The Iraqi Journal of Embryos and Infertility Researches (IJEIR) is dedicated to upholding the highest standards of scientific and publication ethics. The journal strictly adheres to the core practices and guidelines established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).
All parties involved in the publishing process - including the publisher, editors, reviewers, and authors - are expected to agree upon and comply with these ethical standards.
Duties of the Publisher
- Editorial Independence: The High Institute of Infertility Diagnosis and Assisted Reproductive Technologies respects the independence of the Editorial Board and does not interfere with editorial decisions.
- Integrity of the Record: The publisher is committed to maintaining the permanent academic record, ensuring digital preservation, and publishing corrections, retractions, or clarifications when necessary.
Duties of the Editors
- Fair Play and Impartiality: Editors must evaluate manuscripts solely on their intellectual content, scientific merit, and relevance to the journal's scope, without regard to the race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.
- Confidentiality: The editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, and the publisher, as appropriate.
- Conflict of Interest: Editors must recuse themselves from considering manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors or institutions associated with the papers.
- Vigilance over the Academic Record: Editors must take responsive measures when ethical complaints are presented concerning a submitted manuscript or published paper, in accordance with COPE guidelines.
Duties of the Reviewers
- Contribution to Editorial Decisions: Peer review assists the editor in making editorial decisions and, through editorial communications with the author, may assist the author in improving the paper.
- Promptness: Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and withdraw from the review process.
- Confidentiality: Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shared or discussed with others without authorization from the editor.
- Objectivity: Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.
- Acknowledgment of Sources: Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge must be reported to the editor.
- Conflicts of Interest: Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers must not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest.
Duties of the Authors
- Originality and Plagiarism: Authors must ensure that they have written entirely original works. If authors have used the work and/or words of others, this must be appropriately cited or quoted. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.
- Data Access and Retention: Authors may be asked to provide the raw data in connection with a paper for editorial review and should be prepared to provide public access to such data, if practicable, and retain such data for a reasonable time after publication.
- Multiple, Redundant, or Concurrent Publication: Authors should not publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently is unethical.
- 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 co-authors must approve the final version of the paper and agree to its submission.
- Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: All authors must disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript.
- Fundamental Errors in Published Works: When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in their own published work, it is the author's obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.
IJEIR takes all ethical violations seriously and will aggressively investigate any allegations of misconduct following COPE flowcharts.