International Journal of Health and Medical Sciences (IJHMS) is a double-blind peer-reviewed journal that is committed to advancing the field of medical and health sciences. Studies from different fields of health and medical sciences are published by us. IJHMS contributes to the field of health and medical sciences particularly physiology, anatomy, psychiatry, biochemistry, cardiology, neurosciences, pharmacology, pathology, medicine, microbiology, radiology, dermatology, dentistry, nursing, and medical education. IJHMS publishes original quantitative studies, reviews, letters, informative articles, brief communication, experimental studies, case studies and articles of professional interest. Three issues are published in a year by IJHMS.

Subject Coverage

International Journal of Health and Medical Sciences (IJHMS) is official journal sponsored by Academic Research and Solutions Sociedad (ARS), Barcelona Catalonia, Spain.

Article Processing Charges

IJHMS publishes all the articles in open access which are free to access, read and print. This convenience is made possible by sponsorship amount coming from Academic Research and Solutions Sociedad (ARS) Catalunya and other academic and research societies that covers the costs of various publishing services and facilities such as online tools for editors and authors, article production and hosting, liaison with abstracting and indexing services, and customer services. There is no charge for submitting/publishing a manuscript in the International Journal of Health and Medical Sciences (IJHMS). In addition, there is no subscription fee.

Editors are responsible to ensure:

• • In order to guarantee the eminence of research all steps required for evaluation are properly followed. In the same sense the decision regarding acceptance, rejection, major and minor revision is followed by the standard quality guidelines of journal.
  • While submission of paper author has to clarify that the pertinent work is not under consideration for publication anywhere else. Along with this Editor along with any other relevant person is not permitted to submit the particular work with anyone else other than corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers and the publisher.
  • The use of unpublished research work is followed by the proper written consent of the original author.
  • The evaluation of the manuscript is solely based upon the eminence of research incorporated in the paper and is completely free from any bias.

Reviewers will have following obligations:

• The efficient blinded peer review process makes significant input in the decisions of editors as well as offers opportunity to improve the work as per quality standard.
• All the manuscripts submitted for peer review necessarily should be taken as secret essays and should not be disclosed to third person other than an authoritative person by the editor.
• If it is not possible for the concerned reviewer to review the manuscript within stated time, then he/she must inform the editor or if reviewer feels that he/she is lacking subject expertise required to review the particular manuscript then he/she has responsibility to share it with the editor.
• The reviewer should necessarily evaluate that all cited research work whether is backed by the already published work or not. It is obligatory for reviewer that all material cited in the article is supported with the sufficient citations and should dig out the work that has already been published but not cited by the author. If reviewer comes to know any association between the submitted manuscript and any already published work about which they have personal information, then reviewer must report to editor.
• Personal critique on author is not allowed. Referees views should be supporting for the authors.

Authors must know that:

• The manuscripts having plagiarism above the tolerable levels are not considered for the review. Relevant person should check the plagiarism with keen attention in order to ensure the originality of the manuscript.
• Author should ensure that submitted work is not under consideration for review with intention of final publication with any other journal. It is unethical in research that single work should be under consideration for review with multiple journals.
• Authors have responsibility to clearly mention about the possible reaction of the chemicals, procedures or equipment used in the research if applicable.
• The authorship of the manuscript should be limited towards the real contributor of the paper. Authors’ names should be followed by level of their contribution. The corresponding author of the paper must ensure that all authors are original authors.

Academic Research and Solutions Sociedad (ARS) sponsors all costs associated with publishing an Open Access article in the International Journal of Health and Medical Sciences (IJHMS). IJHMS is published under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND).

Naming authors on research articles confirms that the individuals who actually contribute get credit, and are responsible, for the research. When scientists’ relationships with respect to their work are misrepresented intentionally, it leads to misconduct that drastically affects the reporting of research work.

We believe, in the face of the prevailing challenges to authorship, its indispensable to set certain rules to manage authorship. No universal definition of authorship exists. However, an “author” is generally defined as an individual who has significantly contributed to the research work.

As per the guidelines established by Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), all individuals credited as authors must meet the set criteria for authorship that consists of following basic three points:

• • • • • Substantial Intellectual contribution in the study idea, conceptual framework, data collection and analysis and results interpretation.
        • Draft or revise the article for conceptual content.
        • Approve the final form of manuscript for publication.

