have a similarity level of less than 10%. Similarity per each detected reference also must be maximum 1%. The textual similarity in the amount of more than 10% is unacceptable.

 

7. The Policy of Screening for Plagiarism

All manuscripts must be free from plagiarism contents. All authors are suggested to use plagiarism detection software to do the similarity checking. Editors check the plagiarism detection of manuscripts in this journal by using Grammarly detection software (www.grammarly.com) and using iThenticate. The journal will immediately reject articles leading to plagiarism or self-plagiarism. The journal adheres to international practices of preventing plagiarism. Thus, all authors that submit their manuscripts to the journal must check that their academic work respects the copyrights of other scholars and avoids any plagiarism. Once the manuscript is submitted to the journal, the editorial board will assign a group of anti-plagiarism members to check the manuscript through various tools. If proof of plagiarism is found, the manuscript will be rejected immediately, and the Editorial Board will communicate with the author to demand an explanation and the amendment of the plagiarized content. If the author does not respond within a reasonable length of time or does not make the necessary adjustments, they will not be able to submit manuscripts to the journal for a period of five (5) years. If the Editorial Board has reason to believe that the manuscript was not drafted or researched in an ethical manner, the journal’s implemented code of ethics (Committee on Publication Ethics [Code of Conduct and Best Practices Guidelines for Journals Editors]) will be reviewed and act accordingly.

 
Definition of Plagiarism:

"Plagiarism is the use of others’ published and unpublished ideas or words (or other intellectual property) without attribution or permission, and presenting them as new and original rather than derived from an existing source. The intent and effect of plagiarism are to mislead the reader as to the contributions of the plagiarizer. This applies whether the ideas or words are taken from abstracts, research grant applications, Institutional Review Board applications, or unpublished or published manuscripts in any publication format (print or electronic). Plagiarism is scientific misconduct and should be addressed as such. Self-plagiarism refers to the practice of an author using portions of their previous writings on the same topic in another of their publications, without specifically citing it formally in quotes. This practice is widespread and sometimes unintentional, as there are only so many ways to say the same thing on many occasions, particularly when writing the Methods section of an article. Although this usually violates the copyright that has been assigned to the publisher, there is no consensus as to whether this is a form of scientific misconduct, or how many of one’s own words one can use before it is truly "plagiarism." Probably, for this reason, self-plagiarism is not regarded in the same light as plagiarism of the ideas and words of other individuals. If journals have developed a policy on this matter, it should be clearly stated for authors." (WAME, 2020). Direct plagiarism is the plagiarism of the text. Mosaic plagiarism is the borrowing of ideas and opinions from an original source and a few verbatim words or phrases without crediting the author. Plagiarism is committed when one author uses another work (typically the work of another author) without permission, credit, or acknowledgment. Plagiarism takes different forms, from literal copying to paraphrasing the work of another.

    Authors can adhere to the following steps to report plagiarism:

  • Inform the editor of the journal where a plagiarized article is published.
  • Send original and plagiarized articles with plagiarized parts highlighted.
  • If evidence of plagiarism is convincing, the editor should arrange for a disciplinary meeting.
  • The editor of the journal where the plagiarized article should communicate with the editor of the journal containing the original article to rectify the matter.
  • The plagiarist should be asked to provide an explanation.
  • In case of nonresponse in the stipulated time or an unsatisfactory explanation, the article should be permanently retracted.
  • The author should be blacklisted and debarred for submitting an article to a particular journal for at least 5 years.
  • The concerned head of the institution has to be notified.

The author bears the responsibility for checking whether the material submitted is subject to copyright or ownership rights, e.g., figures, tables, photographs, illustrations, trade literature, and data. The author will need to obtain permission to reproduce any such items and include these permissions with their final submission. Where use is so restricted, the editorial office and Publisher must be informed with the final submission of the material. Please add any necessary acknowledgments to the typescript, preferably in the form of an Acknowledgments section at the end of the article. Credit the source and copyright of photographs, figures, illustrations, etc. in the supplementary captions. Plagiarism is an act intentionally or unintentionally in obtaining or trying to obtain credit or value for scientific work, by quoting part or all of the work and/or scientific work of other parties that are recognized as scientific works, without expressing the source appropriately and adequately. Therefore, manuscripts must be original, never published, and not in the process of waiting for publication elsewhere. Material taken verbally from other sources needs to be clearly identified so that it is different from the original text. If plagiarism is identified, the Editor-in-Chief is responsible for reviewing the manuscript and will approve the action according to the level of plagiarism detected, with the following guidelines.

Plagiarism Level

  1. Tracing a portion of a short sentence from another article without mentioning the source.
    Action: Authors are given warnings and requests to change the text and quote correctly.
    2. Tracing most of the other articles without the right quote and not mentioning the source.
    Actions: The submitted manuscript is rejected for publication in the journal of Journal of Veterinary Research (J Vet Res) and the Author can be sanctioned for not being allowed to publish in the journal.
  2. All manuscript writers are responsible for the content of manuscripts they submit to the journal. If the manuscript is classified as plagiarism, then all authors will be subject to the same action.
  3. If the author is proven to submit the manuscript to the journal by simultaneously sending it to another journal, and this overlap is found during the reviewer process or after publication, then the action according to point 2 above is given.
  4. If plagiarism is found outside the rules above, the editor of the journal has the right to give sanctions according to the editor’s team policy.
  5. In the case of multiple borrowing, Editorial Board acts according to the rules of COPE.

