Use of Animals in Experimental Studies

All animal experiments should comply with the permission of and under the supervision of the national/local ethics committee/ Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). The authors should clearly indicate in the manuscript (Material and Methods Section) that such guidelines have been followed.

For more details about the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, the authors are referred to the following webpage: https://www.aalas.org/iacuc

Use of Humans, Human Tissues, and Clinical Trials

All original articles published in MMSL must contain, in the section Material and Methods, statements indicating that informed consent has been obtained, that studies have been performed according to the Declaration of Helsinki, and that the procedures have been approved by the local ethics committee/Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). Support documentation may also be requested by the journal or its editorial board.

For more details about the Declaration of Helsinki, authors are referred to the following webpage: https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/

For more details about the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, authors are referred to the following webpage: https://www.aalas.org/iacuc

Data fabrication / data falsification

This concerns the making up of research findings. Manipulating research data with the intention of giving a false impression. This includes manipulating images (including graphs and schemes), removing outliers or “inconvenient” results, changing, adding or omitting data points, etc. With regard to image manipulation it is allowed to technically improve images for readability. Proper technical manipulation refers to adjusting the contrast and/or brightness or color balance if it is applied to the complete digital image (and not parts of the image). Any technical manipulation by the author should be notified in the cover letter to the Editorial office upon submission. Improper technical manipulation refers to obscuring, enhancing, deleting and/or introducing new elements into an image. Generally, if an author’s figures are questionable, it is suggested to request the original data from the authors.

Duplicate submission/publication and "salami-like" publication

This refers to the practice of submitting the same study to two journals or publishing more or less the same study in two journals. These submissions/publications can be nearly simultaneous or years later.

Submitting one piece into two different journals at the same time is prohibited.

Another concern deals with so-called "salami-like" publishing denotes the situation where one study is split into several parts and submitted to two or more journals. Or the findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper cross-referencing, permission or justification. It concerns recycling or borrowing content from previous work without citation. This practice is widespread and might be unintentional. Transparency by the author on the use of previously published work usually provides the necessary information to make an assessment on whether it is deliberate or unintentional. In case of suspicion of "salami-like" publishing, MMSL Editorial Office reserves the right to reject the manuscript/publication at any time of the submission process.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism occurs when someone presents the work of others (data, text, or theories) as if it was his/her own without proper acknowledgment. There are different degrees of plagiarism.
The severity is dependent on various factors: extent of copied material, originality of copied material, position/context/type of material and referencing/attribution of the material used.


Every case is different and therefore decisions will vary per case. Ask yourself the following question: Does it concern an honest mistake or is there an intentional deviation from the scientific norm? Please note there are many grey areas between honest, questionable and fraudulent practices.

All the articles upon their submission undergo screening for potential plagiarism using iThenticate software (https://www.ithenticate.com/). At this stage, MMSL Editorial Office reserves the right to decide whether to continue with the peer-review process or reject the publication from further article processing.

Whilst reviewing the case consider the following factors:

- Author seniority. Junior authors may be asked to paraphrase the copied text if it is believed that they are genuinely not aware that copying phrases is inappropriate. It is expected that a senior author should know better.
- Cultural background could be an indication for potentially different behaviors concerning the amount of copying which could be seen as plagiarism

The following list is designed to make you aware of the various possibilities concerning plagiarism:

- Verbatim copying of another’s work and submitting it as one’s own.
- Verbatim copying of significant portions of text from a single source.
- Mixing verbatim copied material from multiple sources (“patchwork copying”). This could range from 1 or 2 paragraphs to significant portions consisting of several paragraphs.
- Changing key words and phrases but retaining the essential content of the source as a framework.
- Rephrasing of the text’s original wording and/or structure and submitting it as one’s own.
- Mixing slightly rephrased material from multiple sources and presenting what has been published already as new.
- The work is cited, but the cited portions are not clearly identified. This can be combined with copied parts of text without citation.

However for review papers the above is not directly applicable. Review papers are expected to give a summary of existing literature. Authors should use their own words with exception of properly quoted and/or cited texts and the work should include a new interpretation.

Undeclared conflict of interest

A conflict of interest is a situation in which financial or other personal considerations from authors or reviewers have the potential to compromise or bias professional judgment and objectivity. Authors and reviewers should declare all conflicts of interest relevant to the work under consideration (i.e. relationships, both financial and personal, that might interfere with the interpretation of the work) to avoid the potential for bias.

If no conflict of interest can be declared, authors must postulate that "There is no conflict of interested to be disclosed".

Funding

Authors must cleare demonstrate source of financial support for their study.

If funding source cannot be disclosed, authors must declare work has no funding or that work was self-funded.

Article processing charge (APC) to Military Medical Science Letters

There are no publication fees/APC charges related to publishing and handling your work in Military Medical Science Letters. Every accepted publication is made freely accessible to a scientific audience via the journal website.