A “co-author” is considered to be any person who significantly participate in the scholarly work and who is also responsible and accountable for the research results.
There are some other general guidelines that must be follow and vary from field to field.

• • • • 1. Authors for journal article must take confirmation from all co-authors for authority and to act on their behalf.
        2. The order for authorship must be based on a joint decision of all co-authors.
        3. Other individuals who do not fulfil the authorship criteria but are involved in reported work, should be listed as “Contributors”.

When a manuscript has been prepared collectively by two or multiple authors, KKG needs a “Corresponding author” to be selected because it seems impractical for KKG to get names for all co-authors to sign the Publishing Agreement warranties.
While signing a publishing Agreement, the Corresponding Author confirms that:

• • • • 1. All co-authors have authorized him/her to act on their behalf as an agent.
        2. All co-authors have conveyed their consent that he/she can sign the Publishing Agreement as their agent.
        3. The order of names is approved by all co-authors.

When the authorship issues are not properly addressed, it can give rise to disputes. These disputes may be based on misconduct such as misrepresenting one’s role or some may be due to question of interpretation regarding substantiality of others contributions. In addition, non-listing of contributors, displaying or removing one’s name without his/her permission may also become a potential issue.

In cases when complains are files over certain disputes, an editor may conduct an investigation with author’s institution to resolve the issue.

Once the article has been accepted, no changes whether addition or removal of a co-author will be allowed. The corresponding author will be responsible and accountable that all information given against co-authors like email, address and contact number are correct.

Information for Authors

All submissions should be done through Word Processing file from which title page (including author name and affiliation and any acknowledgments or author notes) must be removed. After removing the author(s) detail go to the web site here and follow the directions. Each article usually has two part, i. Main Manuscript and ii. Title Page not for Review. The manuscript should include everything (i.e. title, abstract, key words, introduction, literature review, methods, results, findings references, tables and graphs) other than the authors, names, affiliation, addresses, acknowledgements, and any other information that may be used to identify the author(s).

Criteria for Publication

For the publication in IJHMS, a manuscript must make strong theoretical and empirical contributions to the field of business. Authors who are interested in publishing with IJHMS should strive to produce original, interesting, valuable, insightful, and important research. The acceptance of article for publication highly depends upon the originality, value, importance, and significance. Submissions that do not have strong theoretical or empirical contribution will not be reviewed.

Each submitted manuscript would be assigned to action editor for evaluation. The action editor will decide whether to forward the manuscript to the reviewers. Typically, papers should be no longer than 40 double-spaced pages (using one-inch margins, left aligned, and Times New Roman 12-point font) including references, tables, figures, and appendices.

Submission Requirements

Before submitting a manuscript to IJHMS, the authors must make sure and confirm that,

• All authors have significantly contributed to the research.
• All authors are obliged to provide retractions or corrections of mistakes, in case of detection.
• List of references should be provided by authors.
• Information on financial support should be provided by authors.
• Their manuscript has not already been published, reviewed and submitted to any other journal during the review period at IJHMS. Articles presented and published in the proceedings of any academic conferences or workshops will be considered for publication in IJHMS.
• Their manuscript has not previously been submitted to IJHMS for review.
• The working papers or prior drafts of submitted manuscript that are posted on a website (e.g., personal, departmental, university, organizational) or a database will be taken down during the review process.

Manuscript Preparation

Authors are required to prepare manuscripts in accordance with the Journal’s style guides for authors that appear below. If authors do not follow the guidelines, then their manuscript will be sent back to them for revision prior to submission to the full review process. All manuscript must be submitted in Microsoft Word form.

Publication of Accepted Articles

Accepted papers are copy-edited. Authors review edits in page proofs. IJHMS’s copy editor–production manager will contact you after the acceptance of your manuscript for publication. Manuscripts should be typed in a 12-point, Times New Roman font. They must be double spaced (including references, appendices, tables, and figures). This information should be right justified. Pages should measure 8.5 by 11 inches. Manuscript length should be limited to 50 pages inclusive of references, appendices, tables and figures.

International Journal of Health and Medical Sciences (IJHMS)
Guidelines for Authors

Authors are required to prepare manuscripts in accordance with the IJHMS’s style guides appear below. If authors do not follow the guidelines then their manuscript will be sent to them for revision prior to submission to the full review process.