 There are several indicators of plagiarism that all authors must be aware of:

  • The most easily identifiable plagiarism is that of repeated content when an author copies another author’s work by reciting words, sentences, or paragraphs without citing original sources. This plagiarism model can be easily identified by our plagiarism checker software.
  • The second type of plagiarism occurs when an author reproduces a substantial part of another writer’s work, without citing him/her. The term "reproducing substance" here can be understood as copying another’s ideas, both in terms of quantity and quality, which potentially eliminates the original author’s rights, in the context of intellectual property.
  • The third type of plagiarism is when an author takes ideas, words, or phrases in paraphrased sentences or paragraphs, without citing the original source. This type of plagiarism often cannot be checked through plagiarism software, as it is idea-based. Yet, this practice becomes unethical when the author does not cite, nor acknowledge the original source from the original writer.

 

8. Responding to Allegations of Possible Misconduct

Definitions of Misconduct

Deception may be deliberate, by reckless disregard of possible consequences, or by ignorance. Since the underlying goal of misconduct is to deliberately deceive others as to the truth, the journal’s preliminary investigation of potential misconduct must take into account not only the particular act or omission but also the apparent intention (as best it can be determined) of the person involved. Misconduct does not include unintentional errors. The most common forms of scientific misconduct include:

  • Falsification of data: ranges from fabrication to deceptive selective reporting of findings and omission of conflicting data, or willful suppression and/or distortion of data.
  • Plagiarism: The appropriation of the language, ideas, or thoughts of another without crediting their true source, and representation of them as one’s own original work (see prior section).
  • Improprieties of authorship: Improper assignment of credit, such as excluding others, misrepresentation of the same material as original in more than one publication, the inclusion of individuals as authors who have not contributed to the work published; or submission of multi-authored publications without the concurrence of all authors.
  • Misappropriation of the ideas of others: an important aspect of scholarly activity is the exchange of ideas among colleagues. Scholars can acquire novel ideas from others during the process of reviewing grant applications and manuscripts. However, improper use of such information can constitute fraud. Wholesale appropriation of such material constitutes misconduct.
  • Violation of generally accepted research practices: Serious deviation from accepted practices in proposing or carrying out research, improper manipulation of experiments to obtain biased results, deceptive statistical or analytical manipulations, or improper reporting of results.
  • Material failure to comply with legislative and regulatory requirements affecting research: Including but not limited to serious or substantial, repeated, willful violations of applicable local regulations and law involving the use of funds, care of animals, human subjects, investigational drugs, recombinant products, new devices, or radioactive, biologic, or chemical materials.
  • Inappropriate behavior in relation to misconduct: this includes unfounded or knowingly false accusations of misconduct, failure to report known or suspected misconduct, withholding or destruction of information relevant to a claim of misconduct and retaliation against persons involved in the allegation or investigation. This includes qualifications, experience, or research accomplishments to advance the research program, to obtain external funding, or for other professional advancements.

 

9. Responses to Possible Misconduct

A committee consisting of the editor-in-chief and editorial board members, as determined by the editor-in-chief, who has specific expertise in the area being investigated, will investigate misconduct allegations. The suitable actions were taken based on the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

    The journal of Journal of Veterinary Research (J Vet Res) follows the policies and guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and abides by its Code of Conduct in dealing with potential cases of misconduct.

 

10. Open Access Policy

The journal of Journal of Veterinary Research (J Vet Res) provides immediate open access to its content. Our publisher, the University of Tehran, abides by the Budapest Open Access Initiative definition of Open Access:

“By “open access” to [peer-reviewed research literature], we mean its free availability on the public Internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself. The only constraint on reproduction and distribution, and the only role for copyright in this domain, should be to give authors control over the integrity of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited.”

    Researchers engage in discovery for the public good, yet because of cost barriers or use restrictions imposed by other publishers, research results are not available to the full community of potential users. It is our mission to support a greater global exchange of knowledge by making the research published in this journal open to the public and reusable under the terms of the  Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. Furthermore, we encourage authors to post their pre-publication manuscripts in institutional repositories or on their websites before and during the submission process and to post the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version after publication. These practices benefit authors with productive exchanges as well as earlier and greater citations of published work. This journal is a fully open-access journal, which means that all articles are available on the Internet to all users immediately upon publication. Benefits of open access for authors include:

          - Authors retain copyright to their work.

          - Free access for all users worldwide.

          - Increased visibility and readership.

          - No spatial constraints.

          - Rapid publication.

Other benefits of open access for authors:

Fast Publishing: Minimize authors’ long waiting aspect as open-access publishes accepted articles immediately online. All research articles published in this journal journals are immediately freely available to read, download and share.

High Availability: Manuscripts are available on all search engines and indexing databases, especially Google Scholar, Semantic Scholar, Microsoft Academic, etc.

High Publicity: Authors get publicity, acceptance, and recognition in the scientific world.

Maximize the Citation: Authors get frequent citations in others’ articles.

Minimizing the Cost: It allows only one-time payment for processing of accepted manuscripts and ensures lifetime online availability.

