About the Journal

IOMJ article types are based upon key reporting guidelines, as defined by the EQUATOR Network. Authors should prepare their manuscripts in accordance with the appropriate guidelines(s) and/or checklist(s) for each type ​of article. We ask that you use the checklist and flow diagram templates for the guidelines outlined below available at http://www.editorialmanager.com/md in the "Files & Resources" section of the home page. The appropriate checklist (and flow diagram, if applicable) must be included with each submission. For further information regarding reporting guidelines, authors should consult the EQUATOR Network web site (http://www.equator-network.org), which maintains a useful, up-to-date list of guidelines as they are published, with links to articles and checklists.^®

Peer Review

Peer review is an essential part of IOMJ's decision process.  All original material presented in IOMJ undergoes rigorous multi-factorial single-blinded​ peer-review by carefully selecting dedicated and knowledgeable individuals who are experts in their field.

During the review process one of Medicine's trusted Academic Editors are assigned the manuscript and takes responsibility for the review process. Academic Editors are asked to seek review from at least 2 external reviewers on any given manuscript. 

Reviewers will be asked to respond to the following questions before submitting a review:

Is the manuscript technically sound, and the data support the conclusion?
Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?
Does the manuscript adhere to standards in this field for data availability?
Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?
Comments to the Author

Reviewers also ensure manuscripts meet the following criteria:  

The study and results are original research
The paper has performed experiments with the highest ethical standards
The paper has not been previously published in another journal
The paper adheres to the EQUATOR Network reporting guidelines

​Journal Ethics

Medicine expects the highest ethical standards from their authors, reviewers and editors when conducting research, submitting papers and throughout the peer-review process. Medicine is a member of the Committee on Publishing Ethics (COPE) and follows their recommendations on publication ethics and standards. For additional information on COPE please visit http://publicationethics.org/.

Redundant or duplicate publication

Duplicate or redundant publication is a publication that overlaps substantially with one already published, in press, or in an electronic media submission. (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/publishing-and-editorial-issues/overlapping-publications.html)

Duplicate or redundant submission is the same manuscript (or the same data) that is submitted to different journals at the same time. International copyright laws, ethical conduct, and cost effective use of resources require that readers can be assured that what they are reading is original. (International Council of Medical Journal Editors. http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/publishing-and-editorial-issues/overlapping-publications.html )

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published or currently submitted elsewhere. Duplicate publication is a violation of the APA code of ethics (APA Publication Manual, 2010) and will be grounds for prompt rejection of the submitted manus cript. If the editor was not aware of the violation and the article has been published, a notice of duplicate submission and the ethical violation will be published.

Conflicts of interest

At the point of submission, policy requires that each author reveal any financial interests or connections, direct or indirect, or other situations that might raise the question of bias in the work reported or the conclusions, implications, or opinions stated - including pertinent commercial or other sources of funding for the individual author(s) or for the associated department(s) or organization(s), personal relationships, or direct academic competition.

If the manuscript is accepted, Conflict of Interest information will be communicated in a published statement.

Permissions to reproduce previously published material

For permissions to reproduce, please see the license under which the individual article has been published. Articles published in Medicine are published under any of the six Creative Commons International 4.0 Licenses.^®

Patient consent forms

The protection of a patient's right to privacy is essential. Please collect and keep copies of patients' consent forms on which patients or other subjects of your experiments clearly grant permission for the publication of photographs or other material that might identify them. If the consent form for your research did not specifically include this, please obtain it or remove the identifying material.

A statement to the effect that such consent had been obtained must be included in the 'Methods' section of your paper. If necessary the Editors may request a copy of any consent forms.

Ethics committee approval

All articles dealing with original human or animal data must include a statement on ethics approval at the beginning of the Methods section. This paragraph must contain the following information: the name and address of the ethics committee responsible; the protocol number that was attributed by this ethics committee; and the date of approval by the ethics committee.

The paragraph could read, for example:

"Ethical approval for this study (Ethical Committee N° NAC 207) was provided by the Ethical Committee NAC of Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, on 12 February 2007."

In addition and as stated above, for studies conducted on human participants you must state clearly that you obtained written informed consent from the study participants; please also look at the latest version of the Declaration of Helsinki. If ethics clearance was not necessary, or if there was any deviation from these standard ethical requests, please state why it was not required. Please note that the editors may ask you to provide evidence of ethical approval. If you have approval from a National Drug Agency (or similar) please state this and provide details, this can be particularly useful when discussing the use of unlicensed drugs.

More information on Medicine's policies, instructions, and guidelines can be found in the  guidelines.

All manuscripts should be submitted online on our Submission Platform.