• Document should be double space
• All manuscripts must be submitted in Microsoft Word form
• The length of paper should between 4500 to 12000 words including references.

Front Pages

• Address: Title page should be added (this is not included with submissions under review) only for final versions of accepted manuscripts.
• Author’s names, affiliation, your work and complete addresses must be mention in your manuscripts. Example:

TITLE OF THE STUDY
AUTHOR’S FULL NAME
Current University
School and/or Department (not mandatory)
E-mail: scholar@univ.edu

Acknowledgment
Add a note at the bottom of front page, if you wish to acknowledge financial support, any other assistance, or the constructive feedback provided by the reviewers or the editor.
Abstract
An abstract of 250-300 words along the 4 to 7 keywords and the title of the work go on page 2.
Headings and Sections
IJTES uses only three levels of headings.
Use bold- face for all three.
MAIN HEADINGS (all capital letters; centered align)
Second-Level Headings (capitalize each first word: left align)
Don’t skip steps: no second-level headings before you use a first-level heading, for instance.
Third level heading: (Only first word capital: left align)
Use footnotes placed on their respective pages (not endnotes).
Hypotheses
If your study contains any hypothesis, fully and separately state each hypothesis you tested separately. Phrase it in the present tense.
Abbreviations and Language
Avoid use of abbreviations. If it is necessary then use full name for the first time and then use abbreviations in the subsequent paragraphs.
For example: For first time United Nation Organization (UNO) and in the Subsequent citation UNO

Tables and Figures

Number tables and figures consecutively (one series for tables, one for figures). Place them at the
end of your manuscript, but indicate the position of each in the text as follows:
————————————
Insert Table 2 about here
————————————
Figures, unlike tables, contain drawings (e.g., an arrow, boxes). Make sure your figures print out
clearly so that they can be scanned. Do not use color. Sample Tables and a Figure are given
below.

Guidelines for Submitting Figures/Images:

• Make sure you use uniform lettering and sizing of your original artwork.
• Number the illustrations according to their sequence in the text.
• Line illustrations should be submitted at 900 dpi.
• Halftones and color should be submitted at a minimum of 300 dpi.
• Save as either TIF, JPG files.
• Black and White art must be submitted as grayscale – not RGB.
• PowerPoint or Excel files should NOT be submitted.

Citations
IEEE in-text citations consist of a number enclosed in square brackets, which corresponds to the appropriate resource in the reference list at the end of your paper. The in-text citation numbers begin at [1], and proceed in ascending order throughout your paper–unless you are referencing a resource you have already cited in your text (in which case you use the previously-assigned number). Be aware that any edits to the references in the text of your paper may mean renumbering your reference list. There is very little variation in the formatting of IEEE in-text citations, regardless of whether you are citing a book, a web page, or a journal article. The in-text citation is placed inside the punctuation of a sentence, i.e., “… similar to what was found by other researchers [5].” You do not need to include author names or dates in IEEE in-text citations, unless it is relevant to the text of the paper. The in-text reference may be used like a footnote, or as a noun.

Single Reference
as demonstrated by Smith [10]. according to [6], there is little evidence that …

Multiple References
as Jones demonstrates in [2]–[5] or [2-5] as demonstrated earlier [10], [12]–[14], [16].
Page numbering within Reference … as demonstrated in [2, pp.21-26].

Books
Author(s) (if editor(s), include “, Ed(s).” after name), Title of Book: Subtitle of Book, edition.
City, State abbreviation or Country of publication: Publisher, Year.

One Author:
[1] Lampton, Unified Field Theory: For the Engineer and the Applied Scientist. Weinheim, Germany: Wiley-VCH, 2009.

One Editor:
[2] W. Smither, Ed., Performance Appraisal: State of the Art in Practice. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1998.

Two Authors:
[3] L. Herman and C. G. Garrard, Practical Problems in Mathematics for Electricians, 6th ed., Albany, NY: Delmar/Thomason Learning, 2002.

Two Editors:
[4] Korkin and F. Rosei, Eds., Nanoelectronics and Photonics: From Atoms to Materials, Devices and Architectures. New York, NY: Springer, 2008.