Recognition and Acceptance of Research work: Authors’ researches get full recognition among the intellectual community without any constraints.

 

11. Data Sharing Policy

The journal of Journal of Veterinary Research (J Vet Res) uses the Basic Data Sharing Policy. The journal is committed to a more open research landscape, facilitating faster and more effective research discovery by enabling reproducibility and verification of data, methodology, and reporting standards. The journal encourages authors to cite and share their research data including, but not limited to: raw data, processed data, software, algorithms, protocols, methods, and materials. Authors are encouraged to share or make open the data supporting the results, or analyses presented in their article where this does not violate the protection of human subjects or other valid privacy or security concerns.

    The journal encourages authors to share the data and other artifacts supporting the results in the article by archiving it in an appropriate public repository. Authors should include a Data Accessibility Statement, including a link to the repository they have used so that this statement can be published alongside their article. The journal requires authors of Original Investigations, Case Studies, and Special Paper articles to (1) place the de-identified data associated with the manuscript in a repository; and (2) include a Data Availability Statement in the manuscript describing where and how the data can be accessed.
    The journal defines data as the digital materials underlying the results described in the manuscript, including but not limited to spreadsheets, text files, interview recordings or transcripts, images, videos, output from statistical software, and computer code or scripts. Authors are expected to deposit at least the minimum amount of data needed to reproduce the results described in the manuscript. Data can be placed in any repository that makes data publicly available and provides a unique persistent identifier, including institutional repositories, general repositories (e.g., Figshare, Open Science Framework, Zenodo, Dryad, Harvard Dataverse, OpenICPSR), or discipline-specific repositories.
    The Data Availability Statement should be placed in the manuscript at the end of the main text before the references. This statement must include (1) an indication of the location of the data; (2) a unique identifier, such as a digital object identifier (DOI), accession number, or persistent uniform resource locator (URL); and (3) any instructions for accessing the data, if applicable. At the point of submission, you will be asked if there is a data set associated with the article. If you reply yes, you will be asked to provide the DOI, pre-registered DOI, hyperlink, or other persistent identifier associated with the data set(s). If you have selected to provide a pre-registered DOI, please be prepared to share the reviewer URL associated with your data deposit, upon request by reviewers. Where one or multiple data sets are associated with a manuscript, these are not formally peer-reviewed as a part of the journal submission process. It is the author’s responsibility to ensure the soundness of the data. Any errors in the data rest solely with the producers of the data set(s).
    Please note: As you are submitting your manuscript to the journal where submissions are double-blind peer-reviewed, the main text file should not include any information that might identify the authors (i.e., Author Name, Address, Conflict of Interest, and fund-related information). As a data availability statement could reveal your identity, we recommend that you remove this from the anonymized version of the manuscript. Exceptions to this policy will be made in rare cases in which de-identified data cannot be shared due to their proprietary nature or participant privacy concerns. Exceptions to policy and restrictions on data availability are granted for reasons associated with the protection of human privacy, issues such as biosafety, and/or to respect terms of use for data obtained under license from third parties. Confidential data, e.g., human subjects or patient data, should always be anonymized, or permission to share should be obtained in advance. If in doubt, authors should seek counsel from their institution’s ethics committee. Authors should include a data accessibility statement, including a link to the repository they have used so that this statement can be published alongside their article. Below are a few examples:
   Data Availability Statement:

  1. Data associated with this article are available in the Open Science Framework at .
  2. The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in [repository name] at http://doi.org/[doi], reference number [reference number].
  3. The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in [repository name] at [URL], reference number [reference number].
  4. The data that support the findings of this study are available in [repository name] at [URL/DOI], reference number [reference number]. These data were derived from the following resources available in the public domain: [list resources and URLs]

 Benefits of Sharing Data:

There are several benefits to sharing data:

  • Data deposition supports the preservation of data long term.
  • Depositing data in a repository that mints a permanent identifier such as a DOI, allows authors and others to cite the data set, allowing researchers to get appropriate credit for their work.
  • Sharing data can lead to re-use and discovery, with greater opportunities for carrying out meta-analyses and the extraction of new knowledge.
  • Sharing data publicly improves the robustness of the research process, supporting validation, research transparency, reproducibility, and replicability of results. This can, in turn, advance discovery and knowledge.
  • Wider public availability of research data supports the translation of research into practice. 

The journal of Journal of Veterinary Research (J Vet Res) offers the following standardized data-sharing policies across our journals:

  • Basic– The journal encourages authors to share and make data open where this does not violate the protection of human subjects or other valid subject privacy concerns. Authors are further encouraged to cite data and provide a data availability statement.
  • Share upon reasonable request – Authors agree to make their data available upon reasonable request. It is up to the author to determine whether a request is reasonable.
  • Publicly available – Authors make their data freely available to the public, under a license of their choice.
  • Open data – Authors must make their data freely available to the public, under a license allowing re-use by any third party for any lawful purpose. Data shall be findable and fully accessible.
  • Open and fully FAIR (Findable, accessible, interoperable, and re-usable) – Authors must make their data freely available to the public, under a license allowing re-use by any third party for any lawful purpose. Additionally, data shall meet the FAIR standards as established in the relevant subject area.

