Research Misconduct

The Journal of Medical Education Development takes research misconduct very seriously and keeps a zero-tolerance policy towards fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism, whether intentional or unintentional. Such actions harm the integrity of the research process and break the journal's ethical standards.

Fabrication
 

Fabrication is defined as making up data or results and reporting them as if they were real. This includes creating fake data or outcomes that do not actually exist.

Falsification
 

Falsification involves changing research materials, equipment, or processes, or changing, leaving out, or selectively reporting data in a way that misleads about the actual research findings. Examples include reporting only data that supports a hypothesis while leaving out contradictory results, or changing data to appear more favorable or statistically significant.

Plagiarism refers to the use of another person's ideas, text, or results without proper credit or permission, and presenting them as one's own original work. This includes copying text without citation, paraphrasing without credit, or submitting others' work as one's own. Authors should also avoid self-plagiarism by making sure previously published work is not reused without the right disclosure. Any suspected misconduct should be reported in good faith to the relevant institutional authorities. The Editors-in-Chief are responsible for checking submissions for any signs of misconduct.

Duplicate and Redundant Publication

• Duplicate publication refers to the submission or publication of the same manuscript or very similar work to more than one journal at the same time or without proper telling. If a manuscript is already submitted and under review at our journal, it must not be submitted to another journal at the same time. Authors who wish to submit a manuscript that is currently under consideration elsewhere must first withdraw the first submission before submitting to our journal.
• Redundant publication happens when authors publish parts of the same research findings in multiple papers without proper cross-referencing or telling. If any part of the manuscript's content, including data or figures, has been published before or is under consideration elsewhere, authors must clearly say this information in the cover letter with their submission.
• Using parts of previously published methods or background is allowed, provided proper citations are included.
• Submitting at the same time a translated version of a manuscript already submitted or published in another language is only allowed with prior approval and clear disclosing to the Editors-in-Chief.

Conflict of Interests

Conflicts of interest may directly undermine, or give the appearance of undermining, the objectivity, integrity, and credibility of a publication by potentially influencing the judgments and actions of authors in the presentation, analysis, and interpretation of data.

All authors must tell about any financial and non-financial interests that could be seen as conflicts of interest related to the submitted work. This includes, but is not limited to, employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications, or funding sources.

No financial or other contractual agreements should stop authors from telling about such conflicts. Authors are required to provide a clear statement of any potential conflicts in the manuscript text.

The journal expects full openness in telling about conflicts to keep trust in the scholarly record.

Confidentiality

Confidentiality is very important for keeping trust and honesty in the peer review and publication process. The Journal of Medical Education Development follows strict policies to protect confidential and personal information.

• Protecting Research Participant Privacy: Authors must make sure that personally identifiable information—such as names, addresses, or other identifiers—is removed or made anonymous in manuscripts unless its inclusion is essential and ethically approved.
• Vulnerable Populations: When studies involve vulnerable groups (e.g., children or individuals with mental health conditions), extra care must be taken to keep confidentiality.
• Informed Consent: Authors are required to get and document informed consent from participants, clearly explaining how their personal information will be used, stored, and published (where relevant).
• Data Protection in Practice: Authors are encouraged to use strong methods—such as pseudonymization, limited access, secure storage, and encryption—for both electronic and physical data to ensure research confidentiality.

• Keeping Confidentiality: Reviewers and editors must treat all manuscript content and communications as strictly confidential. Sharing peer review information or submitted material with unauthorized parties is not allowed.
• Limits on AI Usage: Reviewers must not upload manuscripts or peer review content into AI tools, as doing so may break confidentiality or data privacy. Editors should also avoid using AI tools in ways that could risk sharing confidential content.

Any break—intentional or not—is taken seriously and may lead to disciplinary or ethical penalties following COPE's guidelines. Editors may ask COPE resources or the journal's publisher to decide on the right actions.

Privacy & Data Protection Policy

We gather personal data such as names, email addresses, institutional affiliations, and peer review activity only for the purposes of editorial and publication processes. This information is collected only with the permission of the individuals and is needed for the administration of the journal.

Personal data are used only for editorial and publishing activities, including peer review management, editorial correspondence, and publication. We do not use or share personal data for commercial, advertising, or marketing purposes. Personal data will only be shared with third parties as required by law or with the clear permission of the individuals concerned.

We use reasonable and appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect personal data from unauthorized access, sharing, alteration, or destruction. These measures include industry-standard security technologies such as firewalls and encryption. However, no online system can guarantee absolute security, and we cannot guarantee the security of personal information sent via the internet.

