Publication ethics

JNSCCM is the official journal of Nepalese Society of Critical Care Medicine (NSCCM). While the journal is affiliated with the society, NSCCM does not influence or interfere with any of the publication processes of the journal including but not limited to editorial decision-making, peer review, or publication outcomes. All editorial decisions are made independently by the Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board in accordance with established ethical standards and the principles of editorial independence.

JNSCCM fully commits to abide by the principles of transparency and best practice in scholarly publishing published jointly by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), the Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association (OASPA) and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME).

Any material being considered for publication in JNSCCM is guided by the publication ethics put forward by International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Some special aspects needing mention include

Requirement for consent

All investigators have to ensure that any research on human participants are in accordance to the Helsinki Declaration (revised on 2024). These researches need to undergo review by the ethical review committee. All research involving human participants need to have written informed consent signed by the patient before enrollment to any research. Though there is not a specific format of consent, the following are the components of the consent process that need to be taken care of before taking any consent.

  • Complete information on the research- title, purpose of the study, methodology and protocol.
  • Detailed explanation on the procedures, interventions, tests or treatment.
  • Risks and benefits (direct or indirect) involved; and any alternatives if present
  • Clear statement that it is research and not clinical care.
  • Participation is voluntary and the right to nullify the consent and withdraw from the study at any point during the research resides with the participant or their legal guardian.
  • Information on confidentiality and data privacy.
  • In a language that is understood by the participant; if the language of communication is different from the language in the consent form, it must be translated accordingly.
  • Any other information as requested by the participant or guardian
  • Signed by the participant or the and dated.
  • Cross signed by the investigators and dated.
  • Cross signed by atleast one witness not involved in the study and dated.

Special situations

A few special scenarios have to be considered during the consent process

  • For patients who are not in a state to provide consent by themselves, a next to kin may be allowed to give the consent on behalf of the patient.
  • Incarcerated patients under legal protection are generally not considered for consent.
  • Assent may be obtained from minors provided consent is given by their .
  • Pregnant females are considered a vulnerable population and usually not included for research purposes. However, in cases where the research question is related to pregnancy state, inclusion into the study needs to be done. In addition to the usual consenting process, effects on the unborn fetus will also have to be discussed in detail and such discussions should be documented in the consent form.

Patient identification

Any patient identifiers including but not limited to names, photographs, phone numbers, emails addresses, hospital number, social security number etc. that may be present, must be removed from the manuscript before submission. In cases where it is impossible to omit one or another identifier (e.g. in case of relevant photographs), the submission must be accompanied by a written release from the patient. A release form for publication of material in JNSCCM is available here.

Policy on articles archiving

All the volumes, issues and researches published in JNSCCM will be archived on an online repository of NepJOL and also on the journals official website. NepJOL uses the Open Journals System (OJS) created by the Public Knowledge Project (PKP) based in Canada. This software is open source and allows the journal content listed on NepJOL to be indexed through Open Archives Initiative search engines dedicated to research, which harvest the metadata for each journal article, making this work readily available to a global audience, and giving the journals greater visibility among the worldwide research community.

While the journal editors and publishers will try to communicate with the authors to ensure accuracy and correctness of the published materials, the authors will be ultimately accountable for the scientific content of the published material.

Authors who have had their names or part of their names changed after publication in the journal due to change in their marital status, gender identity, religious conversion or any other reason may request for changing the name from the journals archives. The authors may request the journal for the change in which case the changes will be made in the author list, email addresses, disclosures, support statements etc. This notification will not be sent to other authors. Changes beyond the control of the journal like from external indexing services will not be made by the journal

Policies on corrections, retractions and removals

Articles in which there is found significant mistakes which need to be corrected for the correctness of the research will be published as “Erratum” or “Corrigenda” or “Addenda”.

  • Errata

Simple errors will be published by the journal as errata.

  • Corrigenda

In case the error is significant enough to alter the scientific content, such an issue will have to be addressed by the authors. It may be initiated by the journal editors, readers or the authors themselves. Such corrections will have to be published as “Corrigendum”.

In case it is arisen by the readers as a “Letter to the editor”. Such letters will be reviewed by the editorial members. If accepted, the authors will be sent this letter to provide an opportunity to respond. The letter to the editor and the response from the authors will be published together.

  • Addenda

In cases where significant scientific content is omitted from publication, these may be considered for publication as “Addenda”

  • Retraction

Infringements of professional ethical codes like multiple submissions, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data etc. may lead to retraction of the article.

In some instances, when the published conclusion is significantly undermined as a result, the article may be decided for retraction. This may be caused in cases when evidences of which the authors were not aware of emerge. This may be brought into light by the readers. In such cases, all authors will be asked to agree to a retraction. In case when one or more co-authors decline to retract, the editors will have the right reserved to publish the retraction with the dissenting author(s) identified.

  • Removal

In rare circumstances, an article may be removed from the online journal. This will occur when the article is defamatory or infringes on others’ legal rights, in case of a legal court order or there is serious health risk associated with the publication of such an article. In such cases, the content may be removed with retention of the title and author names with an notice that the article was removed for legal reasons.