12. Data Citation

Data should be cited in the same way as article, book, and web citations, and authors are required to include data citations as part of their reference list. Data citation is appropriate for data held within institutional, subject-focused, or more general data repositories. It is not intended to take the place of community standards such as in-line citation of GenBank accession codes. When citing or making claims based on data, authors must refer to the data at the relevant place in the manuscript text and in addition provide a formal citation in the reference list. The journal follows the format proposed by the Joint Declaration of Data Citation Principles:

Authors; Year; Dataset title; Data repository or archive; Version (if any); Persistent identifier (e.g., DOI)”.

Please send questions, concerns, or comments to the journal office at jvr@ut.ac.ir

 

Ethical Principles for Medical Research

In medical studies, Journal of Veterinary Research as a member of University of Tehran, is committed to apply ethics of research, based on Declaration of Helsinki: Statement of Ethical Principles for Medical Research and ICMJE's Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals. You may find the journal’s Ethical Principles for Medical Research, here.

Protection of Human Subjects and Animals in Research

(Prepared Based on ICMJE's Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals)

In Journal of Veterinary Research, when reporting experiments on human subjects, authors should indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2013. If doubt exists whether the research was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration, the authors must explain the rationale for their approach and demonstrate that the institutional review body explicitly approved the doubtful aspects of the study. When reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate whether the institutional and national guide for the care and use of laboratory animals was followed.

Informed Consent in Patients and Study Participants

(Prepared Based on ICMJE's Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals)

In Journal of Veterinary Research, patients have a right to privacy that should not be violated without informed consent. Identifying information, including names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, or pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. Informed consent for this purpose requires that an identifiable patient be shown the manuscript to be published. Authors should disclose to these patients whether any potential identifiable material might be available via the Internet as well as in print after publication. Patient consent should be written and archived either with the journal, the authors, or both, as dictated by local regulations or laws.

Nonessential identifying details should be omitted. Informed consent should be obtained if there is any doubt that anonymity can be maintained. For example, masking the eye region in photographs of patients is inadequate protection of anonymity. If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic pedigrees, authors should provide assurance, and editors should so note, that such alterations do not distort scientific meaning. When informed consent has been obtained, it should be indicated in the published article.

Declaration of Helsinki: Statement of Ethical Principles for Medical Research

Preamble

1.The World Medical Association (WMA) has developed the Declaration of Helsinki as a statement of ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects, including research on identifiable human material and data.

The Declaration is intended to be read as a whole and each of its constituent paragraphs should be applied with consideration of all other relevant paragraphs.

2.Consistent with the mandate of the WMA, the Declaration is addressed primarily to physicians. The WMA encourages others who are involved in medical research involving human subjects to adopt these principles. 

General Principles

3.The Declaration of Geneva of the WMA binds the physician with the words, “The health of my patient will be my first consideration,” and the International Code of Medical Ethics declares that, “A physician shall act in the patient's best interest when providing medical care.”

4.It is the duty of the physician to promote and safeguard the health, well-being and rights of patients, including those who are involved in medical research. The physician's knowledge and conscience are dedicated to the fulfilment of this duty.

5.Medical progress is based on research that ultimately must include studies involving human subjects.

6.The primary purpose of medical research involving human subjects is to understand the causes, development and effects of diseases and improve preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic interventions (methods, procedures and treatments). Even the best proven interventions must be evaluated continually through research for their safety, effectiveness, efficiency, accessibility and quality.

7.Medical research is subject to ethical standards that promote and ensure respect for all human subjects and protect their health and rights.

8.While the primary purpose of medical research is to generate new knowledge, this goal can never take precedence over the rights and interests of individual research subjects.

9.It is the duty of physicians who are involved in medical research to protect the life, health, dignity, integrity, right to self-determination, privacy, and confidentiality of personal information of research subjects. The responsibility for the protection of research subjects must always rest with the physician or other health care professionals and never with the research subjects, even though they have given consent.

10.Physicians must consider the ethical, legal and regulatory norms and standards for research involving human subjects in their own countries as well as applicable international norms and standards. No national or international ethical, legal or regulatory requirement should reduce or eliminate any of the protections for research subjects set forth in this Declaration.

11.Medical research should be conducted in a manner that minimizes possible harm to the environment.

12.Medical research involving human subjects must be conducted only by individuals with the appropriate ethics and scientific education, training and qualifications. Research on patients or healthy volunteers requires the supervision of a competent and appropriately qualified physician or other health care professional.

13.Groups that are underrepresented in medical research should be provided appropriate access to participation in research.

14.Physicians who combine medical research with medical care should involve their patients in research only to the extent that this is justified by its potential preventive, diagnostic or therapeutic value and if the physician has good reason to believe that participation in the research study will not adversely affect the health of the patients who serve as research subjects.

15.Appropriate compensation and treatment for subjects who are harmed as a result of participating in research must be ensured.

Risks, Burdens and Benefits 

16.In medical practice and in medical research, most interventions involve risks and burdens.

Medical research involving human subjects may only be conducted if the importance of the objective outweighs the risks and burdens to the research subjects.

17.All medical research involving human subjects must be preceded by careful assessment of predictable risks and burdens to the individuals and groups involved in the research in comparison with foreseeable benefits to them and to other individuals or groups affected by the condition under investigation.

