Editorial Policies

The International Journal of Medical Students (IJMS) maintains editorial policies intended to support independent decision-making, fair evaluation, confidentiality, transparency, and responsible scholarly publishing.

This page establishes the principles governing editorial oversight and directs readers to the Journal’s dedicated policies on research ethics, authorship, research integrity, corrections and appeals, open access, and data protection.

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Contents

  1. Editorial Principles
  2. Editorial Independence
  3. Editorial Decision-Making
  4. Editorial Assessment and Peer Review
  5. Editorial Conflicts of Interest
  6. Editorial Confidentiality
  7. Fairness, Diversity, and Nondiscrimination
  8. Section Policies
  9. Editorials and Journal-Commissioned Content
  10. Supplements and Conference Abstracts
  11. Advertising and Promotional Content
  12. Ethics Committee
  13. Related Policies

Editorial Principles

Editorial evaluation is guided by the scholarly quality and suitability of the submitted work. Relevant considerations may include:

  • fit with the Journal’s aims and readership;
  • importance and originality of the contribution;
  • clarity of the manuscript’s purpose or research question;
  • appropriateness of the methods and analysis;
  • accuracy and transparency of reporting;
  • ethical acceptability;
  • strength of the evidence supporting the conclusions;
  • quality of presentation; and
  • compliance with applicable Journal policies.

Submission does not guarantee external peer review, acceptance, or publication.

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Editorial Independence

Editorial decisions must remain independent from commercial, financial, institutional, personal, political, or other inappropriate influence.

Decisions concerning editorial assessment, peer review, acceptance, correction, or retraction must not be determined by:

  • an author’s nationality, location, institution, reputation, or professional status;
  • personal relationships with members of the Journal;
  • the commercial value or promotional potential of a manuscript;
  • advertisers, sponsors, donors, or partner organizations;
  • the ability or inability of an author to provide financial support; or
  • pressure from individuals or organizations with an interest in the outcome.

The Journal’s publisher, sponsors, collaborators, and administrative bodies must not interfere with individual editorial decisions.

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Editorial Decision-Making

Student Editors participate in manuscript evaluation and author development under structured editorial supervision. They do not independently exercise final editorial authority.

Editorial recommendations and decisions are made by appropriately authorized editors according to the Journal’s governance structure. The responsible editors may:

  • request administrative corrections;
  • seek internal or external review;
  • request methodological, statistical, clinical, or ethical advice;
  • invite revision;
  • reclassify a manuscript when another article type is more appropriate;
  • decline a manuscript before or after external review;
  • request additional review when opinions differ or specialist expertise is required;
  • accept a manuscript when the applicable requirements have been satisfied; or
  • pause editorial processing when a policy or integrity concern requires investigation.

Reviewer recommendations inform editorial decisions but do not determine them. Editors are responsible for evaluating the reviews together with the manuscript, the authors’ responses, and the applicable policies.

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Editorial Assessment and Peer Review

The IJMS uses a two-stage, double-masked editorial and peer-review process:

  1. Internal editorial assessment: manuscripts are evaluated by Student Editors under senior editorial supervision.
  2. External peer review: manuscripts selected for further consideration are ordinarily evaluated by independent reviewers with relevant expertise.

The title page is retained for editorial administration, while the masked manuscript is used for double-masked assessment. Reviewers are not provided with author-identifying title-page information, and reviewer identities are not disclosed to authors.

Complete operational information is provided on the Editorial and Peer-Review Process page.

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Editorial Conflicts of Interest

Editors, reviewers, and other individuals involved in manuscript evaluation must disclose relationships or interests that could affect, or reasonably appear to affect, their impartiality.

A manuscript should be reassigned when an editor has a relevant conflict, including when the editor:

  • is an author or contributor;
  • participated in the submitted work;
  • has a close personal, supervisory, financial, institutional, or professional relationship with an author;
  • recently collaborated with an author;
  • has a direct competitive interest in the work; or
  • cannot provide an independent assessment.

Submissions from members of the Editorial Team, Editorial Board, publisher, or affiliated organizations must undergo the same editorial standards as other submissions. Conflicted individuals must not participate in reviewer selection, assessment, or decision-making.

Author, reviewer, and editor disclosure requirements are addressed in the Authorship and Disclosures policy.

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Editorial Confidentiality

Submitted manuscripts, unpublished data, reviewer reports, editorial discussions, decision letters, and related correspondence must be treated as confidential.

Editors, reviewers, and editorial staff must not:

  • disclose confidential submission information unnecessarily;
  • use unpublished information for personal, academic, financial, or professional advantage;
  • share manuscript files outside the authorized editorial process;
  • contact authors or reviewers outside the approved workflow when doing so would compromise confidentiality; or
  • discuss unpublished submissions in public or unsecured settings.