Individuals have the right to see, correct, or request deletion of their personal data held by the journal. All such requests will be handled quickly and in line with GDPR requirements. To use these rights, please contact the journal's editorial office at: edujournalzums.ac.ir.

Personal data will be stored securely and retained only for as long as necessary to fulfill publication, editorial, and ethical obligations.

We may update this policy periodically to reflect changes in our practices or legal requirements. Significant updates will be communicated appropriately to all relevant parties.

For more information or concerns regarding your personal data, please contact us at: edujournalzums.ac.ir.

Duties of Authors

Authors are expected to uphold the highest ethical standards throughout all stages of their research and publication process. This includes:

• Reporting research findings accurately, honestly, and objectively without making up data, manipulating data, or inappropriate data manipulation.
• Acknowledging the contributions of all individuals and organizations involved in the research and giving appropriate credit.
• Disclosing all potential conflicts of interest that might influence the research or its interpretation.
• Ensuring that all research involving human participants or animals has received prior ethical approval from an appropriate institutional review board or ethics committee, and that informed consent has been obtained where applicable.
• Following all relevant laws, regulations, and institutional policies related to research conduct.
• Guaranteeing the originality of their work; submissions must not be published elsewhere or under consideration by another journal. If any part of the work has been published previously, authors must obtain necessary permissions and cite the original source clearly.
• Participating in the peer review process in good faith, responding to reviewers' comments thoughtfully and in a timely manner.
• Ensuring the manuscript is free from plagiarism, duplicate publication, and any other forms of academic misconduct

Duties of Reviewers

Reviewers play a key role in maintaining the quality, validity, and integrity of the research published in the journal. Their responsibilities include:

• Providing objective, thorough, and constructive feedback to authors, focusing on the originality, significance, methodology, clarity, and overall contribution of the manuscript.
• Ensuring that any research involving human participants or animals follows ethical standards, including confirmation that authors have obtained informed consent when required.
• Maintaining strict confidentiality regarding all aspects of the manuscript and not sharing any information with third parties.
• Declining to review a manuscript if a conflict of interest exists that could compromise their impartiality, and telling the editorial team about any potential conflicts of interest.
• Submitting their evaluations on time and clearly explaining the reasons behind their recommendations.
• Being willing to engage in later rounds of review, responding to authors' revisions and comments constructively.

Duties of Editors

Editors hold a vital responsibility in safeguarding the quality, integrity, and ethical standards of all research published in the journal. Their duties include:

• Making impartial and informed decisions on manuscript acceptance based on originality, significance, and relevant to the field.
• Ensuring that all submissions go through a rigorous, fair, and timely peer review process, done with strict confidentiality.
• Selecting qualified and unbiased peer reviewers with appropriate expertise, while actively managing and avoiding potential conflicts of interest.
• Providing authors with clear, constructive, and timely feedback, and making decisions regarding revisions, acceptance, or rejection based on the scientific merit and validity of the work.
• Ensuring that all published research follows ethical guidelines, including those concerning the protection of human participants, animal welfare, and research integrity.
• Maintaining strict confidentiality of all manuscripts and associated information, refraining from unauthorized disclosure to third parties.
• Encouraging transparency and openness by clearly telling the journal's policies and procedures to authors, reviewers, and readers, and by upholding the highest standards of publication ethics.

Handling Allegations of Misconduct

"Reports of misconduct should be sent in writing to the Editor-in-Chief at edujournalzums.ac.ir, who serves as the first point of contact. The Journal of Medical Education Development strictly follows the COPE Core Practices and ICMJE recommendations in handling all allegations of research or publication misconduct. These may include data fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, duplicate publication, or other unethical research practices. Investigations will be done promptly by the Editorial Board under the supervision of the Editor-in-Chief, and independent experts may be consulted if needed to ensure an unbiased check. Outcomes can include issuing a correction, publishing a clarification, retracting the affected article, or taking other suitable actions. 

Complaints and Appeals

The Journal values fairness, transparency, and integrity at all stages of the editorial and publishing process.