Measures to minimize the risks must be implemented. The risks must be continuously monitored, assessed and documented by the researcher. 

18.Physicians may not be involved in a research study involving human subjects unless they are confident that the risks have been adequately assessed and can be satisfactorily managed.

When the risks are found to outweigh the potential benefits or when there is conclusive proof of definitive outcomes, physicians must assess whether to continue, modify or immediately stop the study. 

 

Vulnerable Groups and Individuals

19.Some groups and individuals are particularly vulnerable and may have an increased likelihood of being wronged or of incurring additional harm.

All vulnerable groups and individuals should receive specifically considered protection.

20.Medical research with a vulnerable group is only justified if the research is responsive to the health needs or priorities of this group and the research cannot be carried out in a non-vulnerable group. In addition, this group should stand to benefit from the knowledge, practices or interventions that result from the research.

 

Scientific Requirements and Research Protocols 

21.Medical research involving human subjects must conform to generally accepted scientific principles, be based on a thorough knowledge of the scientific literature, other relevant sources of information, and adequate laboratory and, as appropriate, animal experimentation. The welfare of animals used for research must be respected.

22.The design and performance of each research study involving human subjects must be clearly described and justified in a research protocol.

The protocol should contain a statement of the ethical considerations involved and should indicate how the principles in this Declaration have been addressed. The protocol should include information regarding funding, sponsors, institutional affiliations, potential conflicts of interest, incentives for subjects and information regarding provisions for treating and/or compensating subjects who are harmed as a consequence of participation in the research study.

In clinical trials, the protocol must also describe appropriate arrangements for post-trial provisions.

 

Research Ethics Committees

23.The research protocol must be submitted for consideration, comment, guidance and approval to the concerned research ethics committee before the study begins. This committee must be transparent in its functioning, must be independent of the researcher, the sponsor and any other undue influence and must be duly qualified. It must take into consideration the laws and regulations of the country or countries in which the research is to be performed as well as applicable international norms and standards but these must not be allowed to reduce or eliminate any of the protections for research subjects set forth in this Declaration. 

The committee must have the right to monitor ongoing studies. The researcher must provide monitoring information to the committee, especially information about any serious adverse events. No amendment to the protocol may be made without consideration and approval by the committee. After the end of the study, the researchers must submit a final report to the committee containing a summary of the study’s findings and conclusions. 

Privacy and Confidentiality 

24.Every precaution must be taken to protect the privacy of research subjects and the confidentiality of their personal information.

Informed Consent 

25.Participation by individuals capable of giving informed consent as subjects in medical research must be voluntary. Although it may be appropriate to consult family members or community leaders, no individual capable of giving informed consent may be enrolled in a research study unless he or she freely agrees.

26.In medical research involving human subjects capable of giving informed consent, each potential subject must be adequately informed of the aims, methods, sources of funding, any possible conflicts of interest, institutional affiliations of the researcher, the anticipated benefits and potential risks of the study and the discomfort it may entail, post-study provisions and any other relevant aspects of the study. The potential subject must be informed of the right to refuse to participate in the study or to withdraw consent to participate at any time without reprisal. Special attention should be given to the specific information needs of individual potential subjects as well as to the methods used to deliver the information.

After ensuring that the potential subject has understood the information, the physician or another appropriately qualified individual must then seek the potential subject’s freely-given informed consent, preferably in writing. If the consent cannot be expressed in writing, the non-written consent must be formally documented and witnessed.      

 All medical research subjects should be given the option of being informed about the general outcome and results of the study.

27.When seeking informed consent for participation in a research study the physician must be particularly cautious if the potential subject is in a dependent relationship with the physician or may consent under duress. In such situations the informed consent must be sought by an appropriately qualified individual who is completely independent of this relationship.

28.For a potential research subject who is incapable of giving informed consent, the physician must seek informed consent from the legally authorised representative. These individuals must not be included in a research study that has no likelihood of benefit for them unless it is intended to promote the health of the group represented by the potential subject, the research cannot instead be performed with persons capable of providing informed consent, and the research entails only minimal risk and minimal burden.

29.When a potential research subject who is deemed incapable of giving informed consent is able to give assent to decisions about participation in research, the physician must seek that assent in addition to the consent of the legally authorized representative. The potential subject’s dissent should be respected.

30.Research involving subjects who are physically or mentally incapable of giving consent, for example, unconscious patients, may be done only if the physical or mental condition that prevents giving informed consent is a necessary characteristic of the research  group. In such circumstances the physician must seek informed consent from the legally authorized representative. If no such representative is available and if the research cannot be delayed, the study may proceed without informed consent provided that the specific reasons for involving subjects with a condition that renders them unable to give informed consent have been stated in the research protocol and the study has been approved by a research ethics committee. Consent to remain in the research must be obtained as soon as possible from the subject or a legally authorized representative.

31.The physician must fully inform the patient which aspects of their care are related to the research. The refusal of a patient to participate in a study or the patient’s decision to withdraw from the study must never adversely affect the patient-physician relationship.

32.For medical research using identifiable human material or data, such as research on material or data contained in biobanks or similar repositories, physicians must seek informed consent for its collection, storage and/or reuse. There may be exceptional situations where consent would be impossible or impracticable to obtain for such research. In such situations the research may be done only after consideration and approval of a research ethics committee.

