Editorial policy

JNHRC is a member of International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), Committee of Publication Ethics (COPE) and follow ethical guidelines endorsed by it. We also follow WAME (World Association of Medical Editors) for best editorial practices.

Policies on Conflict of Interest

We mandate that the author, peer reviewers, editors, and editorial staff disclose any possible conflicts of interest pertaining to the article and the publication procedure. We encourage authors to utilize the Conflict-of-Interest Disclosure Form developed by ICMJE, http://www.icmje.org/ known as the Uniform Disclosure Form for Potential Conflicts of Interest, to promote a consistent approach in making such declarations.

Human and Animal Right Policy

All research must adhere to rigorous ethical standards. Any suspicion of unethical practices may result in manuscript rejection and/or contact with the author(s)' ethics committee. In rare and special instances, the Editor may reject a manuscript solely on ethical grounds, even if the study has received approval from an ethics committee.

 Human Rights

Studies involving human participants must align with the principles outlined in the  WMA Declaration of Helsinki - Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects and must have received approval from an appropriate ethics committee. The manuscript must include the ethics committee's name and reference number, where applicable, in the methods section. Even studies exempt from ethical approval must be clearly indicated in the manuscript, along with the granting ethics committee's name. Additional documentation supporting these ethical considerations should be available upon request by Editors. Manuscripts may be rejected if the research is deemed inconsistent with ethical standards. In exceptional cases, editors may seek further information from ethics committees. Authors introducing new procedures or tools in a clinical context must provide a clear rationale for their use in the manuscript, especially if these depart from standard clinical practice. Ethical approval from an ethics committee and informed patient consent are expected for experimental use of novel procedures or tools, particularly when the clinical benefit was not evident before treatment.

Animal Rights 

The Methods section of manuscripts reporting animal research must include a statement confirming that the research protocol and procedures underwent ethical review and received approval, along with the name of the approving body. Experimental research involving vertebrates or regulated invertebrates must adhere to institutional, national, or international guidelines and ideally obtain approval from an ethics committee where available. Manuscripts should also disclose if the study was granted an exemption from ethics approval, providing reasons and the ethics committee's name.

The Editor will consider animal welfare issues and reserves the right to reject a manuscript, especially if the research protocols deviate from widely accepted norms in animal research. In rare cases, Editors may contact ethics committees for further information. Authors are encouraged to follow established animal research reporting standards, such as the ARRIVE guidelines. Authors should state whether experiments adhered to relevant institutional and national guidelines for laboratory animal care and use.

For studies reporting livestock trials with production, health, and food safety outcomes, authors are encouraged to comply with the Reporting Guidelines for Randomized Controlled Trials in Livestock and Food Safety (REFLECT).

Authors from the United States should reference compliance with the US National Research Council's Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, the US Public Health Service's Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, and the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. Authors from the UK should adhere to UK legislation under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 Amendment Regulations (SI 2012/3039). European authors outside the UK should conform to Directive 2010/63/EU. Authors from Nepal conducting animal experiments should adhere to the animal guidelines published by Nepal Health Research Council. Authors are expected to comply with the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and the IUCN Policy Statement on Research Involving Species at Risk of Extinction.

Case report 

Refrain from including any patient identifiers, such as names, initials, or hospital numbers, in the visual materials within the article. Once you have obtained consent, kindly download and retain the Case Report Consent Form alongside the patient's medical record chart. Authors should be prepared to provide a copy of this form upon request to the journal on demand.

Informed Consent

Informed consent to participate in the study should be obtained from participants or their parents or a legal guardian (in case of children under 16). This should be obtained for study involving human participant and should be indicated in the published article. Consent must be obtained for all form of personally identifiable data including biomedical, clinical and biometric data. Editor may seek for documentary evidence of consent in case of doubt and must be supplied.

Advertising Policy

JNHRC does not endorse any product or service marked as an advertisement or promoted by the sponsor in publications. It also does not take any advertisements in its print copy. No advertising inserts or book marks or other materials are placed in the print copy. Editorial content and manuscript decisions are independent and not influenced by the sponsorship or advertisements. The journal doesn’t accept, print or publish advertising articles.

Process of Handling correction, retractions and editorial expression of concern

The Journal of Nepal Health Research Council follows the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) (http://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf) and the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (https://publicationethics.org/guidance).  

Corrections

Errors in published articles may be flagged as corrections, or typographical errors when the Editor-in-Chief deems it appropriate to inform the Journal readers about the error and correct the published article. The corrigendum or erratum will appear as a new article in the journal, and will cite the original published article. Corrections should be made immediately in the electronic version or printed page of the journal. The places that need to be corrected should be clearly indicated, with the correction date. The corrections should be included in the Table of Contents of either an electronic version or a print version of the journal. The corrected version, and the version with errors, should be available for future access upon request from the authors. The prior electronic version should contain a note that clearly indicates the existence of an updated version. If the error is major enough to jeopardize the fundamental results or conclusions of the research, retraction instead of correction will be demanded.

Retraction

The retraction of an article by its authors or the editor can take place only after properly investigating the case under the advice of members of the scholarly community. Based on standard advice by scholarly community (COPE,ICMJE) for dealing with retractions, the following best practice for retraction by JNHRC has been adopted.

Case will be considered under retraction policy only if research integrity got challenged. Retraction case will be considered in accordance with COPE guideline only if serious article integrity gets detected after complete investigation and not able to cover by corrigendum. A retraction notes titled will be published in the paginated part of a subsequent issue of the journal and listed in the contents list. Retraction note will contain retraction decision and a link to the original article. The original article will be retained unchanged with added “Retracted” watermark on each page. Crossmark data will be updated with retraction status of the article and a link to the retraction notice.

 Editorial expressions of concern

Where substantial doubt arises and the authenticity of research or the integrity of the submitted or published article is compromised, journal editors may consider issuing an expression of concern. However, an expression of concern should only be made if investigations into issues related to the article have not yielded results and if there are strong indications of a well-founded concern. This expression of concern must be linked to the original article.