No Author or Editor:
[5] New Concise World Atlas. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2007.

Book Chapter in Book
Author(s) (if editor, include “, Ed(s).” after name), “Title of chapter or entry or case study,” in Title of Book, edition. City, State abbreviation or Country of publication: Publisher, Year, pp. xx-xx.

[6] E. D. Lipson and B. D. Horwitz, “Photosensory reception and transduction,” in Sensory Receptors and Signal Transduction, J. L. Spudich and B. H. Satir, Eds., New York, NY: Wiley-Liss, 2001, pp.1-64.

Journal Article
Author(s), “Title of journal article,” Abbreviated Title of Periodical, vol. #, issue #, pp. xx-xx, Month Year.

Reference list citation examples –Journal Article
In IEEE style, use only the initials for the author’s first and middle names. For the title of the article, only capitalize the first word of the title, subtitle, and any proper nouns. Spell out the entire title of a periodical, or abbreviate it in a standardized way (see https://www.ieee.org/documents/ieeecitationref.pdf for details). If the author is unknown, begin with the title.

One Author:
[7] Strickland, “24 hours at Fukushima,” IEEE Spectr., vol. 48, no. 11, pp. 35-42, 2011.

Two or more Authors:
[8] M. Bareib, B. N. Tiwari, and A. Hochmeister, “Nano antenna array for terahertz detection,” IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, vol. 59, no. 10, pp. 2751-2757, 2011.

No Author:
[9] “Publication information for authors,” IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 59, no. 10, pp. C3, 2011.

Handbooks and Manuals
Author(s). Title of Handbook/Manual, edition. Company, City, State abbreviation or Country of publication, Year, pp. xx-xx.

Reference list citation examples –Handbooks, and Manuals
In IEEE style, use only the initials for the author’s first and middle names. For the title of the report, handbook, or manual, capitalize all the important words. If there is no author, begin with the title.

No Author:
[10] Commercial/Institutional Ground-Source Heat Pump Engineering Manual, 1st ed., ASHRAE, Atlanta, GA, 1995, pp. 23-42.

Published Conference Proceedings
Author(s). “Title of paper,” in Conference Name, City, State Abbreviation or Country, Year, pp. xx-xx.

[11] L. R. Rabiner, “A tutorial on hidden Markov models and selected applications in speech recognition,” in Proceedings of the IEEE, Murray Hill: NJ, 1989, pp. 257-286.

[12] G. U. Burkhardt and T. Egloffstein, “Asphalt liners in landfill construction,” in Construction for a Sustainable Environment, Vilnius, Lithuania, 2008, pp. 101-109.

Paper Presented at Conference
Author(s), “Title of paper,” presented at the Name of Conference, City of Conference,
Abbreviation of State in case of US or Country, year.

One Author:
[13] H. Zhang, “LaB6 field emission gun: Making a decades old dream come true with nanotechnology,” in International Conference on Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology for Sustainable Development, Kathmandu, Nepal, 2011.

Online Sources
Online Article from Library Database
Author(s). (Year, Month). Title of article. Title of Journal [Online]. Volume(Issue), page numbers. Available: permanent link or DOI for article.

Reference list citation examples – Online Article from Library Database
In IEEE style, use only the initials for the author’s first and middle names. For the title of the paper, only capitalize the first word of the title, subtitle, and any proper nouns. Abbreviate the month of publication in a standardized way (Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., May, June, Jul., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec.)

One Author:
[14] E. J. M. Carranza. (2011, Dec.). Geocomputation of mineral exploration targets. Computers & Geosciences [Online]. 37(12), 1907-1916. Available: doi:10.1016/j.cageo.2011.11.009 If you are not able to find all of the information identified in the general format, include all that is available from the source.

Webpage or Document from a Website
Author(s). (Year, Month Day). Title of website, webpage, or document [Online].

Available: link to article
In IEEE style, use only the initials for the author’s first and middle names. For the title of the webpage, capitalize only the first word, subtitle, and any proper nouns. Abbreviate the month of publication in a standardized way (Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., May, June, Jul., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec.). If the author is unknown, begin with the article title.