Use of Placebo

33.The benefits, risks, burdens and effectiveness of a new intervention must be tested against those of the best proven intervention(s), except in the following circumstances:

Where no proven intervention exists, the use of placebo, or no intervention, is acceptable; or

Where for compelling and scientifically sound methodological reasons the use of any intervention less effective than the best proven one, the use of placebo, or no intervention is necessary to determine the efficacy or safety of an intervention 

and the patients who receive any intervention less effective than the best proven one, placebo, or no intervention will not be subject to additional risks of serious or irreversible harm as a result of not receiving the best proven intervention. 

Extreme care must be taken to avoid abuse of this option.

 

Post-Trial Provisions

34.In advance of a clinical trial, sponsors, researchers and host country governments should make provisions for post-trial access for all participants who still need an intervention identified as beneficial in the trial. This information must also be disclosed to participants during the informed consent process.

 

Research Registration and Publication and Dissemination of Results

35.Every research study involving human subjects must be registered in a publicly accessible database before recruitment of the first subject.

36.Researchers, authors, sponsors, editors and publishers all have ethical obligations with regard to the publication and dissemination of the results of research. Researchers have a duty to make publicly available the results of their research on human subjects and are accountable for the completeness and accuracy of their reports. All parties should adhere to accepted guidelines for ethical reporting. Negative and inconclusive as well as positive results must be published or otherwise made publicly available. Sources of funding, institutional affiliations and conflicts of interest must be declared in the publication. Reports of research not in accordance with the principles of this Declaration should not be accepted for publication.

 

Unproven Interventions in Clinical Practice

37.In the treatment of an individual patient, where proven interventions do not exist or other known interventions have been ineffective, the physician, after seeking expert advice, with informed consent from the patient or a legally authorized representative, may use an unproven intervention if in the physician's judgement it offers hope of saving life, re-establishing health or alleviating suffering. This intervention should subsequently be made the object of research, designed to evaluate its safety and efficacy. In all cases, new information must be recorded and, where appropriate, made publicly available.

Adopted by the 18th WMA General Assembly, Helsinki, Finland, June 1964
and amended by the:
29th WMA General Assembly, Tokyo, Japan, October 1975
35th WMA General Assembly, Venice, Italy, October 1983
41st WMA General Assembly, Hong Kong, September 1989
48th WMA General Assembly, Somerset West, Republic of South Africa, October 1996
52nd WMA General Assembly, Edinburgh, Scotland, October 2000 
53rd WMA General Assembly, Washington DC, USA, October 2002 (Note of Clarification added)
55th WMA General Assembly, Tokyo, Japan, October 2004 (Note of Clarification added)
59th WMA General Assembly, Seoul, Republic of Korea, October 2008
64th WMA General Assembly, Fortaleza, Brazil, October 2013

References/further reading

COPE flowchart for suspected redundant publication in a submitted manuscript

COPE flowchart for suspected redundant publication in a published article

COPE guidelines for retracting articles

Guidelines for Ethical Conduct in the Care and Use of Nonhuman Animals in Research

    1. Journal of Veterinary Research as a member of University of Tehran‎, based on American Psychological Guidelines for Ethical Conduct in the Care and Use of Nonhuman Animals in Research, You may find the journal’s Ethical Conduct in the Care and Use of Nonhuman Animals, here.

      Guidelines for Ethical Conduct in the Care and Use of Nonhuman Animals in Research

       Justification of the Research

      1. Research should be undertaken with a clear scientific purpose. There should be a reasonable expectation that the research will
        1. increase knowledge of the process underlying the evolution, development, maintenance, alteration, control, or biological significance of behavior; b) determine the replicability and generality of prior research; c) increase understanding of the species under study; or d) provide results that benefit the health or welfare of humans or other
      2. The scientific purpose of the research should be of sufficient potential significance to justify the use of nonhuman In general, psychologists should act on the assumption that procedures that are likely to produce pain in humans may also do so in other animals, unless there is species-specific evidence of pain or stress to the contrary.
      3. In proposing a research project, the psychologist should be familiar with the appropriate literature, consider the possibility of non-animal alternatives, and use procedures that minimize the number of nonhuman animals in If nonhuman animals are to be used, the species chosen for the study should be the best suited to answer the question(s) posed.
      4. Research on nonhuman animals may not be conducted until the protocol has been reviewed and approved by an appropriate animal care committee; typically, an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), to ensure that the procedures are appropriate and abide by the principles for humane experimental techniques embodied by the 3Rs – Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement (Russell & Burch, 1959).
      5. The researcher(s) should monitor the research and the subjects’ welfare throughout the course of an investigation to ensure continued justification for the research.