Confidential information may be shared when reasonably necessary for editorial supervision, specialist consultation, ethics or integrity review, publisher administration, legal review, or technical support.

The handling of personal information is governed by the Privacy and Data Protection policy.

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Fairness, Diversity, and Nondiscrimination

Editorial assessment must focus on the scholarly work and must not discriminate on the basis of nationality, geographic location, race, ethnicity, color, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, religion, age, socioeconomic background, political belief, institutional prestige, or another status unrelated to scholarly merit.

The Journal seeks to:

  • maintain respectful communication among authors, reviewers, editors, and staff;
  • reduce geographic, institutional, linguistic, and professional-status bias;
  • include diverse perspectives within the editorial and peer-review process;
  • evaluate manuscripts consistently across regions and institutions;
  • avoid assumptions based on an author’s identity or affiliation; and
  • provide a professional environment free from discrimination and harassment.

Language or presentation concerns may be addressed during editorial assessment, but authors must not be disadvantaged solely because English is not their first language when the scholarly content can be evaluated adequately.

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Section Policies

Section Open submission Peer reviewed Indexed as published content
Original Research Yes Yes Yes
Short Communications Yes Yes Yes
Case Reports Yes Yes Yes
Reviews By invitation Yes Yes
Experiences Yes Yes Yes
Interviews Prior approval recommended Editorially reviewed Yes
Letters to the Editor Yes Editorially reviewed or externally reviewed when needed Yes
Editorials Commissioned or approved by the Journal Editorially reviewed Yes
Conference Supplements Submitted through an approved conference process Evaluated under the applicable supplement process Yes
Corrections and Retractions No Editorial evaluation Yes

Detailed article requirements are provided on the Article Types page.

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Editorials and Journal-Commissioned Content

Editorials, commentaries, introductions, announcements, interviews, and other Journal-commissioned materials may be proposed or invited by authorized editors.

Commissioned or internally authored content must:

  • undergo appropriate editorial review;
  • identify authors and affiliations accurately;
  • include relevant disclosures;
  • distinguish opinion from evidence;
  • cite supporting sources when factual claims require evidence; and
  • avoid undisclosed promotional or institutional advocacy.

Participation by a member of the Editorial Team does not exempt an article from editorial evaluation or conflict-of-interest management.

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Supplements and Conference Abstracts

Supplements, abstract books, and conference materials are considered separately from regular manuscript submissions.

Supplement publication requires:

  • prior approval by the Journal;
  • a clearly identified academic or conference purpose;
  • transparent identification of organizers, editors, sponsors, and funding;
  • a defined submission and selection process;
  • appropriate scientific and ethical oversight;
  • clear distinction between supplement content and regular Journal articles; and
  • compliance with the Journal’s publication and production requirements.

Financial or institutional sponsorship must not determine abstract selection, editorial conclusions, or the presentation of scientific content.

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Advertising and Promotional Content

Advertising and promotional arrangements must remain separate from editorial decision-making.

Advertising must not:

  • influence manuscript selection, review, acceptance, or publication;
  • be presented as independent editorial content;
  • mislead readers about the Journal’s endorsement of a product, service, institution, or organization;
  • compromise the Journal’s scholarly independence; or
  • create an unmanaged conflict of interest.

Any accepted promotional content must be clearly identifiable and visually distinguishable from scholarly and editorial material. The Journal may decline or remove advertising that is inconsistent with its academic, ethical, or nonprofit mission.

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Ethics Committee

The IJMS Ethics Committee advises the Editorial Team on research and publication-ethics questions that arise during editorial work.

The Committee may:

  • advise editors on ethical concerns identified in a manuscript or review process;
  • assist with interpretation and development of editorial policies;
  • consider questions involving confidentiality, consent, competing interests, authorship, peer review, or participant protection;
  • recommend further information or specialist consultation; and
  • support education concerning research and publication ethics.

The Ethics Committee does not replace the ethics committee or institutional review board responsible for approving research. It also does not independently make routine manuscript decisions.

Learn About the IJMS Ethics Committee
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Research Ethics

Requirements concerning ethical oversight, informed consent, participant protection, registration, and responsible research conduct.

Authorship and Disclosures

Authorship criteria, CRediT contributions, acknowledgments, funding, and competing interests.

Research Integrity

Originality, duplicate publication, plagiarism, data and image integrity, and investigation of misconduct concerns.

Corrections, Retractions, and Appeals

Correction of the scholarly record, expressions of concern, retractions, appeals, and complaints.

Open Access, Copyright, and Licensing

Diamond Open Access, author rights, publication licensing, reuse, and archiving.

Privacy and Data Protection

Collection, use, disclosure, security, and retention of personal information.
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