One Author:
[15] K. Bonsor and J. Strickland. (2007, Mar. 20). How nanotechnology works [Online]. Available: https://science.howstuffworks.com/nanotechnology.htm

Submit Online

Authors should kindly note that submission implies that the content has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere except as a brief abstract in the proceedings of a scientific meeting or symposium.
Once the submission materials have been prepared in accordance with the Author Guidelines, manuscripts should be submitted online.

Submit here

Or you can send your manuscript to the editor at editor.ijhms@kkgpublications.com.

Peer review is one of the key steps leading to the final publication of the research manuscripts. Reviewers are the people mainly responsible for conducting this review successfully. It is the process through which the research entries are validated and their originality is ensured.

The Peer-Review Policy can be viewed here.

Peer Review Significance

Peer Reviewers are responsible for fulfilling the following duties:

• They ensure that the journal is furnished with the most relevant studies.
• They bring forward the earlier studies that can contribute to the journal.
• They check for grammatical, statistical and technical mistakes in the research manuscripts and appraise the validity of the conclusion that the research offers.

Peer Review Goals

Peer Review is the most pragmatic means of assessing the research efforts and it provides opportunities for successful and effective publication of the most authentic works by meeting the following goals:

• Evaluation – Peer review evaluates all the research entries to come up with the best entries of all.
• Integrity – Peer review gives priority to the integrity of the research and the scholars. All the works that pass the review phase successfully become eligible for being published in the specified journals.
• Quality – By filtering and reviewing the manuscripts, Peer Reviewers help the authors refine their researches for publication. It is a way by which the authors can take valuable insights directly from the experts.

IJHMS published annually (01) time a year.

International Journal of Health and Medical Sciences (IJHMS) is currently abstracted and indexed in the following databases:

1. EBSCOhost
2. Academic Search Ultimate (EBSCO)
3. Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory
4. ROAD- Directory of Open Access Scholarly Resources
5. Dimensions
6. MIAR Database
7. Crossref
8. Google Scholar
9. Mendeley
10. Publons
11. SSRN
12. Academia
13. RePEc
14. OCLC
15. WorldCat

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

All the peer-reviewed research articles published in this journal are given open access. This feature makes the articles universally and freely accessible over internet for as many times as desired by the users, and is available in a reader-friendly format right after publication.

All articles will get published as per the requirements of the following license:
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND): This license entitles the third party users to use the content for non-commercial purposes, distribute and copy the article, and include the content in any collective work (such as an anthology), with the condition that the author(s) will be given due credit and no alteration or modification will be done in the article.

Editors are responsible to ensure:

• • In order to guarantee the eminence of research all steps required for evaluation are properly followed. In the same sense the decision regarding acceptance, rejection, major and minor revision is followed by the standard quality guidelines of journal.
  • While submission of paper author has to clarify that the pertinent work is not under consideration for publication anywhere else. Along with this Editor along with any other relevant person is not permitted to submit the particular work with anyone else other than corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers and the publisher.
  • The use of unpublished research work is followed by the proper written consent of the original author.
  • The evaluation of the manuscript is solely based upon the eminence of research incorporated in the paper and is completely free from any bias.

Reviewers will have following obligations:

• The efficient blinded peer review process makes significant input in the decisions of editors as well as offers opportunity to improve the work as per quality standard.
• All the manuscripts submitted for peer review necessarily should be taken as secret essays and should not be disclosed to third person other than an authoritative person by the editor.
• If it is not possible for the concerned reviewer to review the manuscript within stated time, then he/she must inform the editor or if reviewer feels that he/she is lacking subject expertise required to review the particular manuscript then he/she has responsibility to share it with the editor.
• The reviewer should necessarily evaluate that all cited research work whether is backed by the already published work or not. It is obligatory for reviewer that all material cited in the article is supported with the sufficient citations and should dig out the work that has already been published but not cited by the author. If reviewer comes to know any association between the submitted manuscript and any already published work about which they have personal information, then reviewer must report to editor.
• Personal critique on author is not allowed. Referees views should be supporting for the authors.

Authors must know that:

• The manuscripts having plagiarism above the tolerable levels are not considered for the review. Relevant person should check the plagiarism with keen attention in order to ensure the originality of the manuscript.
• Author should ensure that submitted work is not under consideration for review with intention of final publication with any other journal. It is unethical in research that single work should be under consideration for review with multiple journals.
• Authors have responsibility to clearly mention about the possible reaction of the chemicals, procedures or equipment used in the research if applicable.
• The authorship of the manuscript should be limited towards the real contributor of the paper. Authors’ names should be followed by level of their contribution. The corresponding author of the paper must ensure that all authors are original authors.

