FJMRI Journal | ISSN: Applied | DOI: via Zenodo | Open Access
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COPE Core Practices · ICMJE · WAME · Research Integrity

Publication Ethics & Malpractice Policy

FJMRI enforces strict ethical standards across all stages of manuscript review, publication, and post-publication oversight in accordance with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

⚖️ COPE Core Practices 🩺 ICMJE Guidelines 🔍 Zero Misconduct Tolerance Last Updated: January 2026

01. Ethical Standards & International Frameworks

Publishing high-calibre academic scholarship requires collaborative responsibility between authors, peer referees, editors, and publishers. FJMRI subscribes in full to the principles established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME).

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Universal Commitment: Editors, reviewers, and staff are held to equal accountability as authors. Conflicts of interest, procedural bias, and unauthorized commercial interference are strictly forbidden.

02. Categorization of Research Misconduct

FJMRI identifies and investigates all forms of academic and scientific malpractice, including but not limited to:

Fabrication (FFP)

Inventing data, non-existent experimental subjects, or phantom trial cohorts that never existed.

Falsification (FFP)

Manipulating research materials, equipment, or modifying figures/graphs to mislead.

Plagiarism

Appropriating another's words, ideas, equations, or illustrations without proper scholarly attribution.

Citation Manipulation

Deliberately padding bibliographies with coercive or unmerited self/journal citations.

03. Data Fabrication, Falsification & Image Manipulation

Data presented in manuscripts submitted to FJMRI must be genuine, reproducible, and verifiable. Authors must retain raw experimental data, source code, and measurement logs for at least 5 years following publication.

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Digital Image Integrity Standards: No specific feature within an image (e.g. western blots, micrographs, spectral charts) may be selectively enhanced, obscured, moved, removed, or added. Adjustments of brightness or contrast are only permissible if applied uniformly across the entire image and do not misrepresent the underlying scientific phenomenon.

04. Citation Manipulation & Artificial Impact Stacking

Citations must serve exclusively to place research into legitimate academic context. FJMRI strictly prohibits:

  • Coercive Citation: Editors or peer reviewers demanding that an author cite the editor's or reviewer's own papers (or FJMRI) as a condition of acceptance. Any reviewer making such requests will be permanently barred from the reviewer board.
  • Citation Cartels: Reciprocal agreements among groups of authors or researchers to systematically inflate each other's citations.
  • Irrelevant Self-Citation: Authors gratuitously citing their own past publications that bear no legitimate relevance to the presented inquiry.

05. Redundant Publication & Duplicate Submission

Manuscripts submitted to FJMRI must be original and not simultaneously submitted to or under active consideration by any other journal, book, or conference proceeding.

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Concurrent Submissions Prohibited: Submitting the same paper to multiple outlets concurrently wastes valuable peer review resources and constitutes ethical malpractice. If concurrent submission is discovered, the manuscript is instantly rejected and the author's home institution may be notified.

06. Allegation Investigations, Sanctions & Whistleblower Protection

When concerns or allegations of misconduct are brought to the editorial team's attention (whether prior to publication or years post-publication), we follow formal COPE Flowcharts:

  • Confidential Fact-Finding: The handling editor and Editor-in-Chief review evidence impartially without rush to judgment.
  • Author Opportunity to Respond: The corresponding author is formally invited to provide an explanation and raw data within 14 calendar days.
  • Institutional Notification: If explanations are absent, unsatisfactory, or substantiate severe misconduct, the Editor-in-Chief notifies the authors' university integrity officer or research dean.
  • Sanctions: Depending on severity, sanctions include immediate manuscript rejection, formal retraction notices, publication bans ranging from 1 to 5 years, and reporting to academic databases.