Al-Shifa Journal of Ophthalmology – Policies
1. Authorship and Contributorship Policy
- Authorship is based on substantial contributions to the research, including study design, data collection, analysis, and manuscript drafting.
- All authors must approve the final version of the manuscript before submission.
- Contributors who do not meet the authorship criteria should be acknowledged separately.
- Any changes in authorship after submission require a written request, agreement from all authors, and editorial approval.
2. Complaints and Appeals Policy
- Complaints regarding editorial decisions, ethical concerns, or journal processes must be submitted in writing to the editorial office.
- The journal follows a transparent three-step complaint resolution process:
- Initial Review – The Editor-in-Chief reviews the complaint.
- Editorial Board Assessment – If unresolved, the editorial board evaluates the issue.
- Independent Review – In complex cases, an external ethics committee may be consulted.
- Appeals against rejected manuscripts must be based on strong scientific arguments or evidence of procedural errors.
3. Conflict of Interest / Competing Interests Policy
- Authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose any potential conflicts of interest, including financial, personal, or institutional relationships that could influence the research.
- Conflicts must be declared in the Conflict of Interest Statement within the manuscript.
- The journal reserves the right to reject or retract an article if undisclosed conflicts of interest are discovered post-publication.
4. Data Sharing and Reproducibility Policy
- Authors must provide raw data, statistical methods, and study protocols upon request to ensure reproducibility.
- If the research involves clinical or patient data, anonymization is required before sharing.
- Authors are encouraged to deposit data in public repositories or provide supplementary material for transparency.
5. Ethical Oversight Policy
- The journal adheres to COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) guidelines for ethical publishing.
- Studies involving human subjects must have prior approval from an Institutional Review Board (IRB) or Ethics Committee.
- Informed consent must be obtained from participants, and it should be mentioned in the manuscript.
- In cases of ethical misconduct (e.g., fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism), the journal will conduct an investigation and may take corrective actions, including retraction.
6. Intellectual Property Policy
- Authors retain copyright of their work but grant the journal a non-exclusive publishing license.
- The journal follows an open-access policy, allowing free access to published articles under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC).
- Authors must ensure that they have the right to publish any third-party content (e.g., figures, tables) included in their manuscript.
7. Post-Publication Discussions and Corrections Policy
- Readers and authors can engage in post-publication discussions through the journal’s letters to the editor section.
- If errors are identified in a published article, corrections will be issued as:
- Erratum (for minor errors that do not affect study conclusions).
- Corrigendum (for author-reported errors).
- Retraction (for serious ethical or data integrity concerns).
- The journal follows COPE guidelines for handling retractions and corrections transparently.