Statement on Human Rights

If a research involves human subjects, its design, conduct, and result reporting should strictly adhere to the Clinical Practice guidelines (such as the Good Clinical Practice in Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-Regulated Clinical Trials (USA) or the Medical Research Council Guidelines for Good Clinical Practice in Clinical Trials (UK)) and/or to the World Medical Association (WMA) Declaration of Helsinki.

All research works being performed with human subjects should give an affirming statement that the experiments were performed only after consent (written or verbal, as appropriate) from the participants.

If experimentation on human subjects is being carried out that needs to be reported, authors are required to show that the employed procedures comply with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki) for experiments involving human subjects. . If any doubt exists regarding research’s compliance with the Helsinki Declaration, the author(s) need to mention the rationale behind the endeavor and refer to the institutional review body to highlight its approval for the doubtful aspects of the study.

Statement on Animal Rights

If the work is based on animal subjects, the author should prove its compliance with the EU Directive 2010/63/EU for animal experiments. Authors should declare that the work holds approval from the concerned institution’s animal use and care committee or equivalent body through a formal statement made at the start of the “Methods” section.

When experiments on animals are to be reported, authors should highlight the extent to which the institutional and national standards for the care and use of laboratory animals were followed. For obtaining further guidance on animal research ethics, consult the International Association of Veterinary Editors’ Consensus Author Guidelines on Animal Ethics and Welfare.

Statement on Informed Consent

Researches involving human subjects as participants (or their parents or guardians in the case of children under 18) should seek for their informed consent before beginning the research. The main body of research should also highlight the approval obtained from the participants.

Consent for publication of individual patient data:

If materials like personal details, images, or videos of the participants have been used in the research, then participants (or their parent or legal guardian in the case of children under 18) should be made aware of it and their written informed consent for publication should be obtained. A formal statement should be included in the manuscript to address this process. A consent form should also be in possession of the Editor(s) on request who are responsible to respect its confidentiality. If unidentifiable images and general details of participants have been used in the manuscript, then a publication consent might not be necessary to obtain but the final verdict comes from the Editor(s) in this regard.
Patients’ privacy should always be respected and their informed consent should be given due value. Information like patients’ names, initials, or hospital numbers, should never be a part of the written descriptions, photographs, or pedigrees unless it is a requisite for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written consent for its disclosure. But firstly, the patient should know exactly what manuscript is to be published so he/she can approve disclosure. Authors should also inform them from where the writing assistance and its funding source have been obtained. Identifying details are not obligatory to be added in a manuscript. For making participants’ anonymity possible, an informed consent should be obtained before proceeding with the research.

Last Update: 29-08-2017

International Journal of Health and Medical Sciences strictly adhere to guidelines set out by the COPE Code of Conduct for Journal Editors to treat misconduct. Researchers has obligation to follow best practices and a code of ethics of some relevant regularity authorities (national or international) before conducting their research and submitting their articles.

In publishing, research misconduct cases are rare. However, to encounter such situation and challenges IJHMS has a comprehensive publishing ethics guide.

Ethical Issues and Dealing with Possible Misconduct

It must be noted that there are two different cases of misconduct: Complex Scientific Fraud and Errors. Therefore, it becomes important to treat such type of cases with great care to avoid risk. Following actions are taken by KKG Publications to treat any misconduct.

1. Acting as neutral player and dealing misconduct with great confidentiality.
2. Written communication regarding such issues is kept in record including complainant evidence and allegation.
3. Issue of misconduct is raised with the suspected (co)author following a formal procedure.
4. Facts and findings are collected against what actually happened and decision is taken ensuring transparency.

Following are the possible type of misconduct or ethical issues that can take place in research.

1. Data Falsification
2. Duplicate Publication
3. Plagiarism
4. Undeclared conflict of interest
5. Authorship Issues

KKG publications has number of sanctions in its policies (ranked on the basis of severity) in which “Banning” decision by the editor is the most severe sanction. The publication as well as dissemination of the corrective notice is very important act. The corrective notice recognizes that misconduct took place and pinpoints the acting party that was leading that misconduct.

