Publication Ethics
ayuBha Journal is committed to integrity, transparency, accountability, fairness and ethical conduct in scholarly publishing.
The journal’s editorial policies are guided by recognised principles of publication ethics, including the COPE Core Practices and relevant recommendations for biomedical and health-sciences journals. Stating that the journal is “guided by” these standards is appropriate; the website should not claim formal membership unless the journal has actually been accepted as a member. DOAJ expects policies covering authorship, complaints, misconduct, conflicts, data, ethical oversight, intellectual property and post-publication correction.
Authorship and Contributorship
Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made substantial scholarly contributions to the work and who accept accountability for its accuracy and integrity.
Every listed author should have:
- Contributed substantially to the conception, design, conduct, data acquisition, analysis or interpretation of the work
- Participated in drafting or critically revising the manuscript
- Approved the final version
- Agreed to be accountable for the work
Individuals who contributed but do not meet the criteria for authorship should be acknowledged with their permission.
Gift authorship, honorary authorship, guest authorship, purchased authorship, coerced authorship and omission of deserving contributors are prohibited.
Requests to add, remove or rearrange authors after submission must include a written explanation and agreement from all affected authors. Changes after acceptance will be permitted only in exceptional and adequately justified circumstances.
Originality and Duplicate Submission
Submitted manuscripts must be original and must not be under consideration by another journal.
Authors must disclose related manuscripts, preprints, conference abstracts, earlier reports or publications arising from the same dataset.
Simultaneous submission, redundant publication, duplicate publication, salami publication and undisclosed republication are prohibited. ICMJE guidance similarly states that the same manuscript should not be submitted simultaneously to more than one journal.
Plagiarism and Misconduct
The journal does not tolerate:
- Plagiarism
- Self-plagiarism
- Fabrication or falsification of data
- Manipulation of images or results
- Citation manipulation
- Undisclosed duplicate publication
- Fraudulent ethical approval
- Misrepresentation of authorship
- Undeclared conflicts of interest
- Peer-review manipulation
- Paper-mill submissions
- Deliberate misrepresentation of Ayurvedic or contemporary scientific sources
Suspected misconduct may be investigated before or after publication. The journal may request raw data, ethical approvals, consent documents, study protocols, source records or institutional clarification.
Depending on the findings, action may include rejection, correction, expression of concern, retraction, notification of the authors’ institution or other appropriate measures.
Conflicts of Interest
Authors must disclose all financial and non-financial interests that could reasonably be perceived to influence the research or its presentation.
This includes:
- Employment and consultancy
- Grants and funding
- Honoraria
- Stock ownership
- Patents
- Product ownership
- Professional competition
- Institutional relationships
- Personal relationships
- Academic disputes
- Ideological or intellectual commitments relevant to the manuscript
Authors must also provide a funding statement identifying the role of the funder in study design, conduct, analysis, interpretation, writing and publication.
Editors and reviewers must disclose conflicts and withdraw from handling a manuscript when impartial assessment may be compromised. Transparent handling of competing interests is fundamental to confidence in scientific publication.
Ethical Oversight
Research involving human participants must have approval from an appropriately constituted Institutional Ethics Committee or equivalent authority unless a documented exemption applies.
The manuscript must state:
- Name of the ethics committee
- Approval number
- Date of approval, where applicable
- Compliance with relevant ethical principles
- Whether informed consent was obtained
- Whether consent for publication was obtained
Animal research must be approved by an appropriate animal ethics committee and conducted according to applicable institutional and regulatory standards.
Patient Consent and Confidentiality
Case reports, case series and clinical images must protect patient privacy.
Directly identifying information should not be published unless scientifically necessary and supported by specific written consent.
Authors must obtain informed consent for publication when a patient or participant may be identifiable from the clinical history, photographs, images, pedigrees, audio, video or other information.
DOAJ requires journals publishing clinical case reports to have explicit policies on consent, anonymisation and identifiable participant information.
Clinical-Trial Registration
Prospective interventional clinical trials should be registered in a publicly accessible and recognised clinical-trial registry before enrolment of the first participant.
The registration number and registry name should be included in the manuscript.
Unregistered or retrospectively registered trials may be considered only when the authors provide a satisfactory explanation and the editor determines that publication is ethically and scientifically justified.
Data Sharing and Reproducibility
Authors should preserve the data, study records, protocols and analytical documentation supporting their conclusions.
Where ethically and legally permissible, authors are encouraged to deposit anonymised data, protocols, statistical plans, research instruments and supplementary materials in an appropriate repository.
The manuscript should include a Data Availability Statement describing:
- Whether data are available
- What data may be shared
- Where the data can be accessed
- Any access conditions
- Ethical, privacy, legal or proprietary restrictions
For clinical trials, a data-sharing statement should identify what data will be shared, associated documents, access conditions, availability period and intended uses.
Corrections, Retractions and Expressions of Concern
The journal is responsible for maintaining the integrity of the published scholarly record.
When an error does not invalidate the principal findings, the journal may publish a correction or corrigendum.
An article may be retracted when findings are unreliable because of major error or misconduct, when publication is redundant, when research is unethical, or when serious legal or integrity concerns exist.
An Expression of Concern may be issued when an investigation is incomplete or evidence remains inconclusive.
Retraction notices will:
- Be clearly identified
- Be linked to the original article
- State the reason for retraction
- Identify who initiated the retraction
- Remain freely accessible
- Preserve the scholarly record
Retraction is intended to correct the literature and protect its integrity rather than to punish authors.
Complaints and Appeals
Authors, reviewers and readers may submit a complaint or appeal concerning:
- Editorial decisions
- Peer-review conduct
- Publication delays
- Ethical concerns
- Conflicts of interest
- Corrections or retractions
- Journal procedures
- Conduct of an editor, reviewer or author
An appeal against an editorial decision must identify a material error, misunderstanding, procedural irregularity or relevant evidence not adequately considered during the initial decision.
Disagreement with reviewer comments alone is not sufficient grounds for an appeal.
Complaints and appeals will be considered by an editor who was not directly involved wherever practicable. The complainant will receive a reasoned response after review of the available records. The outcome of the appeal will normally be final.
Post-Publication Discussion
The journal welcomes scholarly comments, responses and evidence-based criticism concerning published articles.
Substantive concerns will be referred to the Editor-in-Chief and, where appropriate, to the authors. The journal may publish a letter, author response, correction, expression of concern or retraction depending on the nature and outcome of the matter.