      Personnel

      1. Psychologists should ensure that personnel involved in their research with nonhuman animals be familiar with these guide- lines.
      2. Investigators and personnel should complete all required institutional research trainings for the ethical conduct of such
      3. Research procedures with nonhuman animals should conform to the Animal Welfare Act (7 S.C. §2131 et. seq.) and when appli- cable, the Public Health Service Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (PHS, 2015) and the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (National Resource Council, 2011), as well as other applicable federal regulations, policies, and guidelines, regarding personnel, supervision, record keeping, and veterinary care.
      4. As behavior is not only the focus of study of many experiments but also a primary source of information about an animal’s health and well-being, investigators should watch for and recognize deviations from normal, species-typical behaviors as indicators of potential health
      5. Psychologists should assume it is their responsibility that all individuals who work with nonhuman animals under their super- vision receive explicit instruction in experimental methods and in the care, maintenance, and handling of the species being studied. The activities that any individuals may engage in must not exceed their respective competencies, training, and experience in either the laboratory or the field

      Care and Housing of Laboratory Animals

      As a scientific and professional organization, APA recognizes the complexities of defining psychological well-being for both human and nonhuman animals. APA does not provide specific guidelines for the maintenance of psychological well-being of research animals, as procedures that are appropriate for a particular species may not be for others. Psychologists who are familiar with the species, relevant literature, federal guidelines, and their institution’s research facility should consider the appropriateness of measures such as social housing and enrichment to maintain or improve psychological well-being of those species.

      1. The facilities housing laboratory animals should meet or exceed current regulations and guidelines (USDA, 1990, 1991; NIH, 2015) and are required to be inspected twice a year (USDA, 1989; NIH, 2015).
      2. All procedures carried out on nonhuman animals are to be reviewed by an IACUC to ensure that the procedures are appropriate and humane. The committee must have representation from within the institution and from the local In the event that it is not possible to constitute an appropriate IACUC in the psychologist’s own institution, psychologists should seek advice and obtain review from a corresponding committee of a cooperative institution.
      3. Laboratory animals are to be provided with humane care and healthful conditions during their stay in any facilities of the Responsibilities for the conditions under which animals are kept, both within and outside of the context of active experimentation or teaching, rests with the psychologist under the supervision of the IACUC (where required by federal regulations) and with individuals appointed by the institution to oversee lab- oratory animal care.

      Acquisition of Laboratory Animals

      1. Laboratory animals not bred in the psychologist’s facility are to be acquired lawfully. The USDA and local ordinances should be determined and followed prior to IACUC protocol
      2. Psychologists should make every effort to ensure that those responsible for transporting the nonhuman animals to the facility provide adequate food, water, ventilation, and space, and impose no unnecessary stress on the animals (NRC,  2006).
      3. Nonhuman animals taken from the wild should be trapped in a humane manner and in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local
      4. Use of endangered, threatened, or imported nonhuman animals must only be conducted with full attention to required permits and ethical concerns. Information and permit applications may be obtained from the Fish and Wildlife Service website at fws.gov.

      Experimental Procedures

      Consideration for the humane treatment and well-being of the lab- oratory animal should be incorporated into the design and conduct of all procedures involving such animals, while keeping in mind the primary goal of undertaking the specific procedures of the research project—the acquisition of sound, replicable data. The conduct of all procedures is governed by Guideline I (Justification of Research) above.

      1. Observational and other noninvasive forms of behavioral studies that involve no aversive stimulation to, or elicit no sign of distress from, the nonhuman animal are
      2. Whenever possible behavioral procedures should be used that minimize discomfort to the nonhuman animal. Psychologists should adjust the parameters of aversive stimulation to the minimal levels compatible with the aims of the research. Consideration should be given to providing the research animals control over the potential aversive stimulation whenever it is consistent with the goals of the research. Whenever reasonable, psychologists are encouraged to first test on themselves the painful stimuli to be used on nonhuman animal
      3. Procedures in which the research animal is anesthetized and insensitive to pain throughout the procedure, and is euthanized (AVMA, 2020) before regaining consciousness are generally acceptable.
      4. Procedures involving more than momentary or slight aversive stimulation, which is not relieved by medication or other accept- able methods, should be undertaken only when the objectives of the research cannot be achieved by other
      5. Experimental procedures that require prolonged aversive conditions or produce tissue damage or metabolic disturbances require greater justification and surveillance by the psychologist and A research animal observed to be in a state of severe distress or chronic pain that cannot be alleviated and is not essential to the purposes of the research should be euthanized immediately (AVMA,   2020).
      6. Procedures that employ restraint must conform to federal regulations and
      7. Procedures involving the use of paralytic agents without reduction in pain sensation require prudence and humane concern. Use of muscle relaxants or paralytics alone during surgery, without anesthesia, is
      8. Surgical procedures, because of their invasive nature, require close supervision and attention to humane considerations by the psychologist. Aseptic (methods that minimize risks of infection) techniques must be used on laboratory animals whenever
        1. All surgical procedures and anesthetization should be con- ducted under the direct supervision of a person who is trained and competent in the use of the
        2. Unless there is specific justification for acting otherwise, research animals should remain under anesthesia until all surgical procedures are
        3. Postoperative monitoring and care, which may include the use of analgesics and antibiotics, should be provided to minimize discomfort, prevent infection, and promote recovery from the
        4. In general, laboratory animals should not be subjected to successive survival surgical procedures, except as required by the nature of the research, the nature of the specific surgery, or for the well-being of the Multiple surgeries on the same animal must be justified and receive approval from the IACUC.
      9. To minimize the number of nonhuman animals used, investigators should maximize the amount of data collected from each subject in a manner that is compatible with the goals of the research, sound scientific practice, and the welfare of the
      10. To ensure their humane treatment and well-being, nonhuman animals reared in the laboratory must not be released into the wild because, in most cases, they cannot survive, or they may survive by disrupting the natural
      11. When euthanasia is appropriate, either as a requirement of the research or because it constitutes the most humane form of disposition of a nonhuman animal at the conclusion of the research:
        1. Euthanasia must be accomplished in a humane manner, appropriate for the species and age, and in such a way as to ensure immediate death, and in accordance with procedures outlined in the latest  version  of  the  AVMA       (American Veterinary Medical Association) Guidelines on Euthanasia of Animals (2020).
        2. Disposal of euthanized laboratory animals must be con- ducted in accordance with all relevant laws, consistent with health, environmental, and aesthetic concerns, and as approved by the No animal shall be discarded until its death is verified.