KKG Publications has explained number of other potential sanctions which are in order of severity. These include:

• • Publication of erratum, corrigendum or a notice.
  • Formal removal in few cases like invasion of privacy (ensuring that scientific record is maintained for such misconduct issues).
  • The publication of a corrective notice (formal retraction) that has direct link to original article.
  • Publishing an editorial that discusses the issue

The editor-in-chief should carefully weigh and consider all these sanctions while dealing with ant type of misconduct.

Complaint Policy

This procedure applies to complaints about the journal, its staff, editorial board or publisher, the policies, procedures, or actions of “International Journal of Health and Medical Sciences (IJHMS)” editorial staff. We welcome complaints as they provide an opportunity for improvement, and we will provide a quick and constructive response.
Complaints related to International Journal of Business and Administrative Studies (IJHMS) should be directed in the first instance to the Editorial Team at editor.ijhms@kkgpublications.com.
Complaints will be investigated according to recommendations by the Committee on Publication Ethics (see COPE Flowcharts). If complainants are unsatisfied with the response, they may contact the Publisher, editor@kkgpublications.com or e-mail your complaint at complaints@kkgpublications.com with clear identification of the complaint nature and source of an address.
We presume that complaints should be based on the failure of the process (severe misjudgment, a long delay, or a rude response), not a simple disagreement with editorial decisions.
IJHMS addresses the following complaints:

• Authorship complaints
• Plagiarism complaints
• Multiple, duplicate, concurrent publication/Simultaneous submission
• Research results misappropriation and data fabrication
• Allegations of research errors and fraud
• Research standards violations
• Undisclosed conflicts of interest
• Reviewer bias or competitive harmful acts by reviewers

Complaints handling policy

If the Publisher receives a complaint that any contribution to the Journal infringes intellectual property rights or contains material inaccuracies, libelous materials or otherwise unlawful materials, we will investigate the complaint. The investigation may include a request that the parties involved substantiate their claims. The Publisher will determine whether to remove the allegedly wrongful material. If the complaint lacks sufficient foundation, the material will not be removed. Complaint investigations and decisions will be documented. Our goal is to ensure the highest quality of our journals; however, we accept that occasional mistakes might happen.
All complaints will be acknowledged by email. If possible, a definitive response will be made within two weeks. If this is not possible, an interim response will be given within two weeks. Interim responses will be provided until the complaint is finally resolved. If the complainant remains unsatisfied, complaints will be escalated to the editor, whose decision is final.

All the submitted manuscript would be checked for plagiarism using

Library Catalogue

Biblioteca Nacional de España
International Journal of Health and Medical Sciences is committed to the permanent availability and preservation of scholarly research published in IJHMS. IJHMS is keeping digital archive with Biblioteca Nacional de España (digital library of the National Library of Spain).
IJHMS also offer its authors to make their research publically accessible, free from payment and any embargo period through Green Open Access Policy.

Green Open Access: Archiving and Sharing Policy

You may share the Original Submission or Accepted Manuscript at any time and in any format. Your sharing of the Original Submission or Accepted Manuscript may include posting a downloadable copy on any website, saving a copy in any repository or network, sharing a copy through any social media channel, and distributing print or electronic copies.
You may use the Final Published PDF (or Original Submission or Accepted Manuscript, if preferred) in the following ways:

• in relation to your own teaching, provided that any electronic distribution maintains restricted access
• to share on an individual basis with research colleagues, provided that such sharing is not for commercial purposes
• in your dissertation or thesis, including where the dissertation or thesis will be posted in any electronic Institutional Repository or database
• in a book authored or edited by you, at any time after the Contribution’s publication in the journal.

Provided that:

• Access to the Original Submission and Accepted Manuscript is provided at no charge.
• Any re-use terms for users of websites and repositories (where your Original Submission or Accepted Manuscript are posted) are restricted to non-commercial and no derivative uses.
• You may not post the Final Published PDF on any unrestricted website or repository without permission from KKG Publications.
• You may not republish or translate any version of your Contribution in another journal without prior permission from KKG Publications.
• The journal as the original publication of your Contribution is appropriately credited by including the full citation information each time your Contribution, or excerpts, are further distributed or re-used.
• After your Contribution has been accepted for publication and until it is assigned a DOI, please include a statement that your Contribution has been accepted for publication in the journal.
• Once full citation information for your Contribution is available, please include this with your posted Contribution, in a format similar to the following:

Author(s), Contribution Title, Journal Title (Journal Volume Number and Issue Number) pp. xx-xx. Copyright © [year] (Copyright Holder). DOI: [DOI number].

