Ethics Statement

Ethics and Malpractice Statement

The International Journal of Health and Rehabilitation (IJHR_ORG) is unwaveringly committed to upholding the highest principles of integrity, fairness, and ethical conduct throughout all stages of the scholarly publishing process. This statement delineates the specific duties and responsibilities expected of all participants—authors, peer reviewers, editors, and the publisher—to ensure the trustworthiness and quality of the published record in health and rehabilitation sciences. Our policies are guided by the core practices and flowcharts of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations, and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME).

Responsibilities of Authors

  1. Originality and Acknowledgement: Authors must guarantee that their submitted work is entirely original. Any text, data, ideas, or creative work from other sources must be properly cited and attributed. Plagiarism, in all its forms—including verbatim copying, substantial unattributed paraphrasing, and self-plagiarism (redundant publication)—constitutes unacceptable misconduct.

  2. Data Integrity and Reproducibility: Authors must present an accurate and truthful account of the research performed. Data must not be fabricated, falsified, or manipulated to support hypotheses. Underlying data should be retained and be available for scrutiny. The journal encourages data sharing in public repositories to promote reproducibility.

  3. Exclusive Submission and Prior Publication: Manuscripts must not be under concurrent consideration by any other publication. Submission of work that has been published in whole or in substantial part elsewhere (except as a preprint) is prohibited.

  4. Authorship Criteria: All listed authors must have made significant intellectual contributions to the work, as defined by the ICMJE criteria, and must approve the final submitted version. Contributors who do not meet authorship criteria should be acknowledged.

  5. Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest: All authors must disclose any financial (e.g., funding, employment, stock ownership) or personal relationships that could be perceived as inappropriately influencing the work. This disclosure must be provided at submission and will be published with the article.

  6. Ethical Compliance for Research: For studies involving human participants or animal subjects, authors must confirm that the work was approved by an appropriate ethics committee and conducted in accordance with relevant guidelines (e.g., Declaration of Helsinki). A statement to this effect must be included in the manuscript.

Duties of Editors and Editorial Board

  1. Fair and Objective Decision-Making: Editorial decisions to accept or reject a manuscript are based solely on its scholarly importance, originality, clarity, and relevance to the journal’s scope, without regard to the authors' race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, citizenship, or institutional affiliation.

  2. Confidentiality: Editors and editorial staff must treat all submitted manuscripts as confidential documents. They must not disclose any information about a submission to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, and the publisher, as appropriate.

  3. Vigilance Against Misconduct: Editors have a duty to act if they suspect or receive an allegation of ethical misconduct. This involves pursuing allegations diligently, following COPE guidelines, and giving authors a chance to respond to any charges.

  4. Conflict of Interest Management: Editors must recuse themselves from handling manuscripts in which they have a competing interest. They must require all editorial staff and reviewers to disclose potential conflicts.

Responsibilities of Peer Reviewers

  1. Contribution to Editorial Decisions: Peer review assists the editor in making editorial decisions and, through constructive communication with the author, can help improve the manuscript. Reviewers should provide objective, substantiated, and respectful feedback.

  2. Confidentiality: Any manuscript received for review is a confidential document. Reviewers must not share, discuss, or use information from the unpublished manuscript for their own advantage.

  3. Alertness to Ethical Issues: Reviewers should be alert to potential ethical issues, including plagiarism, data fabrication, dual submission, and inadequate ethical approvals. Any such concerns must be promptly brought to the editor’s attention.

  4. Declaration of Competing Interests: Reviewers must decline to review a manuscript if they have a significant conflict of interest (e.g., a close collaborative or competitive relationship with an author) that would compromise their objectivity. Any potential conflicts must be disclosed to the editor upon invitation.

Addressing Allegations of Misconduct

IJHR_ORG takes all allegations of publication malpractice seriously. Upon receipt of a credible allegation—whether concerning plagiarism, data manipulation, authorship disputes, or unethical research—the Editor-in-Chief will initiate a formal investigation following COPE procedures. This process will be fair, confidential, and allow the involved parties to respond to the allegations.

If misconduct is substantiated, the journal will take appropriate corrective action, which may include:

  • Rejection of the submitted manuscript or retraction of a published article.

  • Publication of a formal notice of retraction or correction.

  • Reporting the misconduct to the authors’ institutional authorities.

  • Prohibiting the involved individuals from future submissions or service to the journal for a defined period.

This Ethics and Malpractice Statement is designed to protect the integrity of the academic discourse, promote responsible research, and maintain public trust in the scientific process. Compliance with these principles is a fundamental condition for participation in the journal’s activities.