All complaints or appeals should be sent in writing to the Editor-in-Chief at edujournalzums.ac.ir. Complaints must be submitted in writing and should include a clear description of the issue, any supporting documents, and an explanation of whether the matter concerns the editorial process, peer review, publication ethics, or is a formal appeal against an editorial decision.
Once a complaint is received, the journal will confirm receipt within 7 working days. The Editor-in-Chief will perform an initial review to determine whether the complaint is scientific, ethical, or procedural. If necessary, independent experts may be consulted to ensure an impartial check.
All decisions will follow COPE and ICMJE guidelines, and the outcome, along with the reasons, will be communicated in writing to the complainant.
If a satisfactory resolution cannot be reached at the journal level, complainants may escalate the issue to external bodies such as professional organizations or ethics committees.
 

Corrections and Retractions Policy

The Journal is committed to keeping the scholarly record accurate and trustworthy. We have clear policies for handling corrections and retractions in line with COPE guidelines.

Corrections are issued for minor errors that do not affect the results or conclusions. They clearly show the error and the correction, are permanently linked to the original article in both HTML and PDF formats, and remain freely accessible and archived.

Articles will be retracted if they contain major errors, data fabrication, plagiarism, duplicate publication, undisclosed conflicts of interest, or other ethical violations. The retraction process includes review by the Editorial Board under the Editor-in-Chief. Authors will be told and given a chance to answer, but the Editor-in-Chief may proceed if serious ethical issues are confirmed. A clear retraction notice will be published, stating the article title, authors, reasons, and date, and it will be permanently linked to the original article, which remains online but clearly marked “Retracted” to preserve the scholarly record. If serious concerns arise while an investigation is ongoing, an Expression of Concern may be published. This will be linked to the article and updated once the outcome is known.

Authors, reviewers, or readers may report errors or ethical concerns to edujournalzums.ac.ir. All reports will be handled confidentially, and investigations are usually completed within 4–8 weeks. Complainants will be updated if more time is needed.
 

Article Withdrawal Policy

The journal follows the COPE flowchart for withdrawal of submitted manuscripts to ensure transparency, fairness, and ethical standards in the management of article withdrawal requests.

Authors may ask to withdrawal back their manuscript at any stage before the final editorial decision by sending a formal written request to the editorial board. The request must clearly say the reason for taking it back. The Editor-in-Chief will look at the request within 7 working days and has the right to accept or reject the withdrawal based on the reason given and the status of the manuscript.

In exceptional circumstances, authors may request withdrawal after acceptance or early online publication, but such requests will be considered only under justifiable conditions, such as:

• Serious unintentional errors
• Ethical concerns discovered by the authors themselves
• Legal restrictions (e.g., confidentiality breaches)
• Duplicate or simultaneous submission

If the withdrawal is approved at this stage:

• The manuscript file will be removed from public access.
• Only the article title and authors' names will remain on the journal website.
• A withdrawal notice will be displayed to maintain transparency in the scholarly record.

This does not constitute a retraction and should not be interpreted as such.

The Editor-in-Chief retains the right to withdraw a manuscript at any stage without author request if:

• The submission violates ethical standards (e.g., plagiarism, authorship misconduct)
• The submission has been found to contain fabricated or manipulated content
• The authors fail to respond to journal correspondence for an extended period

Such decisions will follow COPE's recommended procedures for handling withdrawal ethically and transparently.

All withdrawal procedures follow the principles and flowcharts provided by COPE. For further information, see the official COPE guidance: COPE: Author Requests Withdrawal of a Submitted Manuscript.

Authorship Change

The Journal of Medical Education Development recognizes the important role of authorship in scientific publications and understands that changes to authorship may happen for various reasons. We are committed to keeping the integrity of the publication process and making sure that authorship correctly shows the contributions of all individuals involved in the research.

If there is any suggested change in authorship, all authors must work together to complete an authorship change agreement form and send it to the journal's editorial office by email (edujournalzums.ac.ir). This process ensures transparency and gives all authors a chance to review and agree to the change. A detailed explanation showing the reasons for the change and a description of each author's contributions must be included with the request.

If a request for authorship change comes after publication, it will be looked at case by case. The journal needs a written explanation from the corresponding author, as well as the written consent of all authors involved—including any authors being added or removed. Possible conflicts of interest related to the authorship change will also be taken into account.

Ethics in AI Utilization for Article Writing

The Journal of Medical Education Development follows the principles of transparency, accountability, and scholarly integrity in the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools during the manuscript preparation and publication process.

According to the authorship criteria outlined by the ICMJE and COPE, only individuals who have made substantial intellectual contributions to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the research should be listed as authors.

• AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, etc.) cannot be listed as authors under any circumstances.
• Individuals who provided only writing assistance or language editing (human or AI-assisted) should be acknowledged but do not qualify for authorship.