How conflicts of interest are managed justly has a deep impact on the public trust in the scientific process and the credibility of published articles particularly during the processes of planning, implementation, writing, peer review, editing, and publication of scientific work. When a primary interest (such as patients’ welfare or the validity of research) takes impact from a secondary interest (such as financial gain), a conflict of interest is likely to arise. Understanding the conflict of interest is as crucial as the conflict of interest itself. Financial relationships (such as employment, consultancies, stock ownership or options, honoraria, patents, and paid expert testimony) are the most obvious types of conflicts of interest and can damage the credibility of the journal, the authors, and the field of science under study. However, conflicts can also be the result of some other factors, such as personal relationships or adversities, academic competition, and intellectual opinions. Authors should refrain from signing any such agreement with the study sponsors that is likely to hinder the authors’ access to the complete study’s data or their right to analyze and interpret the data and independent manuscript submission as per their demand, no matter if it is for-profit or non-profit.

Participants of peer-review and publication process i.e., authors, peer reviewers, editors, and editorial board members of journals, should be aware of their conflicts of interest and need to perform their part in the article review and publication accordingly. If they have any relationships leading to conflicts of interest in their knowledge, they are required to disclose them.

Authors: Authors should disclose all the financial and personal relationships leading to conflict or biases at the time of submission of manuscripts of any type or format. The KKG Publications has designed a Form for Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest to be signed for the articles that are about to be published.

Peer Reviewers: During the critical evaluation, reviewers should be asked to disclose all those conflicts of interest that can possibly impede the review process. Reviewers should inform the editors of any such conflicts of interest that can make their judgment biased towards a manuscript, and should avoid the review of such manuscripts that have a strong risk of obtaining a biased evaluation. Reviewers need to respect the authors’ rights over the manuscripts by not using or misusing the manuscript’s knowledge for personal gains.

Editors and Journal Staff: Editors, in the presence of conflicts of interest, should stop the editorial decision-making. In case some conflict-creating relationships exist for the articles under consideration, editors should do the same. Other editorial staff members having a say in the editorial decisions need to inform the editors of their current financial interests or other conflicts (that may influence the editorial judgments somehow) and should recuse from the decision likely to be afflicted by any sort of conflict of interest. Editorial staff should also handle the content of manuscripts responsibly and ethically by not utilizing it for personal interests. Editors should declare through disclosure statements regularly the conflicts of interests related to the roles of the journal staff. Same guidelines need to be followed by the guest editors.

Reporting Conflicts of Interest

Articles that are about to be published should contain statements or supporting documents, such as conflict of interest form, affirming: – Authors’ conflicts of interest; and – Sources of support for the work, including sponsor names with descriptions of the role of those sources if any in study design; collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; report compilation; the decision of getting the report published or a statement assuring of no link with the supporting source; and – proof of the authors’ access to the study data, while defining the nature and the extent of access, with special reference to its on-going nature if applicable. For validating the above-mentioned statements or documents, editors may contact the authors of a study who might have funding sponsors with a proprietary or financial interest and ask them to sign a statement, “I had full access to all of the data in this study and I take complete responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.”

Author Declaration Form

“International Journal of Health and Medical Sciences (IJHMS)” is the official journal of Academic Research and Solutions Sociedad (ARS) Catalunya. IJHMS is published by KKG Publications.

When authors submit a paper to IJHMS for reviewing and publishing they retain their copyright, but agree to grant non-exclusive publishing rights to IJHMS and agree that the paper will be published under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license, if the paper is accepted for publication. Authors are encouraged to read carefully their rights. We believe this approach ensures a fair arrangement for the both parties. The license granted to IJHMS allows the Journal to edit and typeset the paper which will be included in a forthcoming issue and distributed it in any online and offline medium that the journal deems necessary in order to promote the paper, the authors and IJHMS.

For more information about the Creative Commons Licences please visit: https://creativecommons.org