      Field Research

      Field research that carries a risk of materially altering the behavior of nonhuman animals and/or producing damage to sensitive eco- systems is subject to IACUC approval. Field research, if strictly observational, may not require animal care committee approval (USDA,    2000).

      1. Psychologists conducting field research should disturb their populations as little as possible, while acting consistent with the goals of the research. Every effort should be made to minimize potential harmful effects of the study on the population and on other plant and animal species in the
      2. Research conducted in populated areas must be done with respect for the property and privacy of the area’s
      3. Such research on endangered species should not be conducted unless IACUC approval has been obtained and all requisite permits are obtained (see section D of this document). Included in this review should be a risk assessment and guidelines for prevention of zoonotic disease transmission (i.e., disease trans- mission between species, including human to nonhuman and vice versa).

      Research in Other Settings

      Research on captive wildlife or domesticated animals outside the laboratory setting that materially alters the environment or behavior of the nonhuman animals should be subject to IACUC approval (Ng et al., 2019). This includes settings where the principal subjects of the research are humans, but nonhuman animals are used as part of the study, such as research on the efficacy of animal-assisted interventions (AAI) and research conducted in zoos, animal shelters, and so on. If it is not possible to establish an IACUC at the psychologists’ own institution, investigators should seek advice and obtain review from an IACUC of a cooperative institution.

      1. Researchers should minimize and mitigate any distress on the nonhuman animal subject caused by its involvement in the Qualifications for appropriate handling of animal subjects in AAI settings have been well described by the AVMA (2008). Psychologists studying the use of AAIs should have the expertise to recognize behavioral and/or physiological signs of stress and distress in the species involved in the study. However, when psychologists lack such expertise, they should ensure that the research team includes individuals with the necessary expertise to recognize and intervene to reduce the nonhuman animal subject’s distress. Any study that carries risk of experiencing, or being exposed to the experience of, another organism’s pain, fear, or distress requires greater justification and should be addressed in the IACUC protocol.
      2. When research is conducted in applied settings, such as hospitals, health clinics, and offices of doctors and mental health professionals, the investigator should understand the risk of, and declare mitigating strategies for, disease transmission between human and nonhuman For example, studies of AAIs in health-care facilities offering mental health services may intro- duce risks for bi-directional zoonotic transmission of infectious diseases such as Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) (Lefebvre, et al., 2008). Investigators studying AAIs in health-care settings should therefore adhere to the guidelines for AAI management offered by the AVMA  (2008).
      3. In all experimental circumstances, investigators should structure into the schedule the basic needs of the nonhuman animals such as food, water, and rest

      Educational Use of Nonhuman Animals

      Laboratory exercises as well as classroom demonstrations involving live animals are of great value as instructional aids. Psychologists are encouraged to include instruction and discussion of the ethics and values of nonhuman animal research in relevant courses.

      1. Nonhuman animals may be used for educational purposes only after review by an IACUC or other appropriate institutional
      2. Consideration should be given to the possibility of using non-animal alternatives. Procedures that may be justified for research purposes may not be so for educational purposes (e.g., animal models of pain that are used to develop safer analgesics would be in excess of what is needed to merely demonstrate the use of animal models in the study of behavior and cognition).
      3. All handlers of nonhuman animals in educational settings should adhere to the recommendations outlined above for personnel, housing, and acquisition of subjects
        •  

         

        Declaration of generative AI in scientific writing

        Where authors use generative artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process, they should only employ these technologies to improve readability and language. The application of AI technology must be accompanied by human oversight and control. Authors should carefully review and edit the results because AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that can be incorrect, incomplete, or biased. AI and AI-assisted technologies should not be listed as authors or co-authors, nor should they be cited as an author.  Authorship implies tasks and responsibilities that are uniquely attributed to and performed by humans. Authors should disclose their use of AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process by following the instructions provided. A statement acknowledging this use will appear in the published article. It is essential to recognize that authors remain ultimately responsible and accountable for the content of their articles.

        Disclosure instructions:

        Authors should disclose in their manuscript the use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process by adding a statement at the end of their manuscript in the core manuscript file, before the References list. The statement should be placed in a new section entitled ‘Declaration of Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process’.

        Statement: During the preparation of this work the author(s) used [NAME TOOL / SERVICE] in order to [REASON]. After using this tool/service, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take(s) full responsibility for the content of the publication.

        This declaration does not apply to the use of basic tools for checking grammar, spelling, references, etc. If there is nothing to disclose, there is no need to add a statement.